Grandpa Collins Prize Green Turtle

One of Chuck’s favorite stories was a story he told about his Grandpa Collins back in the day when Grandpa fished with a fourteen foot sailboat.  He took his turtle net one day and sailed down around Corrigan’s Reef on the eastern shore to one of the turtle sets that he knew was a good set.

Chuck's Grandpa Nard Collins

Even though he was primarily a fisherman, till the Fiber Factory opened and he became a foreman at the plant.  He did go every now and then to a catch turtle for the family dining table.  Grandpa’s name was Monardy, but most people called him Nard.

When he got to the right place he let his net out.  When that was finished he went back down the cork line tripping it to make sure the net was hanging straight in the water.  Finished, he backed off a ways to wait and watch the cork line. 

I don’t know how long he waited, but when the turtle hit the net he knew whatever had hit it was big by the reaction in the cork line.  He waited some more till the action calmed down. 

He didn’t want to wait too long, if it was a turtle and it drowned no one would eat any of it and that would be a waste! At last the cork line calmed down and he went out and started taking up the net.

When he got to it he knew this was the biggest green turtle he’d ever seen in his life!  Green turtle is the most delectable of all the sea turtles because they are vegetarians.

Green Turtle

They graze on the grasses and algae that grow on the sea floor.  All of the other turtles eat crabs, snails, fish and whatever else they can catch.  Their meat tastes stronger, and fishy, totally different from a green turtle which taste much like veal.

He tied a line around a flipper and secured it to a boat seat.  He worked the net off the turtle and untangled it as he went along.  He let the turtle swing out from the boat and then finished taking up the net. 

He knew there was no way he could boat that big turtle by himself and it was too far back to the fish house to tow the turtle that far.  So, he sailed up to one of the many oyster bars in the area, and eased the bow up over the edge.

He sat there awhile studying the situation.  He knew for certain he was not going to let the turtle go; there were too many hungry mouths to feed, and this was too much food to let it go. 

As he thought about it he got an idea that if it worked would solve the problem, at least it was worth a try.  He off loaded his net, and then backed the boat off enough so that the bow was just at the edge of the oyster bar. 

He bailed water into the boat and sunk the stern to the level he needed it to be able to guide the turtle far enough into the boat and across the seats. 

As long as the big turtle was in the water he could manage it. He had tied lines around both front flippers to use as reins; he could stay behind the turtle so it would move forward and help in loading itself.

He lashed the turtle to the seats to secure it and keep it from thrashing around and possibly escaping, and then came the long arduous task of bailing all of the water out until the boat floated again.

That done he reloaded his net; he couldn't afford to take the chance of leaving it there and loosing it.  The next incoming tide would wash it away and if he ever found it again he would never get all the tangles out.

He sailed in with very little free-board.  The turtle took up a lot of the space and then with himself and the net, he had a full load! 

He knew if he made it back in to the fish house he would have a lot of help to offload.  He was fortunate that the weather was good.  Had a squall popped up he more than likely would not have made it in.  He and his prize green turtle would have been lost at sea!

No one knows exactly how much that turtle weighed.  The scales at the fish house in those days were not big enough to handle that much weight.  But everybody said it was the biggest Green Turtle ever caught in the waters around Cedar Key at that time!

They guesstimated it weighed more than six hundred pounds.  For many, many years all of the older folks that remembered seeing it, (and the entire island turned out to see it) told that story again and again.

Green Turtles get their name from the green fat inside their upper shell. They are classified as large sea turtles. I found an official record for the largest ever caught and it weighed in at 395 kg which converts to 871 pounds.