As of about May my bass catching has been all but been non existent. I have had 20+ fish days out of each of my acre and a half ponds that are side by side. I knew i have good sized fish in there and live 50ft from both ponds but I stopped seeing any activity. No one else fishes my ponds. Now, yesterday I saw 3 to 4 good size river otters swimming around and have decided to trap them. I called a local trapper and he came out and said I have a colony of muskrats on top of this otter problem. Follow me on this one....I have been trying my tail off at learning how to get rid of a bad rusty crawfish problem, at least what I assumed was a crawfish problem. I have holes that surround my pond every foot or so in the diameter of about 3 inches, but no mounds on top, flat holes on slow grading banks. I have went around at night with a spot light and have seen BIG, I mean BIG crawfish lerch back into their holes, but they are 10-20ft away from my bank. Now,....for reference, my ponds are drained 3-4ft in Pond B and 10 ft in the other, Pond A. Pond A we will call it has 30 ft of exposed bank with grass now grown on it before the dam. Pond B, has steeper banks but also has grass now grown on it. They have been this way for 2 to 3 years. I have almost finish cut grass on most of the property see no huts, no big gaping holes in the banks edge like muskrats would make. After rains I can hear the water draining out of my lake under the dams core and out behind the dam wall.
Question 1: Is this damage really muskrats?
Q2: Do muskrats dig holes in the middle of grass 10 ft away from water, almost straight down?
Q3: Besides trapping, any good way of finding out if they are in fact whats making my fish disappear? FYI.....I see no half eaten fish, no floaters, no nothing.....just water.
