Its not pretty but it works

[Kimberleyc]

Like all newbies to garden ponds i made mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes i made was to place wide flat stones around the pond edge.
I live rather near to a river which unbeknown to me has 2 resident herons. They have decided that my fish pond provides an easy food source.
I saw a video on u tube where a pond owner had used rebar and water pipe to support a net and catch the leaves falling in his pond. In desperation, my husband built this for me
It isn't pretty but I can still see my fish and fingers crossed, seems to work

 

[Marck]

Not bad at all, Later you could paint the blue pipes, black, or maybe even use a dull metallic paint, to look like wrought iron.

 

[Kimberleyc]

@Marck , many thanks. Very new to this and still have plenty to do. Waterfall needs building etc so may eventually replace the blue pipe..it was an emergency and pipe was £5

 

[addy1]

Another thing you can do, like I did, use a gill net. IE the holes are 4 inches. I have a fence stake, the metal ones, at each corner to keep the net tight. Hanging around 2 feet over the pond with a slight drape down. I had them put a rope around the edge of the net to help keep the shape.
The heron needs a clear strike to the water surface to catch a fish. With the wide weave I don't trap frogs, little birds etc. And it needs no support over the center of the pond.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Hey, sometimes you just need to do something *now* to fix an immediate problem & then worry about the esthetics of the situation later when you can put some time & thought into the process.

We did a similar thing earlier this Spring to protect a garden area at the end of our driveway when a local Mama deer decided I was offering up an all you can eat salad buffet! The results of grabbing every spare bit of rebar & fence posts cobbled together with all the extra fencing material we could scrounge up from past projects was *definitely* not pretty. But it stopped her from eating everything to the ground!

 

[addy1]

This is a picture looking under the net. You can pull it tight enough no center support is needed.

 

[Mmathis]

I think it looks pretty good — nice job!

 

[GBBUDD]

Don't be so hard on your self it's in the top 25% of the ponds posted here .
i don't see any liner.
the coping job is done very well and it's nice and neutral.
The only thing i'd change would be the turquoise pvc black would be my choice so it doesn't stick out
well done
one other food for thought would be to put up a 8 foot tall post on the right side of the pond and cover the pond with a net over head and a curtain net on the sides.

 

[Kimberleyc]

This is a picture looking under the net. You can pull it tight enough no center support is needed.


View attachment 142566

Many thanks for pics addy1, can the heron not get under it?

 

[addy1]

Many thanks for pics addy1, can the heron not get under it?

No I have a drop down by about a foot where it could walk in. My pond is on a steep slope, the uphill side is a wall of rocks so the net lays on those rocks. The bog side it is about 2 feet up with a foot hanging down.

My flat 1000 gallon pond I have the same net. It is a round stock tank. The heron almost wiped it out one year I forgot to fix a net hole. Now have a new wide weave over it, again with a slight drop down.

Since the net my years of fighting the heron with decoys, fishing line, etc are done. They fly over and keep going. They came every day for years as I fought them.

 

[brokensword]

as GB hinted, you can also set up something where you simply pull the net 'curtain' back when you're there and when you're not, slide it back over; sort of like a tent situation where there's a central cable going end to end mounted on high poles and the netting hangs over to the ground, forming an A shape. This way, you have both worlds; open air pond while there and protection when you're not. In my case, I just enclosed the whole thing.

 

[Kimberleyc]

Ha ha @addy1 , I spent 3 days getting up at 5am to watch for the heron. I spent most of the 3 days by the pond in an effort to protect my fish whilst waiting for my new net to be delivered
The heron came several times per day and wasnt in the slightest intimidated by my 3 cats and then 2 of them appeared at the same time and started to fight. Hardly surprising really as I live close to a river.
I know that they are protected but I could quite happily shot one after sitting there for 3 days. Hopefully now resolved
@brokensword , fantastic structure but wouldn't work here. I inherited the pond and its built at the end of my patio on an agricultural field, great idea though