Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Turtles eating my stockers?

I went out to the pond yesterday and fed the fish. Before feeding them, I threw out the casting net many times but caught no fish. I know that the ratio of CNBG to surface acres of water is very low but shouldn't I be catching at least a few by now? I know the are tons of orange FHM in the pond and even more regular FHM in the BOW because I can easily see them darting in shoals during feeding time in the shallow water. Will 7-10 turtles have any significant effects on my fish population? I'm worried that the turtles may have eaten a large proportion of my BG. There is sufficient (30-45%) aquatic plant cover but I'm seeing no BG at feeding time either.

Connor, I expect the fish are where they want to be instead of where you want them to be.

Turtles have no impact on the fish. They are about 99% scavengers.

Show me a turtle that moves as fast as a fish and I'll be very amazed!

They will not eat your fish, but they may eat your food. Do you feed at the same location every time?

22LR is cheep. If you are that concerned, get rid of a few. Too many of anything is usually a bad thing.

Think about it!!!

I had a snapper catch and eat a healthy 8" koi the other day. I guess he could whip his head out faster than a slow fantail koi could move...

Snappers can take an occasional healthy fish. However, the "normal or usual" water turtle does more of a number on the salads of the ponds.

Basically if a fish can be eaten by a turtle it deserves to die.. Only the strong survive..

I am seeing a cloudy film develope on the surface of the pond. Am I over feeding or is this due to the semi-windless weather I've been having lately? Also, WHEN IS BIG WATER COMING? I'm worried my pond will dry up. It has a semi-clay bottom, no shade, and 3-4 acres of runoff.

Probably pollen on your pond.. The rest of your question are unanswerable..

I concur with survival of the fittest, except I move it one more step up the ladder. Any turtle that is smart enough to stay out of my traps, wise enough to keep a hook out of its mouth, or fast enough to outrun my trigger finger is free to live in my pond. Turtles provide ZERO value to my pond, so I remove every single one that I can. In fact, if I could push a button and disintegrate every turtle on my property I would push it twice.

Turtles eat your dead stuff in the pond.. That's about the only plus I can think of.. I use to eliminate them, but it's a battle that can't be won in
My pond..

I do alot of jug fishing in my pond to remove bullheads. The turtles eat my bait of the hook to the point that I catch only one or two bullheads a week. Sometimes I throw the jugs out and see the turtles migrate towards them immediately. Then the jug shakes and I pull in the empty jugs to do it all over again. Quite a few times the turtles have eaten bullheads and CC's while caught on a jug from the tail all the way up to the head and leave nothing more than a hallowed out skull. I have even pulled in turtles caught on a jug while trying to eat catfish that was caught on the same jug and hook. So, if they can catch them, they will eat your fish. [img]http://bigbluegill.com/photo/bullhead-bitten-in-half-while-on-a-trotline?context=user[/img]