Male otterhounds gets up to 125 lb. They were so effective in England that otters were nearly wiped out and otters became protected in 1982. They can follow the scent of their prey in the water and on land.
Male otterhounds gets up to 125 lb. They were so effective in England that otters were nearly wiped out and otters became protected in 1982. They can follow the scent of their prey in the water and on land.
My German shepherds enjoy beaver meat (neighbor is a trapper), but the beaver were never active when I was at the pond with the dogs. My neighbor dispatched the 6 remaining beaver in my pond. Still have plenty trying to clog a culvert on the other end of my property which live in another neighbor's pond and a nearby creek. So far, the cage that I built around the pipe has kept them out. Looks like otter hounds are a very rare breed.
Last edited by RAH; 08/26/2006:17 AM. Reason: addition
esshup that is what I was thinking. e survey would be nice to have. I hate it that the pond was producing good fishing no matter what fish you were fishing for. I know my lmb numbers are down because I have bull frogs everywhere. Lots and Lots of them. Snakes too. I had not seen any snakes in the pond in a couple of years Last time I saw large numbers of frogs and snakes at the pond was back when the pond was about a year old. I am seeing some nice sized bg and a few lmb and i think I saw an hsb too. But nothing like what I had before the fish kill.
Now as far as Otter hounds, I think there are several breeds of dogs that can control otter numbers around a pond. RAH has some dogs that could be trained as well as other breeds. There are dogs out there that chase and kill cats, those dogs could easly be trained to kill otters I think.
Last edited by TGW1; 08/29/2006:08 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Completed construction of a 1/4" mesh Z trap over the weekend. This one is a 2'x2'x2' cube. There are three 3/4"x3" openings in each funnel.
The primary use for this one will be the removal of small BG/HBG and sampling for yoy YP.
Two overnight soaks - no bait, in 4' of water - yielded 200+ BG/HBG/RES, half a dozen small crayfish, and a handful of GSH and FHM. The RES go into the pellet training cage. BG/HBG/crayfish/minnows are transferred to the new forage pond.
The 2' height is probably overkill, and makes the thing a bit unwieldy to dump, but my thinking was that I'll use a 4' seine as a lead when I get serious about sampling for yoy YP, and a tall trap may be more effective than a short trap when deployed in that manner.
If I wanted to catch hand-size BG , I'd use 1/2" mesh, cut the height down to 11.5", and put a single 1"x5" opening in each funnel.
So in your picture you have the 1/4" mesh.. Bill is the 1/4" better than 1/2" What do they sell usually? I think I have 1/4" mesh roll here and would like to build one soon. I'm thinking 12-14" tall is probably plenty tall for my small puddle
Before the muskrats destroyed all of the APW the shrimp would hang out in there.
Now, aside from a few remnants of cattail and arrowhead that the vermin haven't yet eaten, the only vegetation in my pond is bladderwort. Any time I mess with it I can see shrimp flipping around. The fish see them too and then poof gone no more shrimp.
Before the rats ate the APW I would catch PK every time I soaked a trap. I haven't trapped any PK since the rooted plants were wiped out. So I'm gonna say the nice stand of APW that I used to have made a happy home for PK shrimp.
Thanks Augie, I was afraid of that. The PKs really need certain types of vegetation to hide/thrive in. I think my stocking was in vain as I'm still struggling to get a stand of ANY weed (desirable or not) to take root....
I'll be rid of the rats soon enough, but it's too late in the year for the APW to grow back before winter. There's a mountain of seed in the pond so it ought to come back just fine next spring.
I'm hoping that the giant tangle of cedar trees that I put in before my pond filled will provide enough cover for some of the shrimp to survive the winter, because that's about all there will be for them once cold weather gets here and the bladderwort croaks.
On another note, I just got off the phone with Chet Hartley. My SMB order is locked in, and he's got a few advanced HSB for me. Water temps are still on the warm side so we're going to touch base again in a couple of weeks. I expect I'll be able to pick them up before the end of this month.
And I think I forgot to mention that I found one yoy YP in the Z trap when I pulled it yesterday. It was a sickly looking little thing. Not even as long as my pinky finger, horribly mal-nourished, and only slightly dead. So from that I can say that my YP did pull off a spawn last spring. I just hope the rest of them are managing better than this one did.
I've been thining my larger GSH down, I've pulled 141 GSH in the 5-7" size range out of my 1/4 acre pond in the last three weeks. (564/acre) So far I haven't seen a noticable difference in the number of large shiners eating pellets in the evening.
I've been thining my larger GSH down, I've pulled 141 GSH in the 5-7" size range out of my 1/4 acre pond in the last three weeks. (564/acre) So far I haven't seen a noticable difference in the number of large shiners eating pellets in the evening.
Shorty, what method are you using to remove them. I think I have some that are getting to big that need to be removed. I really wasn't planning to stock them but must of been some in with the FHM. They've been in for 2 years now and I think some might be up to 8".I just stocked the LMB this spring so those big ones won't be getting ate anytime soon.
Rod and reel, I'm using an 1/80th oz micro jig, casting bubble, and a very small peice of nightcrawler. I keep a five gallon bucket next to the dock that I throw them in to dispose of.
Before the muskrats destroyed all of the APW the shrimp would hang out in there.
Now, aside from a few remnants of cattail and arrowhead that the vermin haven't yet eaten, the only vegetation in my pond is bladderwort. Any time I mess with it I can see shrimp flipping around. The fish see them too and then poof gone no more shrimp.
Before the rats ate the APW I would catch PK every time I soaked a trap. I haven't trapped any PK since the rooted plants were wiped out. So I'm gonna say the nice stand of APW that I used to have made a happy home for PK shrimp.
Augie, I finally have a pretty fair amount of APW, but it’s too little too late for my shrimp. When we had that drought a few years ago the water level dropped down below where I had any cover on the banks. I haven’t seen any since. My traps catch about 20 tadpoles for every baby HBG, and about 20 HBG for every GSH. Only a couple YP in the traps, and 0 SMB. I think that’s more about where I place the traps vs fish numbers. I’m worried about muskrats. What’s the first sign I should be looking for that they are around? FYI, my cormorant never came back. I guess he didn't like the noisy neighborhood.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
The first thing that I noticed after the muskrats moved in were shredded cattails and almost overnight - muddy water. Then the APW started to disappear. Then they started on the arrowhead. It didn't take long at all for them to wreck the place. The pond looked like a war zone two weeks after they showed up.
We shot five of them. I don't know how many are left because they don't show themselves. Conibear traps are here and going in this weekend.
Ice fishing jigs would probably work. I find micro jigs in the fly tying sections of Bass Pro and Cabela's, you won't find them in the regular fishing section.
I catch everything with it, RES, SMB, HSB, and GSH. When targeting GSH I use a very small peice of nightcrawler, 1/4", and have the micro jig set 16" below the casting bubble. GSH can be caught near the bank or in open water, most of the other fish I catch are caught near the bank.