Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Snapping turtle

Here's the situation, I have a 1/4 acre pond here in Michigan. I stocked it with 300 hybrid bluegill and 100 bass this April. The fish are doinig great and I am feeding them daily. I recently discovered that I have a resident snapping turtle in the pond. He is approx. 16" shell diameter which is one of the bigger ones that I have seen. How much damage can he do to my fish? I figure that a turtle that size must have a pretty good appetite and my bluegill are probably pretty tasty. I have attempted to shoot him, but haven't had a good head shot. Should I continue to pursue him and try to trap or shoot him, or am I overreacting. Just don't want to have to re-stock fish if I don't have to.

RBC,

Pulled this excerpt off a Herpetology website...learned something new here as well...always thought snappers could catch healthy fish...as far as the common snapper (Chelydra serpentina) looks like that may not be the case...as far as the disposition of your resident snapper? If "Homey" were in my pond, I'd leave well enough alone and monitor the fish population...if it starts to decline, get rid of him...however, he may be beneficial in cleaning up the pond a bit...others on the site may have better advice or more experience...

"Snapping turtles are omnivorous. They eat anything they can catch and also various water plants. Small prey are swallowed whole; larger items are torn apart with the front claws and swallowed in pieces. Although there are reports of snappers consuming waterfowl, they do not pose a threat to game species-including fish. Snappers are usually too slow to catch healthy game fish. Sick or dead fish are primarily consumed. Like many other Iowa water turtles, snappers must eat most food underwater; their fixed tongue makes it very difficult to swallow out of water."

1oz. Slugs work pretty good at getting through the shell, eliminating the need for the perfect head shot, but then I have been known to use too much hammer from time to time...

I wouldn't want him left to decay in my pond. A string, hook & some aged meat or fish will catch him probably over night in that small pond.
Torchy's right they don't pose too much of an imediate threat to your fish. I disagree though with the experts that say they're not fast enough to catch a healthy fish. They know where the fish hang out & they can strike pretty fast with that head! All they have to do is wait until one gets close enough.
I like snappers, & wouldn't kill one unless I intended to eat it, and they do make very good soup! They live for apx 80 yrs.
My preference is not to have any turtles in my pond though. They have to eat & even if they don't catch my fish they eat alot of the things my fish could have eaten, & I want all the forage for my fish!

RBC-- I probably have well over 100 of the larger snappers in my 6 1/2 acre pond. Most are too large to fit head first in a 5 gallon pail. Several years ago I caught about 30 of them on a 1/0 hook, a wire leader and a chunk of beef liver hanging below a gallon jug. Prior to relocating them I put 'em in a 200 gallon horse watering tank and put in a few dozen 3"-5" bluegil that I caught in a small wire cage trap. They wouldn't touch the 'gills until they were dead so no, they are not a threat to your fish population.
If I remember corectly you can catch up to 8 on your regular fishing license and up to 25 on a comercial fishing license. But, it's your pond, your rules.
If you do decide to catch them out of your pond, watch your fingers, they can snap a stick about 3 times the size of a pencil without any trouble.
There has been lots of discussion about snappers on other threads,if you use the search function in the upper right you will find loads of information on them.

Dan

One thing worth remembering is that snappers are surprisingly transitory and may move on without too much prompting. Of course, they may also make themselves right t'home. They are sloppy eaters and you'll know if they are taking your fish; you'll find heads or tails floating in the water. Ric's right about catching them with some stinky meat--chicken neck works good--use a biga$$ hook on heavy wire leader with some heavy fishing line or cord tied around a tree or some such. All in all, however, they do form a part of the system and you might monitor Gramps for evidence of harm before you get aggressive with him.

RBC, are you sure it's really a snapper ? Snappers have well defined ridges and points on their shell...with a VERY long tail, it's generally as long as the shell. If it's truely a snapper, patiently wait him out with a .22, if it's a common turtle, let him clean up the injured or sick left-overs. The reasoning is that you don't want a Snapper to breed, they are VERY dangerous and do eat live fish. Consider an adult Snapper much like a dangerous snake, it only takes once, and you'll have a LOT of regrets.

Thank you ALL very much for the advice. Yes, I am positive it is a snapper. The pond is 4 years old now. All of my initial stocking failed for one reason or another, ie froze out, not enough feed, poor water level/quality. I have now got aeration going and a well driven to maintain the water level, algae is under control, and I bought fish for stocking rather than transplanting. This snapper has been here for the past 3 years, even when the fish didn't survive. I guess he lived on frogs and mice or whatever happened along before. I do have a healthy population of painted turtles in the pond and don't feel they will impact much if anything. I will try all of the methods mentioned in response to my post. I like the rotton meat/big hook/wire leader approach, as hanging out with a .22 in my hands and trying to swatt mosquitos and drink a beer is kinda tough :-)Thank you to all.

