Easy Way to Capture Comets?

[mikecoscia]

When I first built my pond I threw a bunch of cheap feeder goldfish in from a local petstore. I wanted to make sure no Birds picked on them before spending the money on Koi. Well, nothing bothered them and they are breeding like crazy. I build a fish trap and baited it with typical fish pellets and it worked for awhile. They must have smartened up however and don't really respond to the bait anymore.

Besides draining my pond (4,000 gallons), is there an easy way to catch them? A good fool proof bait? I just want to remove them so I can populate the pond with more Koi and not have to worry about overloading it because of all the reproducing comets. Appreciate any advice!

-Mike

 

[addy1]

I have heard of some success with minnow nets, going out at dark with a flashlight, draining the pond lol.

They are darn fast little fish

 

[crsublette]

Patience and beer. :bdaybiggrin:

 

[capewind]

Frogs????? LOL ...

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

How big and what shape is your pond? I just recently went through this with my 5k gal pond. Testing my ponding skills and pond setup with shebunkins and sarasas (?spelling) and after putting in the koi they had to go. I was able to do it with a friend and 2 nets but barley they are fast little buggers. one would heard them into the shallow lip and one would get them in the lip. It took some time but it was able to be done. I already had koi that I didn't want to remove but if I am reading your post correctly you don't. If that is the case I would get a net like pond netting for leaves with the smallest holes you could find then zip tie each side to a pole or pvc pipe so that the net goes from the bottom of the pond to over the water line one person on one side of the pond and another on the other side of the pond and drag it together one side of the pond. Then all of your fish will be easy to gather up with a net. But one note if they are already breeding you might want to just drain the pond because both methods will almost guarantee that you will miss some fry and they will just repopulate your pond eventually. If you just want to remove a few or most of them the drag net should do the trick

Good luck

 

[Nepen]

I really need the tip too, finally found someone who'd take five-six of them and no mean of catching them! They are smarter now and wont go with the old tricks anymore

 

[crsublette]

It is easier to catch them when the water is colder during the cooler seaons since they move slower, but this would also be the more stressful time on the fish to catching them.

It just takes many many tries and truckloads of patience and a tad bit of cleverness.

 

[Event Horizon]

I use a milk crate wrapped in netting. I cut open the areas where the handles are and sink the crate so only about a quarter inch is out of the water. I leave it there for a day and the curious fish go in. When I show up the next day I just need to lift the crate above the handles and they are trapped. I can then pick and choose who stays and who goes.

 

[Nepen]

Whooohoo!! I just caught 8 goldfish today. I had a big cardboard in one hand, a swing in other, then I cornered each one of them...got the water all cloudy and the cardboard got soft then it's actually easier to mold it to the pond's wall... Now I have only 3 goldies and 3 shubbies...I can get more shubbies now, YEY!!


I used to just have a bucket in the pond and put food in it...caught about 5 goldfish that way but they gotten smarter and totally ignored the bucket and the food so I had to find other way of catching them.