I have a otter problem in my 3+ acre bass pond in Pa. The pond is 20+ years old and produced some 5 lbs bass years back. We always release the big fish. But now 3lbs would be considered big. A Pa Game warden came on the property about another issue. He liked the pond and ask permission to walk around it. After his walk around he ask me how are my fish doing ? I told him its hard to catch a large bass but their in there. He replied ! Sorry to say they are not in the pond anymore. You have signs of otters all around your pond. Than he proceeded to tell me, its going to be challenging becuse you need to follow the Pa, laws on trapping them. I ordered 2, 280 and because of the eagles and cranes, blue herring ! I put a bait fish in the middle of a 16 X 36 inch plastic drum. Traps are set into both sided with 2 inch pvc pipe two foot long to rest on the bottom 3 feet of water. On day two I had one 16 inch wide about 20 lbs and a 10 lbs snapping turtle. Based on what I read on this site I can have 100 + turtles in my pond. There is a natural 100 acre swamp 1/4 mile away and its all flatland. Pasture. I read many people say the turtles are good garbage collectors to have. Is there a way I can avoid catching turtles and better chance with otter. I also read the otters have a huge 40-50 mile home range and travel a lot. I have two game cams out and its that time of the year the geese take over.
