Personally, i would take him out by whatever means possible. A number of years ago, almost all the ponds within 3 to 4 miles of mine went dry in a multi-year drought. my 3 acre pond went down to just over 1/2 acre and average depth of 6', and the snappers began to move in. keep in mind i'm 10 miles from town and nearest neighbors are about 1/2 mile away as the crow flies. Several people who reguarly fish the pond began showing up and using the turtles for target practice. Those snappers did their best not to die in the water & if they could get to the bank they did. The 2 largest snappers shot could have stood on top of a lidless garbage can. We finally lost the count of dead snappers in the 14-16 area plus a bunch of painted turtles. had some guys that butchered a some of them. The area fish biologist was in agreement that the snappers needed to go. There sure wasn't much to eat in that pond outside of fish. We were fortunate to have a mild winter temperature wise and the fish loss over the winter was very minimal. it still a few years to
get the pond back to where it had been production wise. (It also serves as a livestock water source.)