RBC, with that many fish in a 1/4 acre pond, a snapper should be the least of your worries. Putting out a few bank lines with cut bait should easily get him. Are you feeding the bluegills?
Robert B

Robert B, Yes I am feeding them daily. You sound surprised at the number of fish in the pond..? Could you explain your concern. The pond is approx 1/4-1/3 acre, and I went with the stocking reccomendations of the fish farm. Heck, I wanted to put more fish in than that. But I didn't want them stunted.

I also have a concern regarding your stocking. First, you should stock a max of 100 bass per acre.

Also, what will they eat? The hybrids are, at least theoretically, sterile. You should have stocked plain bluegills. They are breeding machines. You should also have stocked them a considerable time before the bass so they could grow to breeding size, reproduce at least once and become well established before adding predators.

The 'generally used' recipe for stocking is 5 lbs of fatheads per acre, 1000 bluegills (500 bluegills in some circles) per acre and 100 predators per acre. The predators are usually LMB or catfish but are sometimes big bluegills. Now, this is for initial stocking. Your own goals will determine the mix that you will cull to and try to maintain.

The fish farm jerked you around. Read the posts here about stocking rates and getting established.

Dave, Thank you for the heads-up on stocking. You know, as I was reading your reply I was trying to remember why I stocked what I did. The fish farm wouldn't sell less than 100 bass ( I wanted 50) which would have still been twice as many as what I should have had. I wanted fathead minnows, but the stocker said "The fatheads that I get may have some trash fish mixed in, I don't reccomend you get any". He also said that these hybrid gills will breed. I asked if I could transplant some gills from the local lakes to get them to breed faster. The stocker started talking about 2nd generation hybrids and sizes, bla,bla bla and totally lost me. I would have needed a court reporter to keep up with what he was saying. Not sure how I will get some of those bass out of there. I did go to the local bait store later and bought 10 dozen fatheads. I know it's not much, but it was something. By the way, 200 of the gills were 5-6" 100 were 3-4" and the LMB were 2-3" I don't know at what rate they all grow, but I figured the bluegill would grow faster than the bass..

i was told to stock hybrid bluegills also. like Dave said they suck. he said i been doing this for 30 years , so you tend to believe somebody with that track record. he stocked 100 fingerling bass , cats , 6" gills and 10 lbs fatheads all at once. after the bass , cats and gills ate the minnows , there was nothing for them to eat. lucky for me my neigbors pond is loaded emerald shinners , so they didn't starve. so i stocked 100 6" bluegills this spring , i haven't seen any young gills yet , but i have tons of shinner fry. the bass , cats , wipers and hybrid gills like that. i have been thinning out the cats , there getting to be 3 lbs or so. my buddy came over and caught 10 , cleaned and cooked them up , them cats are great eating , first time i ever had catfish. felt kinda bad though eating my pets lol should of stocked fats and bluegills first and waited a year or so before adding predators. wish i would found this site before i started the pond. such wise pond people , who are very help full and enjoy helping others

Dan P. Thanks for the bit of info on bluegills and snappers together in a horse watering tank. I agree with your conclusion.

Two big snapping turtles in my pond don't seem to eat healthy fish; even itf the fish are making them "angry". . The turtles seem to be more interested in the fish food. Turtles and fish try to get the same pellets in the evening. Fish usually get the pellets first and turtles eeem to get the stray pellets. Turtles could easily grab the fish while the fish gets the pellets in right in front of the turtle; but turtle does not grab any fish. If I was the turtle I would grab at a fish just to make them quit stealing food in front of my nose.

RBC, I really hate to tell you this but I'm not sure you need to get any of the bass out. Unless they have lived on bugs, most have probably starved out. Heck, keep an eye on it. You can probably correct in the future if your bass are overstocked. I would definately get some real gills and start pulling out some hybrids. Let me qualify that. You may be real happy with some big hybrids. If you stocked some 6 inchers and are feeding regularly, they can be a lot of fun. Take a look at the posts here. Small ponds can't really sustain more than 15 to 20 bass maximum. If you want bigger ones, you need to cull down to more than that. Buy Bob Lusks book "Raising Trophy Bass". He puts a lot in perspective on the overall pond, water quality, etc. He has a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with bass. Hey, on my first attempt, I screwed up a lot more than you. And I did it without the help of an unscrupulous fish farmer.

Just my observation,
Wild animals that I have ever had the oportunity to observe when forced into an unnatural envirnoment refuse to eat.
Especially turtles seem to pick their time & place to eat. They pass by what seem to us easy meals because I think the situation has to be just so for them to feed.
A darting fish feeding on fish food is not a normal/natural enviornment.
A turtle held in the confines of a tank is unnatural.
I'm not saying I know for certain but find it hard to believe that an old savy snapper would not take a fish that happened too present itself motionless in front of his nose.
They are not just scavengers. I have watched them on the hunt with just their nostrils & then very slowly their eyes protruding above the surface as they stalk a frog close to the waters edge. I have watched them feeding catching bull frog tadpoles one after the other.
If you feed your fish, why not have turtles? If you don't feed your fish then you have to decide if you want part of their forage going to turtles. It's not a good vs bad thing it just begs the question Bill C & others always ask new pond owners "what are your goals"