are big koi at Heron risk

[D&RW]

we've put up an overhead style net that seems to be very effective in discouraging the heron. he comes nearly every day and sits on one roof or another and then leaves after about 5 minutes. and for a few months we didn't lose any fish. now we've lost three, but i don't think it's the heron.

the overhead net, for those of you unfamiliar with the technique, is a garden twine crisscrossing affair set at about 8 ft above the entire back yard. largest opening is maybe 2X2 and we have red and white fish bobbers spaced all around for conspicuity. the ONLY way he could get in is to come in way over on the side yard and walk over. i guess he could do that, but we have a dog who is out a lot of the time during the day.

meanwhile a coon has been spotted in the neighborhood, eating our cherries as a matter of fact. now our pond is about 22 X 14 and has steep sides. the water level is about 3 inches down from one rim and much farther down from the deck on the other side. i suppose the coon could have gotten the fish but it seems in order to do so he/she'd have to bend way over and try to catch the fish with her hands w/o falling in. not too likely don't you think.

anyway, two questions. will a heron go for really big koi if that's all that are left. we still have a couple small fish, but mostly now our fish are 24 inches plus. doesn't seem like a heron could manage a fish that big, but would it try anyway and kill the fish? 2) anybody with steep pond sides lose fish to coons?

so far we've been very pleased with the overhead net, but all of a sudden we're down three fish.

 

[fishin4cars]

If it was a raccoon it would make a mess all around the pond trying to find a place to ambush fish. It's going to try and find the easiest place to get in and out unnoticed. One thing about a Raccoon. It leaves a nasty mess behind usually including bloody remains of the fish when they attack. Herons can and will take large fish, Even larger than they can eat. I've witnessed one trying to eat a 21" Koi. The same koi killed and pulled out a 24" koi but didn't eat it. However it did get 26 fish over a two day period. Only 6 survived and a owl got two of them several weeks later. Of the four remaining koi I still have three of them that survived the attack. Something affordable that doesn't look to out of place and really seems to actually do some good is a floating Alligator. We found one at walmart for about $20. Not one single heron visitor that I'm aware of to the koi pond since adding and we have heron visit the natural pond on a daily basis.

 

[Koigal50]

The biggest size (so far) that the blue heron has taken from me is 14 Inches. I thought they were safe, I was wrong. I have four 24 inch koi and they have not been hurt, but I guess you never know. My friend had a raccoon problem and it would even put scratch marks on her large koi (24 inch). She has totally netted everything up.

I can't stand that idea. I have fish lines everywhere, One edge of the pond netted and a big rubber snake on the other side of the pond that I keep moving around. lol. Sounds so stupid, when I see it in writing.