Pond Netting - 3 Questions

[j.w]

Net is up. I'm still not happy about having to net the pond, I miss the look of it w/o the net, but about 30 min after putting a few new fish into the pond the heron showed up. I don't know how he knew... maybe he was watching me stock the pond? I scared him off so I don't really know how well the net would have worked, but I've decided that there is no going back now. I was really pissed off with the heron earlier, but my son and wife made a good point. We have a river about 8-10 miles away from us and they recently started construction on 3 new neighborhoods on the river. They clear cut the land and each one is several thousand acres each. They are all huge. This is likely what is driving the heron so far inland especially after 3 years of no issues. I can't really be mad at the heron for that. I'm also not going to keep feeding him either.

Anyway, if I have to have a net this seems to be a pretty good setup so I wanted to share for anyone who finds this thread in the future. I went with the 3' u-posts and painted them black to help them blend. I used a nylon soccer net with a square pattern (square holds it's shape better then diamond) 4" weave. I'm using "S" caribeaners so I can detach/attach from either the pole or the net very easily which is proving very handy especially for making adjustments. I can't say enough good things about the company where I got the net (Gourock). I highly recommend them if you are looking for a custom net. The only additional advice I could give is order extra net than you think you need as it's nice having extra to hang over the sides and once in the field I found myself making changes I didn't account for in the planning stages. I also strongly recommend that you try to keep the net shape as close to a square/rectangle as possible. It makes it a lot easier to keep it taunt and it looks better on the edges.

Hope this helps anyone who finds this in the future and thank you again to all the posters here who helped with advice along the way!

Looks fine and had to look hard to see your net! If you have it all the way to the ground that darn bird can't get in there. Oh he/she will still visit and walk all around and even put his foot up on the net to see if he can walk up it but he can't. Then he/she will finally give up and fly away in disgust. Now you can just enjoy the birds when they come and take photos like I do. They don't come by very much anymore tho.

Before I put the net up he/she would just walk over or under the fishing line I had strung all over. Many times I had to chase him off w/a waving broom but he/she would just come right back!

Now w/the net on sticking his head in there but can't reach!

Pacing around, p.o'd cuz can't get in there:

Hmmmmmmm, maybe I can rethink this thing up high on the roof. Darn net, this is a no go! I'll just go to the neighbors pond! Nope they have an electric fence around that one! Ok down to the river I go!

 

[Nia Roo Studio]

AlpineReach Koi Pond Netting Kit 4.5m x 6m Black Heavy Duty Woven Fine Mesh Net Cover for Leaves - Protects Koi Fish from Blue Heron Birds Cats Predators UV Protection - Reusable & Stakes Included off of Amazon.

 

[TJeep_1999]

Looks fine and had to look hard to see your net! If you have it all the way to the ground that darn bird can't get in there. Oh he/she will still visit and walk all around and even put his foot up on the net to see if he can walk up it but he can't. Then he/she will finally give up and fly away in disgust. Now you can just enjoy the birds when they come and take photos like I do. They don't come by very much anymore tho.

Before I put the net up he/she would just walk over or under the fishing line I had strung all over. Many times I had to chase him off w/a waving broom but he/she would just come right back!



Now w/the net on sticking his head in there but can't reach!


Pacing around, p.o'd cuz can't get in there:


Hmmmmmmm, maybe I can rethink this thing up high on the roof. Darn net, this is a no go! I'll just go to the neighbors pond! Nope they have an electric fence around that one! Ok down to the river I go!

Loved the play by play with the pictures. You are correct that it's just panic now when they show up. Maybe I'll eventually just be able to take pictures!

 

[GBBUDD]

The one heron that landed on the garage roof next to the pond will probably never forget doing so as i was sitting there jumped up grabbed the first thing available which was a 250 spool of weed whacker twine and threw it at him almost the second he landed the spool opened up and a ten foot wide twisted ball of plastic red line flew at him . as he flew away he didn't have a good time trying to fly through the trees as he dropped a couple times but recovered.

 

[Tula]

Net looks great, barely notice it !!

 

[addy1]

Mine love to hang out on the dead maple looking for food.

 

[cas]

Not a good picture, but here is my heron. He visits my pond all year round. Don't like having the net, but I like knowing the heron can't get my fish.

 

[GBBUDD]

A couple simple fire crackers and it won't stay for dinner

 

[tmvandervort]

I just had a Heron eat all my fish over the past 3 days. He flew away just as I got to the door this morning, but I was too late. I now no longer have any fish. I know a net is the best option for keeping them out, but I put off netting the pond for a couple of reasons. including that I've seen netted ponds and they never look good/natural to me.

Is there a way to net the pond and still:
1. My pond was overstocked so I netted out fish waste from the bottom of the pond every 2-3 days to keep the bio load down. I'll need a net that is easy to remove for cleaning every 2-3 days.
2. I have a lot of pond plants that grow in and around the pond edge. How I can I set up the net to be removed every 2-3 days w/o damaging my pond plants that grow up through it?
3. I want a solution that is not so ugly I start to hate the pond. I'm already pretty frustrated with it currently and very close to deciding to just fill it in and be done with it.

Link to pond build for an idea what it looks like:

My Pandemic Project: Pond Build

I spent a lot of time on forums (including this one!) and YouTube sorting out what and how I wanted to build my pond. I have to admit there were some changes along the way and I'm not 100% I would tackle this again on my own. It was A LOT of work. It does feel good to have it built now though...

www.gardenpondforum.com

I used used shrimp trawler netting around the perimeter. I used pond netting across the pond once and was horrible to work with took away the look of the pond and spyder webs formed. Collected to much debris. I found that the blue heron was walking up to the pond. I haven’t had any problems since I did that

 

[Rabungalow]

AlpineReach Koi Pond Netting Kit 4.5m x 6m Black Heavy Duty Woven Fine Mesh Net Cover for Leaves - Protects Koi Fish from Blue Heron Birds Cats Predators UV Protection - Reusable & Stakes Included off of Amazon.

I use this exact netting and it’s worked great. I just renetted my pond tonight Luckily my dog caught the heron before it actually got busy and scared it off. I typically always keep my pond netted and only take it off when I have guests and plan to entertain outside.

Heron visit

 

[j.w]

@tmvandervort
Nice looking pond!