Pond netting question

joesandy1822

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We are going into the first fall/winter with our new pond. We have several maple trees that are starting to drop leaves, as well as many neighbor's elm trees. We purchased a pond net to place over the pond to keep as many out as possible. A couple questions for those of you who use these and have experience.

1. Do you allow the net to come into contact with the surface of the water, or do you stretch it out above the surface somehow?

2. Do you leave the net on until Spring, or do you remove it once all the leaves are down? (Our maples drop 100% each fall, but the neighbor's trees are slow and many don't drop until mid Spring.)

I'm assuming if left ON the surface and if you left the net on the pond throughout winter, then by Spring the leaves would have started to decompose on the net. Plus it would be frozen into the ice, which might damage the net. If you have the net raised off of the surface, the water would drain through and the leaves on top should stay fairly dry until next Spring. However, then there would be the issue of all the snow collecting on top of the leaves, making it very heavy and possibly ending up in the water anyway. Maybe I've already answered my own question, but . . .

Would be great to hear from anybody who has experience and what seems to work for you. Thanks!

Sandy
 

JohnHuff

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I have a net over my pond. My pond isn't that big, about 7ft 9ft. The old owners of the house just stretched the net across the pond and anchored the edges with rocks. So sometimes the net would fall into the pond.

I built two frames out of PVC pipes and stretched the net over the pipes, and put the frames over the pond. I did this so that I could remove the netting easily and raise them during the Spring/Summer when the plants grew. I have the netting there mainly for herons, but helps during the Fall too.

When there's a bunch of leaves on it, I just take the whole frame up and shake the leaves off them.

Edit: I just looked at your profile. I think you have a much bigger pond. You might have to create a framework over your pond and stretch the net over it, or put frames over it.
 

sissy

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If you pound rebar in the ground around the pond you can stretch the net as tight as you want over the rebar .Just make sure they are at an angle .Better to leave it on as long as possible but heavy snow and ice may still sink it down in the water and you may not be able to get it out if it is frozen and you may need to put in a pond heater .If it is frozen in place you may not be able to see what is going on in the pond .
 

mrsclem

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I have mine suspended on pvc pipes. I take it down with the first snow as snow will build up on it and pull it down. try to keep too many leaves from building up on the net.
 

addy1

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I have my wide weave net high above the water, not really for leaves , anti heron. We have seen herons in jan, I am going to try and leave it up all winter, depends on snow fall. It will drag down a little
last winter I pulled it and a few of the large fish poofed away, owl, hawk, heron who knows
 
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I cover the whole pond and some of the surrounding landscape. So I anchor it securely to the ground and then gather it in the center so I can suspend it like a teepee. This way the leaves and debris will not weigh down the net and it stays out of the water. I too leave the net because of the different trees that loose their leaves at different times. Then come spring, all I have to do is take a blower to the leaves on the ground around the bottom of the net and pull the net off :)
 
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I anchor my net down, starting at the water fall, and then use rocks around the edges. I recently heard of someone using an anchor , like you'd use for an umbrella, in the center of their pond, so it hold sthe center of the net up....thought that was interesting.

I've done it both ways, leaving the net on for the winter and taking it off after the leaves drop. I prefer to not have it covered over the winter - it's prettier and I miss seeing my fish :) Kim
 
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My pond is set up different than most--I have a treated 2x6 ledge all the way around the pond (3 sides 4th side is my waterfall) the 2x6 has small eyebolts mounted into the inside edge (pond side) about every 18 inches--in the fall I stretch coated wire (cable that people buy to hang laundry outdoors) back and forth across the pond thru the eyebolts then I stretch my net over this network of cables and use wire ties to attach the net to the eyebolts. takes about an hour, I leave it up till spring since I live in a timber. I have a LOT of leaves so every so often I just fire up the leaf blower and blow the net off, works great. Heres a pic were you may be able to see the ledge board under the rocks stacked on it-- good luck Tim K.
 

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Sheetmetalman said:
My pond is set up different than most--I have a treated 2x6 ledge all the way around the pond (3 sides 4th side is my waterfall) the 2x6 has small eyebolts mounted into the inside edge (pond side) about every 18 inches--in the fall I stretch coated wire (cable that people buy to hang laundry outdoors) back and forth across the pond thru the eyebolts then I stretch my net over this network of cables and use wire ties to attach the net to the eyebolts. takes about an hour, I leave it up till spring since I live in a timber. I have a LOT of leaves so every so often I just fire up the leaf blower and blow the net off, works great. Heres a pic were you may be able to see the ledge board under the rocks stacked on it-- good luck Tim K.
Love the leaf blower idea....definitely going to borrow that idea! Kim
 

joesandy1822

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Thanks for the ideas, everybody! I think I have a good idea now what to do, and we'll probably leave it on all winter. We get a lot of crap that comes in over winter too, not just fall. I was afraid of trapping the frogs in, but we will leave an area at the end open. The leaf blower is a great idea also. I guess we will learn this winter what worked and what we will have to change for next winter. It's all part of the process.

Thanks!
 

JohnHuff

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I saw the net on the Hawkin's pond build today and that's a really good one. You should check out his thread if you haven't seem it already.
 
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I use 2 shepherds hooks and 2 trees to hang my netting over the pond. The net is big enough to drape down to the ground on all sides. This will be my first winter but am going to leave it up. I have it high enough up off the ground that I can stand up and walk around inside. Any leaves or debris that collects on top, I just shake the netting till it works its way off.
 

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dave, Nice pond:) Like the idea of being able to walk under the net - interesting idea. Kim
 
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Our net is left on 24/7 365 days a year its specially made for us and has 6mm hexagonal holes in the net .
It has an inbuilt strap to stretch across the centre of the pond and a huge exta long one anchoring it over the sides of the pond, it will eben catch small twigs see website for details :-

http://www.norfinenets.co.uk/

They even export their nets all around the world so are well worth giving them a try explaining just what you want.
They are also reasonably priced

rgrds

Dave
 

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