# Turtles in pond



## Ferg11 (May 20, 2010)

Over the past few years my ponds fish have gotten small and theres not very many. about 4 years ago a 3 or 4 pound bass was common. theres also some big catfish in the pond. the pond is about 1 acre. while fishing for the catfish we have caught a few snapping turtles and a leatherback. does anybody know if those turtles are messing up the fish population? or could it be the catfish or something else. thanks.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Could be lots of things. What are "big" catfish?


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Big turtles can go through alot of fish...........I'd work on eliminating them.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I agree, you need to define what is considered "BIG" when your talking about cats, even a 5-6 lb channel can eat more then a lb of baitfish in a week so its possible there causing more probs then you think. In my pond, once they get about that size, or even smaller, i start cropping them down as there caught.

Now as far as snapping turtles, they are part of a healthy pond ecosystem but if the pond is older and if your catching them on catfish bait, I think I d crop them as well,youll never get all of them and they can overrun a pond and mostly are scavengers but will eat live fish when the opportunity presents itself. How big are the snappers??

I purposely stocked 5-6 red eared sliders in my pond and I enjoy seeing then sunning themselves and sticking there heads up. When i pellet feed 2 of then come from across the lake to get into some of that action, pretty cool but they are also eating machines and as a swimming turtle are much more apt to eat baitfish then to scavenge. I had some of them in an aquarium before the pond and they can destroy a serious number of feeder goldfish in a matter of minutes when hungry. Reminded me of when I had Gar in the aquarium, eating machines!!

Salmonid


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## Ferg11 (May 20, 2010)

The catfish are 5 to 6 pounds. the snappers are around 10 pounds. 
so get rid of the bigger cats and turtles?


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## claytonhaske (Apr 16, 2010)

Ferg11 said:


> The catfish are 5 to 6 pounds. the snappers are around 10 pounds.
> so get rid of the bigger cats and turtles?


and get some more bait fish.


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## fontinalis (Mar 29, 2011)

you could also cull out some of the smaller bass, and remove some bluegill, it is pretty common in ohio for ponds to get stunted. My guess(with the info provided) is that you have too much competition for food. From my experience turtles dont put a hurting on big fish very often, if anything they will help keep your runt bluegills under controll. If you really want to get to the bottom of it, fish the pond really hard for a few days and get the # and average size of the fish you catch, more than likely you will get a bunch of runts, in which case its time to thin them out. The addition of some more forage fish(fathead minnows are pretty good) should get your fish growing again. An automatic feeder might help too.


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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

Provide plenty of cover for your smaller fish, old christmas trees, wood skids stacked and tied together, or just a pile of brush wrapped up. 

Then work on trapping/removing those turtles. 

Just my 2 cents.


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## leupy (Feb 12, 2007)

My pond is small 1/2-3/4 acre it is over stocked and that is why I put in several hundred dollars worth of golden shinners each year, they seem to last a little longer than fatheads. I have already stocked #15 of shinners and 100 shellcrackers, I have a small problem with snails I want to control. My channels were getting 20"-26" and I decided to start getting rid of them, there may be 8-10 left. Turtles are not supposed to be a real problem but I evict them at every chance. I seldom get any turtles but they are easily trapped when they stumble in. Everyone has there own way to maintain their own pond mine works for me. P.S. Bass up over #4 Bluegils chaseing 10".


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## BassSlayerChris (Aug 9, 2010)

Turtles do work on the fish pop. I would fish them out and throw them in a box and drop them off somewhere far away.


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## Shortdrift (Apr 5, 2004)

Try calling the ODNR for some professional advice specific to your pond.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Ferg11, A doubt a few turtles are having a measureable impact in a 1 acre pond. What exactly are you wanting to improve?


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