Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

Went out around the ponds after dark tonight. Beautiful evening comfortable in a sweat shirt. No mosquitoes!

Been a while since I looked into the water after dark. In the RES/SMB pond with all the bushy pondweed saw hundreds of bullfrog tadpoles. Could not believe how many there were in the shallows resting on the pondweed.

Neat sight to see. You would expect to see that in the summer not the winter.

Great photos Mark. Sorry to hear about the otters.

Thanks Lance.....we have not caught any otters in the nine traps and have not seen any since I wounded or killed one early the first morning we saw them. Maybe scared them away for the time being? The trapper says they'll be back when Tilapia die-off happens...I am shocked I have not seen a single dead Tilapia yet. On another note we moved the game-cam and getting some good deer pics this week.

Nice tall tines!

Way better then otters, nice deer!

Zep, how did the otters find your pond? Is there are creek running into it?

Zep, based on the pic I would say that's a 3 yr old nice little buck with a great rack. If you can, let it go this year and if it makes it through this years season then next year it may be a great buck.

anthropic....there are a couple of Lake Tawakoni creeks that run across the lower part of the property...the pond drains into the bigger creek...the trapper said that is definitely where the otters are coming from.

Tracy thanks for that info...interesting....we hope our property becomes a deer sanctuary..we love to look at them, but we don't hunt deer...but have no problem at all with people that do....we only will happily shoot otter, beaver, and hogs...anything destructive. That buck could easily get shot on a neighbor's property...so he just needs to call our place home to stay alive...lol

Zep, I am fighting otters right now and I don't like them. it looks like I will have to trap again. I have only seen one in the pond and believed it was shot but seen nothing floating up. So I am now going to place a camera up that will send me photos when they are on my pier. So I can shoot their arse.

Zep think TGW is correct (3-1/2 year old) next year should be a hoss! Lot of did between 3-1/2 and 4-1/2 ..... good looking buck

I set up a game camera at my pier because the otters are eating and craping on it and I have not been able to find a slide where they are entering the water. A place to set a 330 trap. Will, two otters showed up on the pier @ 2;30 and 3 am this morning. Looks like they are walking the pier so I have to come up with another way to trap. You think they would enter a live trap setting on the pier, maybe use tunafish as bait? Thoughts guys? not sure I can keep the coons out long enough to catch the otters. Dam otters! I also suspect the Tp are one reason the otters show up this time of year.

Night vision works well along with lead.

Eric, I know but not crazy about being out there at 2 in the morning right now. Too cold for this old fart

Me too !

I warned them....

I told them they'd be better off eating at Long John Silvers..

they didn't listen...and look at them now!

Some have to learn the hard way.

Sweet.......two down, how many more are there?

Not sure....I saw four otters 3 weeks ago...may or may not have wounded/killed one that morning...no sign of them after wounding one...then today 2 DEAD in traps. I told trapper lets keep traps set...he said as long as you keep your dog away...he'll reset.

Dogs are the reason I have not set traps at this time. and like u we are pretty sure we used lead to remove one recently. Most every time I have used taps I would catch 4. I am guessing they run in families or in packs.

We bred 2 of of our German shepherds and kept 2 of the 13 pups. One of the pups we placed just got some press:

https://people.com/pets/dog-wakes-up-owner-saves-man-heart-attack/

Tracy....luckily our dog really never gets near where the otter traps are placed....she is skittish and doesn't leave our side....if we take her on a walk anywhere close to the traps she is on a leash.



The trapper said the male otters travel up the creeks looking for a home/pond with a good food supply..then the male goes and finds a female and brings her back to the fish pond..and they start a family....not unlike what humans do...lol.

ZEP, I think the ones I have trapped live in communes. Like back in the 60's and 70's. in the past 5 yrs I have trapped about a dozen. along with 4 beavers. All I need now is a big beard and a buffalo or beaver fur coat to be what I picture as a full fledged trapper.

We are fortunate to have a retired neighbor who traps out problem critters. With the poor fur prices, he just does this as a favor to us. Beaver are the biggest issue, especially when they clog drain pipes.

RAH, I understand the same when it comes to fur prices and that is why I don't take the time to skin them for selling. One Christmas I was looking a coats for my X and looked at fur's. The beaver was the softest fur coat of all the different coats I looked at. And it was not cheep priced either. And around that time some extremist were tossing paint on people that wore fur coats.