Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Otters

TJ I even go after termites that attack my home!
Oh and those tiny little ants that want the food in my kitchen.

The live traps like Have-A-Heart....they don't work well on otters?

Maybe if put on the end of a drainage pipe that they are using to access a pond, but getting them to go through that trap will be a LOT more difficult than getting them to go through a Conibear. Plus they have to step on the pan in that trap where they can trip the trigger in a Conibear with their nose/head or even the side of their body.

The live trap I have and the ones i have seen are way to small to catch on otter. A Racoon no problem but the otters are long waisted Wiesel shaped body with a long thick tail. No way they will trap an otter for very long if at all. The 330 will work but it needs to be set in water to avoid trapping the animals we want around including the neighbors dog. Or our dogs for that matter..

I have otters again. Found strong evidence this morning. I have gotten to the point I don't even care much anymore. They range many many miles every day. Kill one, others will take their place. This entire area is plagued with them.

Got another one this morning.

From bigger pond.

A male....

Still haven’t caught anything other than raccoon. I need to keep shuffling the traps. I suppose it’s possible the otters were just passing through or already ate all my fish. The beaver is doing some serious work to some some shrub trees up a hill from the pond.

I place most of my traps in the outlet stream from my pond that feeds into a creek (the otter source). I find some otters cut through the woods and will hit a trap way upstream so I suggest placing traps at multiple locations.

Zep,

Learn to make gloves!

I should Brian....lol

The water-turkey finally arrived at our place....are they at yours?

There was one, but he was discouraged

Had some wood ducks on the pond already! Right under my duck house. Yaaay!!

We are still wondering when Winter will hit here in MI and you folks are seeing wood ducks already!! Wow! We look forward to hard water season but my pond is still soft on the edges and not safe anywhere in the middle either. A 70 acre close to me was sufficiently frozen that folks were ice fishing and skating on it. Never came across a river otter in lakes around here. Sounds like that is a good thing.

Man you have enough for a lot of gloves!

And a hat.

Or an arrow quiver.

Great work Mark, glad you're catching them. Just curious, did you hire a trapper, or are you handling this yourself? Either way, it's working.

FireIsHot.....the trapper lives right across the CR road from my Mother-In-Law in Canton.....he is an older guy....semi-retired....he loves driving over....he never asks for money, but I insist paying him. This week he dropped off this hog trap that he mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago....he can trap all he wants...and there will be plenty...I'll look at them....but I dont want to mess with them nasty rascals....I do need to learn how to use the conibear traps because he is going to retire one day, but they seem dangerous to limbs....lol

Mark:

Conibears are easy. Just be aware of the semi circle that the "jaws" travel as they close and keep your fingers out of the way. Get a setting tool for the bigger ones, and make sure that the safety restraints are on until you set the trap in the water. AND then make sure they are moved out of the way, you don't want the trap to fire and be stopped from closing all the way.

So now that it’s been getting warm out again. I have fished the pond 5 times for about 30 minutes to an hour each time. I have caught a couple of large bluegills about 20 small channel catfish and 1 largemouth bass.

For those that don’t know my 8 acre pond had/had an a catfish problem. I’ve taken out 4,400 last year summer alone.

Optimistic me says the catching the one bass and a couple bluegills and catfish means the otters didn’t destroy the pond. (Two were caught and I’ve only ever seen two)

Pessimistic me is concerned that I’ve only caught one bass when I have been throwing rattle traps jerk baits and chatterbaits to specifically target them.

We also have had a ton of rain and the pond has less than a foot of visibility due to the high water.

I guess my question is when should i start to worry I’m not catching bass.

If you can't catch any bass during the time when they are spawning. You should have caught some before then.

Once water temps hit mid-50s to 60 you should see an increase in bass activity, especially in the shallows. If you can't catch them after that, I would start to get worried.

One thing they will definitely do is target your biggest bass first, they dont seem to be as afraid of predators as much.