Catching Pond Fish

[Candice]

I am trying to catch my pond fish to bring them in for the winter. I have caught all but two, a black moor and a small koi. There is a little shelf built into the pond for fish to hide and keep out of the sun during the summer. This is where these two fish are hiding. Today, I drained the pond leaving enough water for them to survive. I tried to encourage them to come out by using aquarium tubing to disturb them. The water, of course, became very dirty and I could not see if even if them ventured out. It is getting cold and they seem to be hunkering down. Any suggestions on how to catch them?

 

[Lisak1]

I guess you could empty the pond completely... other than that, no clue really! Hope someone else can offer some suggestions!

 

[Faebinder]

Time to empty the pond, or wait till it gets colder and they will be even slower.

 

[morewater]

If your pond is deep enough, they'll survive the freeze. If not, they were simply ungrateful.

Wrangling fish is like herding cats.

I've seen many, many people insist on bringing their fish in for the winter when their pond is perfectly capable of sustaining the fish over the Winter. It's some weird kind of Mother instinct.

Not sure of your situation, just mentioning what I've witnessed over the years.

I had one couple this Fall who went to the expense to set up two big holding tanks in a multi-million dollar home (the tanks complete with filtration units, aerators, etc.) and then tell me all about their winter plans for over-wintering their fish. I said nothing, but when asked to look at the set-up (at the time of the pond shutdown), I then asked them "How are you going to catch 'em?". The pond is approximately 14,000 gallons.

The overwintering project came to a swift and sudden halt.

 

[Becky]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum

 

[snoozer]

Best of luck trying to catch them. I brought mine in when I had a small (150 gallon) preformed pond and that took forever to catch them. Built the big pond about 8 years ago and it is about 9,000 gallons. Needless to say, the fish aren't brought in anymore.

 

[Faebinder]

I dont bring in my fish, I got a 1000 gallon pond. Catching them would take an entire day and I would not be able to get all the single tails.... My black comet with a red cap would be impossible. That fish is one of the queens of the stealth in my pond.

 

[budgenator]

I was right on the western edge of Northeast blackout of 2003, fearing for my tropical aquarium fish, I moved them outside to my garden pond. In the fall I had to completely drain the pond to get all of the tropical fish back into the aquarium, the two African knife fish were in the last quarter inch of water in the pond. My Plocostomus grew to 9 inches in the pond that summer, and was not a happy camper going back indoors, eventually he jumped out of the 70 gallon aquarium and we found his remains on the floor about 12 feet from the tank.

Koi on the other hand are very smart fish and can be trained to eat from hand or in a ring, so you should be able to train them to eat in a net, but that wouldn't help you this year. This year, if you keep a hole in the ice for gas exchange, the Koi should over-winter just fine

 

[Mmathis]

@Candice How big and deep is your pond?