I’ve got about a 3 acre pond and i’ve been seeing quite a few snappers in it lately. It’s a really nice fishing pond and i don’t want the turtles to over indulge. I know they play there part in taking the weak and dead fish i’m just concerned at some point does there get to be to many in a pond? I’m not sure how much healthy fish they consume. What are some of your experiences?

My experience is that snappers do not affect the fish population in a noticable way.....otters on the other hand, thats a whole different story! Ask me how I know ....Lol

They usually find their own balance. If I was worried Id set a few lines and take a few for dinner. Real good eating and fun to catch or trap

How do you know?

Or call the turtle man

Get a Quarles Turtle Trap and go have fun! Good eatin too, par boiled and fried with seasoning

Speaking of the Quarles Turtle trap, Lewis Quarles' grandson joined here a few days ago.

yes trap some out ,great eating ,I believe turtles eat all fish that they can catch , just like wolves' eat all deer they can catch not just old an young an weak

I was done with turtles years ago when they started eating fish off of my stringer!

I remember when i was a young teenager i had my best bluegill and redear stringer i’d ever filled. It got time to go and half the fish were gone. I was ticked!!

They have never cleaned out my pond and I catch all the fish I want. That said you better have a strong live well if you leave fish in it over night. I live near a small river so the turtles come and go.

one of the best fishing ponds i've fished had tons of turtles.

Can catch most in a few hours on milk jugs. Get some empty jugs tie piece of twine to it about 3 ft long and a hook. Bait with chicken parts. RAW of course. Toss them in and pull up a chair. I caught 6 on 3 jugs in 30 minutes out of my neighbors pond they were eating his baby ducks. They will try to stay in the middle so have a rod and reel to cast out and snag the line and enjoy !!!!!

Thats right

Unless you have a huge turtle population, I wouldn’t worry about it.


Turtles eat a lot more vegetation than people realize. Turtles are better at catching fish that can’t escape (on stringers) than they are at catching fish that can swim away from them...

Hard on the local duckling population. Maybe some digging issues but they aren't hard on fish. Snappers are opportunistic and anything that swims too close will get smacked.

I asked this question awhile back the consensus was they won't hurt the fish population. IMO they are more trouble to butcher and prepare for the table than they are worth as food, the meat is ok even better than ok maybe but for the effort, not worth it unless you just really want to have turtle meat for something different.



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all these


All IMO better eating than the turtles, lol.

Wow! Nice fish!