I received a call to day from a restaurant owner who is having issues with turtles eating ducklings. This is the first call I've gotten about problem turtles. I normally do set up + per animal. I'm curious, how do you charge for turtle trapping? I also wonder if another animal is knocking off the ducklings and not a turtle.

I use the quonset hut type turtle trap from WCS. It will hold some pretty good sized snappers. I use fresh deer for bait but Sweet

Pea says rough fish works better. I charge 20 bucks more for the set-up and 10 bucks more than coon for the turtles. And it sure

wouldn't surprise me if a couple of good sized snappers are enjoying duck for dinner. I know I do.

Wow, I didn't expect charging more. I really don't know what to expect as far as catch numbers. I'm planning on using muskrat, since turtles really seem to go after them. My trap is a hoop style. How many days do you typically trap?

Hey, the traps cost more, you have to put on waders, and last year I got bit and besides that if I didn't relocate them I'd need a

turtle trapping license. I have used muskrat and did not have near the success of a great big piece of bloody deer hindquarter. And

Sweet Pea says stinky old rough fish will beat deer meat. Just remember that the tail comes to a point and that's the side you want to grab!

Use three traps. Place at least two days after a heavy rain and try to place three days before a rain. Place in back of pond to midway. Only use fresh bait, not tainted.

Bait late afternoon if checking traps once a day.

Leave traps in until you have at least one day you don,t catch any, preferably two days. Most turtles are caught the first three days or less.

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Could be otters.

Snappers are easy. I charge the same as other ground animals. Fresh fish for bait daily. Any kind will do. I even used a fresh dead snake cut into pieces and it worked fine.
Never used red meat.

Yeah, Kirk is right about the time. I don't think I've ever caught a snapper after five days.

Depends how many are there. How big the pond is. How many are being caught in each trap per day.

I've had the trap for a few years and never used it. It's just like my frog gig, I've bought it thinking I'd use it to put some tasty meat in the freezer, but something has always gotten in the way of using either one. I just wrapped up a beaver/muskrat job and saved a couple rats after seeing how the turtles were lining up to tear them apart. That job kind of makes me think that a 330 would be the best trap for the job. I couldn't keep turtles out of them.

Kirk seems to have this down pat, except this year it seems like it's raining everyday to every other day. I've never seen a summer so wet.

Funny, I just got a call on a turtle yesterday. My State doesn't exactly have any laws on the books other than "no commercial take" and that only leaves fishing regs and they don't exactly cover turtle trapping (trap entry dia., set lines ect.) Wardens and Biologists are seeing what they can come up with I guess.

One the ducklings are gone the problem w I'll be solved.

I get there and there is an enclosure for some of the ducklings, then there is a large dock and a smaller dock with feed troughs and roosting areas. They said at one time they had 75 ducks in all shapes and sizes, everything from exotic species, to plain ole white ducks. There were adult ducks with chunks of breast missing and many had been found with legs missing. They said that they've been loosing on average 4 ducklings a day. They told me about the size of the snapper, but I never saw it. I saw one turtle and it wasn't big enough to be eating ducklings.

I think that the turtle you were looking for was probably at a weight-loss clinic. I would also keep my eyes open for alligators and

crocodiles. That's an awful lot of duck dinners. If you think I'm kidding about alligators, I'm not. Twenty or so years ago a couple

of local kids swiped two alligators from a pet shop. Of course, on the way home they realized that there was no way they could

explain two alligators to their parents, so they dropped them off in a local creek. A friend of mine came wading along to make some

muskrat and mink sets and found the alligators and took them home and gave them to another friend of mine who reported them to the

authorities. They made headlines nationwide.

I have no doubt that turtles are eating some ducklings, but I think are other predators are snacking on some as well. This is a small fire pond that was made to bring the parking lots on each side up grade. There is duck food and around 70 ducks on a pond less than 1/2 acre. I bet every predator in the county visits this pond at night.

I can't imagine that game cameras haven't already been set up to identify any other duck gourmets.

Paul, I haven't set any cameras up yet, but I didn't know what I was getting into until yesterday.

Just set a comstock beaver trap. I always catch snappers in them during the summer.

I've used baited swim through beaver traps for turtles a few times with good luck. When setting channels for beaver turtles are caught frequently, without bait. I just set a location for beaver with 3 channel sets and ended up with 3 turtles, 20, 25 and 35 pounds.

Made myself a cage trap last night in about 2 hours. Made it out of a 8ft cattle panel from TSC. Nice stuff. Ramp and entrance out of 1x2" welded and commercial fish netting. About $25 into it.

Nets are colapsible and relatively light weight. They float easily by placing empty plastic bottles in them. They are easily put in a boat and positioned at key locations. If you catch 3-400 lbs. of turtles you can roll them into the boat and easily remove turtles into burlap bags for transport.

Hard to be serious with a metal cage.