I have been receiving Pond Boss for a couple years and really like the magazine. I have 1 pond on my property that I am trying to keep the Otters from eating my fish. Mostly bass and bluegills. The pond has little structure for the fish to hide. I was told by a friend that I could construct PVC cages filled with brush to help. Before I do this I wanted to check with some of you experts out there. The pond is about 1 acre and 7' deep...

I haven't come across anything effective except firearms. .22LR or .17 HMR. If noise is an issue, I recommend .22 CB short. All guns do not shoot it, however, so be cautious.

Even if you don't have electricity out there, there are solar electric cattle fences. Someone on here had an otter problem, and that solved it. I don't see how it'd work if you had a stream connected to your pond tho.....

Wait until they are in season, then trap them. Fur prices are on the upswing.

Trapping may work, but the traps are tricky to set. You don't want a crushed hand or arm in the process. Be careful.

In the beginning, yes, they are a bit tricky. But, once you get a finger pinched once or twice, you learn where you can and cannot put your digits.

The real tricky part is figuring out where the animal is going to travel, and exactly where they will place their foot. That's where the expertise comes in!

Thanks everyone, looks like I need to get rid of the otters. I do have a trapper that works my property and ponds every fall. Once the otters are gone should I put in the PVC boxes with brush inside or just make some brush piles to sink them when the ice melts next spring? This particular pond is in very close proximity to a river that runs the border of my land.

Otters favorite movie quote "I'LL BE BACK"
Trapping and shooting can help but an electric fence is on guard 24-7, let the electric 2 step begin.

Do you fence the entire pond?

If your pond isn't too large it's best to fully fence it, mine is an acre.
Here's the link to a discussion back in August.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post267103

Thanks again everyone, I guess I'll get the 22 sighted in and look into fencing...

The otters are creatures of habit. They will come every day at roughly the same time. Generally early a.m. and mid afternoon. They stick their heads out to look at you. You have about five seconds to cap them. Shoot at the head at the water line.

Don't forget to invest in a Starlight scope and lots of Nodose so you can get the otters with insomnia.

Starlights are old school.

I agree.
Such structures as mentioned above won't be useful. They may help a bit but as otter is a very skilful swimmer, it will eat your fish anyway. So you have to choose who's going to die - your fish or otters. I suppose this one isn't hard question to answer
Trapping may help a bit but it requires skills. An otter isn't a beaver...

Hey, I'm old school, but like the Starlights I used in Nam I still work.

Nothing is 100% ( death, taxes& GSF excluded) but with an electric fence providing 24/7 protection you can practice your marksmanship on otters outside the fence although I believe most Otters learn quick after getting a few jolts and head for easier pastures.

I'm just a crotchety old Navy greybeard. Just a few of the Starlights, that I knew of, were hand-built and delivered.

Were you one of the crazies at Au Cuong?

Regards,
Ken

Ken I don't know when the army started using them but they were common when I was there in 69. I remember 3 models, 2 small handheld types and 1 large model that was mounted on a tripod, truck or helicopter.
Those scopes saved some butts at Dau Tieng in Feb. 1969.

They were state of the art then and so were slide rules. Today's optics deployed to SF in Afghan killzones make snipers truly one shot, one killers.

It still has a LOT to do with the guy behind the trigger tho. The one thing that the electronics can't do is read the wind between the shooter and the target. That's up to the computer between the ears.

Even my long range rifle, which has a flatter trajectory and has a much better bc than their bullets, if zeroe'd at 100 yds drops 59 feet at one mile and the bullet drift in a 5 mph full value crosswind is 5 feet.

If they use a .338 Lapua, w/ a 300g Sierra Matchking bullet, (2525 fps mv) their bullet drop/drift at a mile with the same zero is 130 feet and almost 9 feet of drift. (data collected with Load From a Disc software)

I don't own any sniper scopes but I do own several slide rules. They are fun and exciting (well at least if you are a bean counter).

And Carlos Hathcock didn't even have a slide rule.

One of my most prized possessions is a slide rule that was carried by my father for years. Many a road in California was engineered using his trusty slide rule.

Now we have a calculator that is a mini computer for Engineering school. The Ti-89, it is scary to just look at.

I have a TI Business Calculator that can calculate the net worth of a company, country or continent.