fencing in a pond to protect fingerling catfish ?

[Bdavis]

I would say to not be so quick to blame the bass or poachers. From my experience, great blue herons do a tremendous amount of fishing in shallow areas of my ponds. I have several catfish with divots taken out of their backs from being semi-speared by the herons. These catfish were over 12" long and I'm constantly finding big catfish bones/skeletons on my shoreline. Have you seen gray or white herons around your pond?

BTW: That's a sweet lookin' pond. An artesian spring fed pond is awesome. It also has a clear shoreline mostly free of trees.

Thanks
I really love it , my wife tells everyone I didn't buy property, I bought a pond and she is probably right.
My water is crystal clear and I know that I should probably fertilize it to make it a richer environment for the fish but just can't make myself do it. Sometimes I like to just sit out and watch the bass and catfish it is like a giant aquarium.

I have seen them and I do think you could be correct I think it might be a combination of birds and bass.

I was already thinking about making the fingerlings some cover. I have about 40 feet of 6 inch pvc with holes in it that the previous owner left. I could cut it into smaller sections and place it in the deep section of the pen (about 3- 4 deep). Not sure that will help either but that's all I can come up with so far
Got any other ideas about preventing bird theft ?
Thanks

 

[Western]

Only ways I know to stop Herons without getting in trouble is dig the edges deeper, or a net fence around the shallow edges to thwart Birds from still hunting those areas. An occasional Owl decoy may help too.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have found that sprinkling the herons with #7 1/2 shotgun pellets eventually deters them from coming around. Persistent ones get a .17 HMR round that permanently stops the poaching. Luckily I can see most of my pond from my back porch window as I set perusing TBN and as soon as the herons alight, I rain some lead on them and away they go. Now after about a year of this, I just open the door and they take off with most of them by-passing our pond in favor of a more hospitable area.

 

[Bdavis]

I have found that sprinkling the herons with #7 1/2 shotgun pellets eventually deters them from coming around. Persistent ones get a .17 HMR round that permanently stops the poaching. Luckily I can see most of my pond from my back porch window as I set perusing TBN and as soon as the herons alight, I rain some lead on them and away they go. Now after about a year of this, I just open the door and they take off with most of them by-passing our pond in favor of a more hospitable area.

unfortunately because the pond is facing a busy state highway no chance of shooting in that direction

 

[MotorSeven]

Thanks
I really love it , my wife tells everyone I didn't buy property, I bought a pond and she is probably right.
My water is crystal clear and I know that I should probably fertilize it to make it a richer environment for the fish but just can't make myself do it. Sometimes I like to just sit out and watch the bass and catfish it is like a giant aquarium.

I have seen them and I do think you could be correct I think it might be a combination of birds and bass.

I was already thinking about making the fingerlings some cover. I have about 40 feet of 6 inch pvc with holes in it that the previous owner left. I could cut it into smaller sections and place it in the deep section of the pen (about 3- 4 deep). Not sure that will help either but that's all I can come up with so far
Got any other ideas about preventing bird theft ?
Thanks

Wow, your pond sounds awesome. My neighbors have an artesian spring fed pond about 2 miles away and the thing is amazing(20+ inch trout are common).

If you don't have good cover in there you will always loose the fingerlings. Google around and look at designs that can be built cheaply. We used to cut and sink green cedar trees in a local lake then spearfish Flatheads around them. A green cedar will last a couple of years before it degrades enough to need swapping out.

 

[jinman]

Wow! I posted last night and it seems to have disappeared or not made it at all. I was suggesting using inexpensive seine material for the fence since the water is so shallow. Also, a bird net over the top (floating) will keep the herons at bay. Here's a link to Memphis Net & Twine. I bought a seine from these folks and it is very nice.

 

[plowindeeper]

Thought this may help
http://www.mdwfp.com/media/24904/farmpondmanagebooklet.pdf

Lots of good info

 

[Bdavis]

Wow, your pond sounds awesome. My neighbors have an artesian spring fed pond about 2 miles away and the thing is amazing(20+ inch trout are common).

If you don't have good cover in there you will always loose the fingerlings. Google around and look at designs that can be built cheaply. We used to cut and sink green cedar trees in a local lake then spearfish Flatheads around them. A green cedar will last a couple of years before it degrades enough to need swapping out.

Yeah the cover is limited just a couple of good size logs and a few Christmas trees. I have worked to improve cover for minnows and small bream by lashing together willow limbs and placing it in one corner of the pond. I did this a couple of years ago and I see it paying dividends. Actually , helped the bass population by not only giving them more forage fish it increased the survival rate of the bass fry each spring.

From what I have seen the catfish fingerlings stay away from the edges and the shallows during the day .I am thinking that herons probably don't feed much at night.

So if I build a pen just for the fingerlings for a few months and put cover in the deep side of the pen that should help. I like the idea of using the pvc for the catfish fingerlings because it will be easy to remove it and the entire pen itself when I think the fingerlings have reached sufficient size.
Thanks for the help

 

[Bdavis]

Thought this may help
http://www.mdwfp.com/media/24904/farmpondmanagebooklet.pdf

Lots of good info

Really appreciate the link, I have a couple of adobe files on pond management but the one you sent over is by far the best for what I am trying to do with my pond
Thanks

 

[Bdavis]

Wow! I posted last night and it seems to have disappeared or not made it at all. I was suggesting using inexpensive seine material for the fence since the water is so shallow. Also, a bird net over the top (floating) will keep the herons at bay. Here's a link to Memphis Net & Twine. I bought a seine from these folks and it is very nice.

Thanks for the link , I have to get a seine any way and was wondering where to get one. I plan on using what is called a trap seine method to remove most of the eating size cats before I introduce fingerlings again.