# Stocking fish in a beaver pond



## Possum (Mar 11, 2017)

I have a beaver pond on my property that is probably between 1-2 acres. It is 4-5ft deep at the deepest place but most of it is about 3ft deep. Even in the severe drought we had last fall it only went down about 1ft so stayed pretty much full size.
I went down a few mornings ago with some red wigglers but did not get a bite. I was hoping it had some bream or catfish in it. 
So I was thinking about stocking it myself with a couple dozen bream and a few catfish but wanted to hear if anyone has ever tried stocking a beaver pond like this.
How long before a couple dozen fish can reproduce enough to establish a fishable population in a small pond? 
Also, I've seen an otter in this pond before and there are several large turtles in it too. Neighbor even said there used to be an osprey (but I haven't seen one) would these predators end up eating all the fish I stock?


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## riverbank (Mar 11, 2017)

I would bet Mr. otter would put the hurting on a couple dozen fish real quick.


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## lampern (Mar 11, 2017)

The otter and turtles will eat all your fish.


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## Possum (Mar 11, 2017)

Ok so let's say a take care of the otter and turtles, then would it be worth the effort to put fish in there?


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## Nicodemus (Mar 11, 2017)

Turtles won`t take enough fish to notice, but otters will, and if your pond is on a run, you`ll have otters passing through on a regular basis. Wouldn`t worry much about ospreys and nothing you can do about them anyway. 

I`d put some fish in it anyway.


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## riverbank (Mar 11, 2017)

I'm with NIC. I'd train the ole otter not to eat the fish.....Hahaha , or kill him, and stock it anyway. if I had something like that on my place id try it for sure. Keep us posted.


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## antharper (Mar 11, 2017)

I have access to a beaver pond just like this , but it's always had a few fish in it , and I started about 10 yrs ago putting a few fish in it that I caught elsewhere, mostly crappie and bass and bream and it's quite the fishing hole now , and ive seen several otters and beavers and to many turtles to count, they got to eat to , I put 4 big about to bust with eggs crappie in it today and a catfish ! I'd give it a try


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## humdandy (Mar 11, 2017)

Make sure it is yours first.


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## MOTS (Mar 11, 2017)

Turtles are the least of your problems. If it's a dark/stained/black water look, I wouldn't put a catfish in it. They just don't taste the same. It's not that muddy taste that some claim in the hot months, it just taste like the bottom of the pond would, like all the rotten leaves and vegetation. I have a branch fed 9 acre dark water pond and only eat the brim and small bass out of it. The catfish is awful! But they are BIG!


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## Kawaliga (Mar 11, 2017)

I have a 3 acre beaver pond on my land, and stocked it with 800 channel cat, several hundred shellcrackers and twenty five bass. I fed catfish pellets pretty regular, and about the second year, had some nice fish. Two otters moved in, and I had to shoot them. The problem was, we had about a five inch rain, and the dam broke, and the pond drained down pretty shallow. My fish went to the Flint River.


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## Lukikus2 (Mar 11, 2017)

Kawaliga said:


> I have a 3 acre beaver pond on my land, and stocked it with 800 channel cat, several hundred shellcrackers and twenty five bass. I fed catfish pellets pretty regular, and about the second year, had some nice fish. Two otters moved in, and I had to shoot them. The problem was, we had about a five inch rain, and the dam broke, and the pond drained down pretty shallow. My fish went to the Flint River.



That would totally suck! But what you did was the way to do it. Wow that sux


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## Cmp1 (Mar 11, 2017)

Kawaliga said:


> I have a 3 acre beaver pond on my land, and stocked it with 800 channel cat, several hundred shellcrackers and twenty five bass. I fed catfish pellets pretty regular, and about the second year, had some nice fish. Two otters moved in, and I had to shoot them. The problem was, we had about a five inch rain, and the dam broke, and the pond drained down pretty shallow. My fish went to the Flint River.



Like lukikus2 said,thats terrible,,,, what did it cost you to stock it,,,, if you don't mind me asking,,,,


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## ricksconnected (Mar 11, 2017)

get rid of the pest and stock it with craw fish.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 11, 2017)

Would the DNR relocate the otters? The DNR relocates nuisance black bear up here all the time,,,,


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## mizzippi jb (Mar 12, 2017)

Ospreys in NE Ga?


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## Possum (Mar 12, 2017)

According to him there was. I looked it up and it is within their range. I always thought of them as living near the ocean but they apparently live all over the country.


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## Nicodemus (Mar 12, 2017)

Possum said:


> According to him there was. I looked it up and it is within their range. I always thought of them as living near the ocean but they apparently live all over the country.





It might have been a juvenile bald eagle. They look similar to an osprey until they get their adult plumage. Eagles are considerabl bigger though, and built a little different.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

We get osprey up here,,,,you can tell an osprey from the white on the underside of their wings in flight,,,, there's a nest across the street from my buddy,,,, come back every year,,,, on top of a cell phone tower,,,, 2 chicks this past year,,,, man the fly high, almost out of sight,,,, catch the thermals,,,,


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## Nicodemus (Mar 12, 2017)

Cmp1 said:


> We get osprey up here,,,,you can tell an osprey from the white on the underside of their wings in flight,,,, there's a nest across the street from my buddy,,,, come back every year,,,, on top of a cell phone tower,,,, 2 chicks this past year,,,, man the fly high, almost out of sight,,,, catch the thermals,,,,





Yea, we`re wrapped up in ospreys and eagles down here. They`re a common sight nowadays.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> Yea, we`re wrapped up in ospreys and eagles down here. They`re a common sight nowadays.



