Both my ponds have been stripped multiple times by river otters. Discouraging, to say the least. There is a city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, owned protected otter haven, called Lake Sequoyah, just a few miles downstream from my ponds, plus the ponds are only about 1/4 mile from the White River, which feeds that lake. Not much I can do. I cannot keep any large fish, especially CC, because of the otter problem. Other neighbors have the same problem. The otters have a huge daily range.

For the above reason, I have not been very active on the threads. To make an otter fence around the ponds would be prohibitively expensive, plus it would interfere greatly with mowing, making a lot more maintenance necessary. I have decided that what will be, will be.

Call the local DNR officer and explain the problems you are having and the amount of $$$ that it is costing you. Ask them if there is a trapper in the area that could do nuisance trapping for you.

A fence won't be that expensive, here's a list:

Solar 2 mile fence charger Tractor Supply $139.00
Poly wire @ TSC 1312 feet $29.99
Grounding kit @ Lowes $39.99
Fiberglass Posts @ TSC $1.69 each.

Run two wire around the pond. one 6" above the ground, another 12" above the ground. That way you can weed whack under the lowest wire easily and that will keep the otters out. It will also be low enough that you can easily step over it to get to the pond. If you want to make the pond more easily accessible, spend a little bit more for the electric fence gate hardware and you can make a gate that you can open and close, or put a disconnect near the solar charger to turn the juice off easily.

I'm guessing for less than $300 you could protect your pond.

Very sorry to hear about that John. I wish I could offer encouraging words! There are a few recipes for river otter on the net. Even though it's no constellation...my pond turned into a very good crawdad pond in lieu of my goals otherwise. When given otters, make otter-aide. Sorry for your troubles.

John it is depressing. We have killed two adult otters in the last 6 weeks, however I fear how much damage they may have already done to the fish population. Plus what if they left juveniles behind. After dealing with the river otters a few years, I've gotten pretty good at just getting a gut feeling when "they're back". Saw a big water-turkey this morning getting a fish. Luckily they have not been much of a problem this year.

Sorry to hear of your ongoing otter problems John.

John....this makes three fish eating adult river otters trapped in last 6-8 weeks.

This morning my trapper buddy got a female at our property.

Did anyone see that brief video that Lusk posted on FB showing a huge LMB getting taken by an otter??

It was ............BRUTAL!!!!

Friends, Otters are a huge problem to all of us, and they are only going to get much worse, there is a reason the old timers had these horrible animals nearly extinct and then our great government, with encouragement from various city dwellers that have never caught or tried to raise fish, decided it would be a great service to this country to reintroduce these vermin and let them proliferate.
We have not even seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these disgusting animals, they have no known predator to speak of and they multiply like rats in New York City, regardless of the warm, fuzzy story that Dick Van Schaik wrote in a past article of Pond Boss Magazine of what wonderful, harmless, playful, creatures they are that hardly reproduce enough to sustain their own population and barely kill enough fish to sustain themselves and only little ones at that, there will be ten times this many of these animals around in the near future because there is nothing to slow them down, and they hunt and kill for the shear fun of it.
Ask me how I know, we had a great fishing lake, producing some awesome fishing, reduced to a few small fish in a matter of a month, dead fish laying on the banks with a few bites out of them, just killed for the fun of it, and they start with the biggest fish in the lake. we have killed a dozen of them and they don't seem to be going anywhere, just raising more, getting pretty common to see one with 3 or 4 young ones behind her playing in the water, obviously not when one is carrying a firearm.
Unless there is a bounty put on them to slow the growth of the herd, fishing is going to be slim pickings in the very near future.

So darn cute....and deadly at the same time.

Sorry to hear that John.

If you have otter in the area consistently and leaving sign, they are not overly hard to trap. Wish I were closer, would gladly come and help!

A number 330 Conibear type trap is your friend. See where they are entering and leaving and set a trap at the waterline. We took out 9 last year all through the same trap and location.

Never even seen an otter. Guess it’s a good thing.

Yes, that's the results with my ponds. Hundreds of dollars in stocking fish and feeding them, all to be lost in a few night time raids. I have simply given up. Maybe a fence would stop them, maybe not. Anyway, I am done, and sorry I ever built the ponds. All the neighbors have the same problem. The only way to avoid otters around here, would be to build ponds very far from any large watershed, on the top of a hill.

John,

I am so sorry to read your absolute frustration with the havoc the otters have wrought.

I hope you can enjoy your ponds in the future due to some of the other benefits beyond their value as fisheries. (Which is my favorite benefit.)

Otters delenda est!

John, that is a tough one. I caught my first otters last year, and left an abandoned beaver hut open and welcoming for them. It worked for nutria and the otters. Having said that, I know they'll be back.

Putting several conibear 330s in the output of my pond that feeds in a larger creek is where I catch the most otters. They tend to use it to access the pond. I also put a few on the slides they use once the get in the pond. I've been pretty successful in catching them. If one gets in the pond I can usually shoot them if I put in some effort. Had one sneaky one that managed to last about a month this fall. I'd see him chasing fish underwater but he would rarely surface. Finally got him in a trap.

Sounds it would have been time to break out the bowfishing gear!