Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management osprey and others

WE have been picked clean. Osprey and eagles have taken all the trout and hbg from our pond in the last year. WE have looked in the pond using a underwater camera and the only thing found are the smaller bluegill. What can we do to try and control the predation. WE are not around the pond most of the week so need some ideas on what we can do, any thots out there.

I don't think the birds have taken all the fish, I think some of the fish loss could be attributed to the otters. (Probably more to them than the birds.)

The only thing that can be done to help reduce predation by the birds is to have more of a bloom in the water, reducing the visibility. Since the birds are federally protected, and depredation premits aren't issued, I don't know what else to do other than put up a net over the whole pond.

I would agree with esshup. Otters are eating machines if you have them your being cleaned out by them I bet. Not that Eagles won't eat fish they will for sure. Other than that more weeds of something in the water would help. Maybe you could even dye your pond that may help keep the birds from attacking from above some.

we have never seen any signs of otters being present, no leftovers laying around or their very specific trail they leave in the winter snow. but we certainly have seen the osprey and eagles coming in, but have never really seen them take a fish. They are very wary. The water is stained brown so they would have somewhat of a problem seeing unless they came to the surface. Makes a person wonder whether its really worth stocking if you cannot find out what happened to the all the rest.

Nils, do you live on the property, and what portion of the state is the pond at? NE, SW, etc.?

Can you put up a trail camera overlooking the pond and see what's visiting?

Or who's visiting....

I still wonder about two legged predators!

Maybe it was otter or a hungry neighbor but they can be birds too.
A relative of mine was owner of a rainbow trout pond and he has similar problems with some kind of eagle. It visited his pond often and took away large trouts...
He calculated that eagle takes away even more than 1000 kg fish per year (if I'm not wrong that even 1500 kg!!!). Sounds much, huh, 3-4 kg per day? But probably this bird doesn't always eat whole fish but only a part of it and goes for another one. And when it has it's young ones, then eagle has to feed them too.
What did my relative do? Actually nothing, because his pond is for commercial fishing and bird attracts visitors :)He calculated that his loss isn't that great when additional fishermen come.

Conclusion - birds can also ruin your fish population because trout are easy to catch from air (I have heard about cases when even hawks catch rainbow trouts - normally fish isn't in his menu because it's created for hunting birds and small animals).

we do not live on the property, but are out there quite freq. the pond is located in northcentral wis. i have placed a trail camera up and it goes off freq., but nothing seems to be diff. from pic to pic. But we have definitely seen the osprey and eagles there. I even have a pic of an eagle family swimming in the pond. Making themselves comfortable. just as long as they are happy. Ha!

If there are no valuable fish left then probably no predators will come to hunt and your camera won't take any useful pictures.

Nils, I'm familiar with the area (I think). I went to school in Stevens Point and will be in Fifield the weekend after Labor Day for a family reunion.

I've never seen eagles swim.

Trail cams with slower shutter speeds will be triggered to take a picture, but bu the time it actually opens the shutter, the critter is past the range of the camera.

Look up "Plotwatcher" on the internet. If the critter is within 100 Yds of it during the day, it won't miss it! Greg Grimes sells them. That's who I bought mine from.

Fifield is about an hour south of us. Family reunions are great just had one myself this summer. I just checked my camera card to see if i still had the eagles swimming pic on it and i must have deleted, wish i could have sent it to you. WE are seining the pond this wknd and throwing out all the little bg and then try to figure out what to do after that. Dont really want to just provide food for all the loafers.

nils, let us know how the seining goes. I normally deer hunt just South of Presque Isle.

I'll be at the Idle Hour Resort on Pike Lake in Fifield all day Saturday Sept. 10th if you want to talk about ponds. I could spare some time if you want to chat.

Nils, by chance did that family of swimming eagles look a little like these pics? If so then you have found your problem,the last 2 pics will show you why. These birds are also under federal protection, But In most states you can file for a permit to shoot them.

no they definately were eagles. white head and tail on both parents, the son was missing the white head and tail.

L.W.J, these are cormorants and they probably are much worse than any eagle...

We tried seining last week, all we saw were 2-3" bg. The trout simply were not seen and no final answers as to where they went. The otters if there should have left some telltail sign of some kind either fish leftovers or track thru the weeds and on shore, nothing. If they died there should have been some floating at some time or another, nothing. What would they have died of, old age? How old do rainbows live from a hatchery, some say only 2-3 yrs old. I find that very hard to believe. The osprey or ospreys are the only answer. All they have to do it catch 2 fish a week and pretty soon over a years time they got u cleaned out. Lots of questions and seems like no real good answers.

Nils, dead fish can completely disappear within a few days. Not all trout float. I had estimated that I had 50 trout left in the pond. When they died, all I found was 7 floating, and they were only visible for 3 days before scavengers cleaned up all traces of them. They were roughly 3# each.

We had at least #100 14" rainbows left and #140 hbg that should have been 8" at least. Nothing in sight. Not one floating anything. We have to figure this out b4 anything else goes in again.