Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations River Otters!!! relocation??? options?

This last weekend I went out to our property in Central-Texas (about an hour from Austin) which has ~20 acre lake on it. The lake is full of LMB and large sunfish. While I was out there I was surprised by two new residents. Two very large river otters were cruising around the pond enjoying some nice and tasty fresh fish.

I did a little research, and an adult river otter might eat 2-3 lbs of fish per day. That's 2 otters x 3 lbs x 365 = 2,190 lbs of fish in a year. I understand a 'healthy' lake might carry ~100 lbs of fish biomass per acre, that's 2,200 lbs of fish biomass total for the lake. You can see where this is going...

While our new residents are admittedly very cute to watch, I am worried they might devastate the good fishing in the lake in short order.

I really hate to shoot something just for the sake of killing it, so I was wondering if there was a way I could have them relocated, for example to nearby Lake Granger?

Help me Pond Boss, you're my only hope...

Thanks,
ImaBassMan

I have very serious doubts about the ability to catch and relocate them.

ImaBassMan, I'm right there with you about killing something. Unfortunately, otters get less cute as they eat the fish you worked so hard to manage.

If you can find a slide, a submerged conibear 330 or 220 with a dead BG threaded on the trigger wires might work.

EDIT BY ME: Another option, is to just hire a tapper. I bet that might be the least time consuming for you, and the cost would be negated by the savings to your fish. At $10 to $15 a pound for LMB, a trapper will pay for himself pretty quickly.

Texas Trappers Association

I raised my family to never shoot what you don't plan on eating, but River otters are an exception when it comes to them living, eating and reproducing in or around my pond. A fellow Pond Boss'er (Highflyer), taught me on how to use a 330 conibar trap. I have caught or trapped two River otters at my pond in the last 30 days. I never had an opportunity to shoot one. You can Utube Otter or beaver trapping and most likely "Get er done". Or you can watch your cute little 30 lb friends eat up your fish. My daughter in law is not interested in my trapping skills, so I do not advertise my results to her or others with the exception of this good place. So others might learn.

Relocation is not a realistic option. Otters move around a great deal and it's more than likely they will be back. If you know they are hanging around and not just passing thru you will have to choose between the Otters and the fish. They will start by eating the largest fish they can catch and then eat the smaller ones that are harder to catch. When it gets hard to catch fish they will move on leaving you a pond with a few small fish. They will not forget where they had good eating and will be back. The only thing that I have found to help save some fish is to add cover making it harder for the otters to catch fish so they move on sooner. I'm talking about cover the fish can swim into like tree stumps and brush piles.

I don't believe in killing something you are not going to eat either. I tolerate the herons, mink, and most fish eating ducks I actually consider them part of my healthy pond. You will need to draw the line at Otters I'm afraid. I agree with the other posters here, that is to permanently remove them.

In my area, otters are rare after recent reintroduction, so shooting and "kill-trapping" are not options. Because they are a novelty, I would not shoot them anyway, unless they become plentiful. I have no trouble shooting coyotes, or having my neighbor trap fur from plentiful animals like beaver, mink, and muskrats, especially because of the damage they can cause. For me, its keeping a little of everything around. Turkeys are not plentiful on my place either, and until they are, they also get a pass. Hawks and owls are plentiful, but they too get a pass as they are protected and a blast to watch hunt. We all draw the line somewhere. I am not eating coyote unless I am starving!

i battled otters for years at my old pond. supposedly they kill way more than they eat. they like the fleshy parts of the fish and also the eggs. when they have young supposedly they kill fish just to train the little ones. so i think the few pounds per day may be what they consume, not kill. i read they can wipe out a 1 acre production pond in one week.

i caught 6 at my old pond.they are tough to catch in open water. best to try to catch them in the stream entering and leaving the pond.

I found new Otter scat yesterday. Location was in a trail leading to a slide where a 330 conibar is set where the slide meets the waters edge. This is where the last Otter was trapped. I am guessing another other has learned not to travel that path into the water. Scott69, I may have to follow your advice and set or move a trap to where they are traveling to get to the pond. Problem is law requires trap to be set under water. I may have to reread the laws on trapping when using a conibar 330 trap

Their territory can be huge an will travel over 20 miles in a day. If you were to relocate the little bugger you would have to take them a long ways.

The best trap is a box conibear. One end you screen off with wire and place the fish in that end. They can smell and see the fish then want to enter the other end that the trap is in. Google box trap conibear.

Shooting is hard. They tend to be more active at night in the spring summer and fall. Early morning is best. Scan the shore for them having breakfast.

Another one bites the dust! Otter scat proved there was another making a trip to the pond, but this was it's last trip. That's 3 in the last 30 days. I am not happy about taking them down but I don't see any way around it for now. 3 otters, eating 3 lbs of fish per day per otter. That's 260 lbs of fish per month. I see no other choice. I will say that the scat looks like they have been feeding on cnbg and I have a lot of them in this pond. It's a good thing the cnbg have approx. five spawns per year at my place.

Make it 4, 3 in one week and one about 3 weeks ago. First had taken up in a beaver den but the last three are travelling across ground to get to the pond. I did not expect to become a trapper when I built this pond. I sat at the pond yesterday afternoon after resetting the conibar trap. I watched a Kingfisher as he feed at the pond, and was thinking of the Bald Eagle that has feed here and the Cormorants and the Great Blue Heron I saw walking to the fhm pond, guessing he was looking for one of the bull frogs that feed there. Boy Oh Boy, lots going on around the pond. And that's above the water

I sure hope I don't have another trap to clean out tomarrow.

That is exactly what I was thinking!!!

I "sneak" down to my pond EVERY morning and prepare for the worst. Fortunantly my otters "play" in the early morning and in the last 2 months I have shot 3 that came swimming right at me.Really hate to do it but the way I see it I give them FREE range of the whole rest of the entire world and only ask that my little 2 acre pond is OFF LIMITS. Some don't listen.