That's a good thing,,,, probably means that the environment is healthy,,,, maybe not so good for a pond owner though,,,,


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## Nicodemus (Mar 12, 2017)

Osprey nest I got shots of. Two out of the three eggs hatched and had successful results.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> Osprey nest I got shots of. Two out of the three eggs hatched and had successful results.



Nice, I thought they nested high up like Eagles,,,,


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## Nicodemus (Mar 12, 2017)

Cmp1 said:


> Nice, I thought they nested high up like Eagles,,,,





Some do, like this nest at the top of one of our 90 foot transmission structures. The nest in the first pics was only 2 feet above water level. It`s a wonder a gator didn`t get them. You could smell that nest from 20 yards away.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

Amazing,,,, the nest I was telling you about on the cell phone tower across from my buddy's is about half mile from a small shallow lake,,,, anyway saw one bringing a fish in it's mouth to the nest,,,, if only I had my camera,,,, anyway this lake is loaded with Northerns,,,, I talked to a guy to see if I could launch our boat from his place and he told me yeah,,,, but for every Northern I got, I had to throw 2 back in,,,, lol lol lol


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## 61BelAir (Mar 12, 2017)

My first thoughts were what Kawaliga said.  If the dam breaks there goes all your fish (and money) downstream.  

Beautiful pictures of the Osprey nest and chics.  Thanks for posting them Nic.  Those things can really put a hurting on fish in a super shallow pond like that.  
At the private lake we fish the dam had been leaking since 2009 and it was down to 35 acres from 80+.  I'd guess about 90% of those 35 acres was 4' or less and the deepest parts around the dam and in the creek channel were still maybe 8' at best.  This is fed by a black water creek, but the water is very clear (if that makes sense) and you could see to the bottom on a sunny day.  When we would go fishing we often watched the osprey catch more than we did.  There were at least 3 different birds and about once an hour they were back.  I saw them bomb and pull out everything from small bream and jack to bass and crappie that were in the 2.5 pound range.  It was amazing to watch, but they put a huge dent in the population.  It also got to the point were most of the small bass we were catching had some huge claw marks where they had been grabbed and gotten away.  
The repairs to the dam were finished last year and it's back to it's new full of about 75 acres.  The water level is now about 7' deeper than where it had been for years.  You can only see bottom around the edges and we have only seen an osprey once since it came up.  I think they moved back to the river because of the depth.


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## 61BelAir (Mar 12, 2017)

Another thing:  Maybe you should put a basket in to get a better idea of the current fish population.  The same lake mentioned above while it was down - the bream and catfishing were terrible.  I know 4 guys who had lines out for about 6 hours one night without a bite.  I've also watched people bream fish out there for a few hours and only catch one or two.  I thought that there weren't many of either in the lake.  I put a basket in baited with a couple tuna cans and tied it to a stump in 4' of water mid-lake towards the dam.  In one day it had six 2 pound catfish and a dozen nice size bluegill.  I let them go and dropped it back down for another sample.  I didn't get to go back for about a week because of work and then a good rain that lasted a few days.  When I do they have done some more work on the dam....installing the new pipe, but not closing the valve yet.  Well now the whole lake is 1.5' higher.  I couldn't find the stump or basket.  You'd think that it would be easy to know the position, but now all the "landmarks" are underwater and invisible.  Even trying to determine how far it was from the bank is hard since the banks are so much wider except for the dam.  You'd also think one of us would have gotten hung up on it by now, but so far nothing.


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## Hooked On Quack (Mar 12, 2017)

Cmp1 said:


> Would the DNR relocate the otters? The DNR relocates nuisance black bear up here all the time,,,,










We relocate 'em .. dust to dust.  A Otter will ruin a little pond.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

Hooked On Quack said:


> We relocate 'em .. dust to dust.  A Otter will ruin a little pond.



LOL LOL LOL,,,, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that our dnr would frown upon that,,,, I'd bet they would relocate them,,,, but your right, probably would eat a few fish,,,,


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## riverbank (Mar 12, 2017)

What quack really meant was that when he relocates otters he takes them to a very special otter happy place, with other otters, cool clear water, and plenty of fishies. He just sends them there pushing 3,000 fps.


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## Cmp1 (Mar 12, 2017)

riverbank said:


> what quack really meant was that when he relocates otters he takes them to a very special otter happy place, with other otters, cool clear water, and plenty of fishies. He just sends them there pushing 3,000 fps.



lol lol lol,,,,


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## Hooked On Quack (Mar 14, 2017)

riverbank said:


> What quack really meant was that when he relocates otters he takes them to a very special otter happy place, with other otters, cool clear water, and plenty of fishies. He just sends them there pushing 3,000 fps.





Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket !!!  Otter heaven !!


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## NCHillbilly (Mar 14, 2017)

Possum said:


> According to him there was. I looked it up and it is within their range. I always thought of them as living near the ocean but they apparently live all over the country.



Ospreys aren't a coastal species by any means. I see them regularly up here in the Smoky Mountains and even more around all the lakes in the Piedmont.


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## Red Sticks (Mar 14, 2017)




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## IDbirdman1023 (Mar 14, 2017)

Keep in minds there is a season on otters and it closed February 20th


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## MOTS (Mar 15, 2017)

IDbirdman1023 said:


> Keep in minds there is a season on otters and it closed February 20th



Not sure if you're talking about GA regs. or Idaho regs. But I'm sure it probably pertains to trapping in GA. There's no way I would let otters bred and multiply in my pond and expect the game warden to spend countless days trying to get rid of them. But I also know about what they would tell me to do "IF" I called them.


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