Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations So what do you do with too many turtles?

Dan, sounds unforgettable for her.

Fishman Dan shares a moment
:D I luv these 5:30 am smiles
good picture you paint...

Well, I've gotta problem with them painted turtles, too. It's not that we've too many of them. In fact, I've only seen about 3...however, my wife insists on making sure they all get their "fair" share of pellets whenever we feed the fish. "They're so cute..."

They all have the same name...Freddy...as in Freeloader.


Oh well, Nene gets a lot of enjoyment from watching the "piranhas" in action. If she also enjoys feeding all the Freddies, I won't beetch much.

Kinda tickles me that this thread started in June of last year and is still getting current discussion.

Our turtle problem got bigger than ever early this year. Possibly due to the TX drought for the past nine months. Most every pond within a few miles dried up during the July through March drought .... except for ours. We found turtles out in the middle of nowhere during the late summer, fall and early winter. I have a feeling they found out we still had water and told all their buddies about us.

During the same period, I had a small problem with snakes develop. We had been relatively snake free until November when a cotton mouth and a few copper heads showed up. At first I was using either a .357 loaded with rat shot, or a .22LR with rat shot. Then I just went to the 22LR hollow points which I found were great (shhhh) at reducing the turtle problem too.

When skunks, racoons and coyotes started making our ponds part of their daily routine (and I do mean daily as opposed to nocturnal) I started also carrying a 12 ga loaded with Lead 4s on the rifle rack in the ATV. It works very well on all of the critter problems we had.

Here's wife Carol with a Giant Canada in January next to a pond that used to have a turtle and snake problem.

By the way, the pond was down about 42" from normal in that picture. Here's the same pond a few weeks ago after we finally got our 7" or rain that filled us to the brim and then some ...

I personally have turtle structures and habit in my pond. Large stumps partcially submergered.

Ever now an then when my redneck side takes over and I want to play Rambo I pull out the old 22 long rifle semi 9X scope that my grand father gave me as a kid. Very first gun after my daisy BB gun. I don't really need the scope because there will be about 5 to 10 all bunched up and I spread 15 rounds on them in a very very short period of time. I usally manage a 50% kill ratio. Got to leave some for the next time Rambo shows up.

Some times when I want to play GI Joe I look out and see all these little black heads floating around I become a marine sniper and utilize the scope for percision head shots. Instant kill.

Now that's my mean side. As many may recall I posted a while back on geese problem. They have now eat all the screens off the front of the house and mess all over the porches and deck. They even guard the doggy door and want let my cow dogs out. My wife has put out a death contract on them. Trouble is they are so pretty I can't bring myself to sqeese the trigger. Are there any Assassins for hire near the DFW area? Has anyone ever had deep fried goose?

RT, I have gotten to the point where I almost won't kill anything that I'm not going to eat. I say almost because I just don't believe in putting up with problems. I like coyotes because they don't chase cows like my neighbors dogs do. By the same line of reasoning, I have come to the point of not liking my neighbors.

I recently posted about having to drag a dead dog out of my pond. It turned out to be a neighbors dog. He was upset about the loss of the dog and I was upset that he wasn't there to retrieve it. That water was cold.

Rocky goose is a fantastic meat! I am an avid water fowl hunter and we eat our possession limit every month during the winter here in DE. I am sure you will have no problem finding a few hunters to stool out in your pond and share the harvest with you.

I do not kill many things I do not eat as I will try just about anything when it comes to food from ground hog to snappers, but I have been known to drop the 22 mag on the occasional un-collared cat, and I shot all foxes on sight.

rockytopper ... go to this website ...
http://www.txwaterfowler.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=3

introduce yourself and ask for volunteers to assist you in reducing the goose population. How many THOUSAND folks can you accomodate on your property at one time?

rockytopper...deep fried goose is NASTY...roll ol' liver around in breading and deep fry it...that's as close as you can get...

It's been said before but I'll mention it again...Shooting turtles CAN be dangerous, just be sure what lies in your ricochett pattern. Just remember that cool whine you hear is a bullet spinning and curving up off the water. BTW, I took the .44 MAG and 9mm out for turtle practice myself. Nothing like popping a small black head from 50 yds away with a .44!