Do I need Netting for protection?

[Sharon Goode]

My shallowest depth is 3 feet and I do not have shelves, however my sides are slanted not straight. Do I still need to cover with net for protection from predators? I removed it after the leaves had dropped. When pond was shallow around the edges I did loose fish to Herons. Still nervous!

 

[JohnHuff]

Yes, herons will lunch no matter what the pond depth.

 

[j.w]

I just covered my pond that was 3&1/2' deep w/ a nice net I bought online from a fisherman's net company. Heron was visiting and would have come back till he got my fish. Fortunately I had a temporary shade net for my green house that I used to protect the pond til I received the net.

 

[morewater]

Well, this past summer I completed a large pond project for a customer (30K Gals - two main circular pools interconnected with large boulder stepping stone bridge, upper fountain basin with spillway and stream, 12ft waterfall), and the last thing I did was throw in 36 cheapie fish so they'd have something to look at....I didn't bother planting the peripherals and lilies due to the lateness of the season and lack of selection up here.

I went back a couple of days later to complete some flagstone and asked the lady if she was enjoying watching the fish........she said "Fish?, What fish?".

Sure enough, no fish. Heron scooped them all out in one day.

I installed a motion-detector jet sprinkler for her. So far, so good. I'm not fond of the look of netting.

When the snow melts (if it ever does), I'll post pictures of the completed project. I didn't take any photos in the Fall.

In my own pond, I've had problems with racoons in the past, you can tell when they've been around because they leave land-mines everywhere they go. Oddly enough, I've lost fish to racoons, but they haven't eaten them, just chewed them up a bit and left them in the garden to taunt me. Have I mentioned that I don't like racoons?

 

[j.w]

Thing about those motion sensor things is if it freezes the water will freeze up inside them and bust the thing apart. If in an area where no freezes then ok. My net is really thin weave but strong and I like it cuz it does not show too bad and gives me such relief that the fish are safe.

 

[morewater]

Up here in the Great White North, the bays of the lakes froze the last week of November this year. That's the earliest ever. Woke up one morning at a fishing tournament only to find that the docks were all frozen solid, no access to the main lake (Picton Harbor, Bay of Quinte, Ontario, Canada). Here's what we woke up to on December 1, 2013. Those birds on the ice didn't move while I was down there with my coffee, maybe they were frozen in the ice?

Sprinkler systems need to be drained for the winter, then again so do rain barrels and anything else that's got water in it.

 

[j.w]

Yep have to drain those lines so maybe just use a net in the winter and motion detector when freezing is done.
Way too cold for me up that far North. It's pretty mild down here all the time but rains too much.
Oh sheesh sure would be a long wait for the birds if feet stuck in ice

 

[addy1]

My deep end is 5.5 feet, straight sides, that was the heron's favorite place to fish from. I have a net like jw's. I have too much plant movement to have anything motion detection and we are on a well, would destroy it if something happened and the water stayed on until dry.

 

[morewater]

I'm tinkering with a plan to incorporate an offshoot from the main pump line that would keep the hose that leads to the motion detector sprinkler pressurized, thereby avoiding having to rely on an independent water source (ie. water line from house water or well source). I'm going to experiment with it once the hard water is gone.

I've seen a couple of sonic/electronic/strobe deterrents on the market, but nothing that I've gotten overly excited about.

 

[addy1]

I'm sticking with the net, not hard on the eyes, also protects from owls, hawks, eagles etc.

Let us know how it goes, sounds like it should work.

 

[Tula]

I've only had a neon visit once. I let my dogs out and it's never returned. I should mentioned we have 7 dogs, 3 of them newfoundlands! I have a predator rock over some blocks on the bottom of my pond where my 5 koi can find / hang out. I guess I've been lucky so far and just keep the net up for leaves / debris in fall and early winter. Kim

 

[Sharon Goode]

I am going with my net....After spending hours this winter keeping them healthy and happy, I do not want to risk it.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I do things different than everybody else... The big bad heron has a very large wing span and if you block it's landing strip it cannot land and if it cannot land it will not be able to take off either. With the air strip blocked it will not even bother to bug your pond.
So here is what I have done... String cheap twine high above your pond, from the trees to the house, and from this twine you can hang what ever you wish. The first couple of years I had thin strips of cloth tied every few feet from the twine. Last year I went to the dollar store and got nice plastic jewels to hang instead. The twine is crisscrossed over the pond a few times and that was enough to stop the blue heron from ever comming back to my pond for "all you can eat lunch"!!

 

[addy1]

That is a neat idea Colleen, my problem is where my pond is located, down the slope from our house in our back yard. The heron likes to land and walk up to it. I watched it stalk up the pond one time, it took 1/2 an hour to approach it. After the first visit it came every day 2-3 times a day. I studied it via our cameras while it stalked to see the best way to protect the pond. I had a chicken wire fence, it flew over it, fishing line fence wiggled through it tripped fell in the pond, so funny, Fishing line over the pond, still got through it, and what a pita when trying to net the water, netting low on the pond, trapped small birds.

This large weave netting is high enough to not bother me working on the pond, not that much of an eye sore.
The small preforms and the lotus tank is not netted, has a few stray gf and rosey red minnows in them, snacks for the heron if it shows up. But I did not see it all summer after I netted the large pond.

 

[Tula]

Lovely ponds and pretty and practical solutions