What is the easiest way to get rid of turtles. I am at my pond only on the weekends and I don't want to spend half of my time trolling around shooting them. I have always had a couple of gators in the pond in the past but I have not seen any in about two summers and I am sure that is the reason in the jump in population.

What creates the need to reduce or eliminate the turtle population? and what kind of turtles are they?

I'm sure he's overrun with them and they're such a pain. I've fished at places where turtles are ALL you catch because there are so many. I hate them too and I'll anxiously await an answer to this question...

BTW, Ward, we're neighbors. I have a pond outside Enterprise and maybe soon another outside Ozark. The one in Ozark is established but the one in Enterprise is brand new, no fish yet, just lots of tadpoles. I'm waiting for it to stabilize. It loses about an inch a day between rains. It filled up again last night...

I have not used one. I have almost bought one though, a solar turtle trap. www.kens-fishfarm.com has them for $100.00. I have seen plans somewhere to build one from wood & chicken wire. Just a cage of some sort. It floats in the water & has a sunning ramp. The ramp allows the turtles to climb up. When they get to the right place on the ramp it dumps them in the cage. Empty the cage when you get a chance. Either a ride to another body of water or wack'em. You might be able to sell them. They bring a nice price so I have read at some local fish markets. Some turtles are protected. I have slowly caught mine with hook & line & gave them a new home. 300+ Lbs from a 3 acre pond. I am sure they were interfering with fish beds & reproduction. You could not throw a line with live bait & not catch a turtle. They also quickly arrived when you tried to feed the fish. The pond is now a much more pleasant place with them gone.

See this link near the end is a section on turtles and how to make a trap with a link to figure 6 which shows a trap.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.htm

Go to ebay and look up FIKE turtle trap. I use them all the time to catch snappers and others. I do alot of water fowlConservation projects when I am not at sea and predator control is a big part of it. I trapped a pond a few weeks ago and loaded up with sliders and painted turtles along with 4 huge snappers. Set the trap so the end of(the bag end) the Fike is above water so the turtles do not drown. I use fish for bait but chicken works very well. If I can help let me know and I will find a link for the traps I use and post it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Turtle-Trap-Net_W0QQ...1QQcmdZViewItem

For some reason I couldn't imagine getting over run with turtles, I had two hatches, that I saw, and most were eaten by birds and the remainder were hunted down by fish. The fish cruised the banks and dug them out of every nook and cranny. So with my tunnel vision I saw the rest of you with the same situation.

Rad I do have a turtle problem also. We had a mild winter last year and the population just went crazy. I don't think they have any natural predators and with the fish feeder feeding them they have no lack of food. I have a turtle trap that I check once a week and it always has about 15 turtles in it. I'm thinking about buying another one.

Like I said, tunnel vision, in my neighborhood they would be dinner, the only reason I have any is because on the Queen's birthday it is good luck to release fish and turtles back into the water and last year a little girl stopped and asked if she could put a pair in the pond. I never saw them again and until the hatch, I thought they had left. The people who sell them for release on the Queen's birthday usually go back and re-catch the released turtles and re-sell them at the market for food, softshell turtles are an aquaculture crop.
I have two kinds, so someone or some thing also contributed.

I had a turtle problem too.I made a trap out of 4" sewr pvc and goat fence.Get a 10 ft sick of pvc and cut into 4 equal lenghts,then glue together with 4 90 degree couplers.cut the fence about 12 to16 " tall and attach to the outside of your float.Cover the bottom and make a ramp with same fence and attach it to one side.the turtles will crawl on it to sun and fall in,but cant get back out.Regular pvc will work but its pretty heavy,especially with 37 turtles in it.If you want to catch smaller turtles cover the outside with chickenwire.
Good luck Tom

Thanks for all the input guys, I believe I am going to build a trap and learn a softshell turtle recipe or two. And yeah joerocker we are neighbors, been some crazy weather around here the last month or so. Did you have any damage with the tornadoes that hit Enterprise?