The question is: My nest of red eared sliders just hatched and instead of releasing in the natural pond that the turtle came up from I am getting some opinions that the large mouth bass eat them. So do I just put in pond and hope for the best or keep them til they are about a year old and release to pond? Thank you.

I tend to let nature do what it's going to do, but on the other hand...I will discourage turtles in my pond until I can get vegetation established that can withstand turtle dining.

It's very cool that you have witnessed the hatch. Please do some research on turtle young and the diseases that they can transmit to humans. I don't think it is a big deal, but I remember from many, many years ago that selling turtles in pet stores was banned due to this.

LMB do eat small turtles.

Yep, bass will definitely eat them. And, it won't take long.

If you like turtles you can raise them up til they get bigger, when I was a kid I had 25 red ear sliders in the backyard. Feed em an see what happens- probably more will survive unless the coons get to them, they are a bigger threat to them than about any predator . Good luck and keep us posted

Been many years ago but I caught a LMB about 2.5-3lbs that I filleted and it had 8 turtles that had been eaten very shortly before it smashed my spinnerbait because 3 were still alive. I'd guess it was hammering them as quick as they made the transition into the water so they definitively eat them.

I hardly ever see baby turtles in my main pond but right beside it is the tiny forage pond with no large predators. Every year have one to three baby redear sliders in it. I suspect the little ones get eaten in short order if they venture into the big pond.