Thread: Newbie & doing battle with a heron

Hi ,

Any advice on deterring herons please?

We have had our fish pond for about 12 years and thankfully to date have never had an issue with herons until today !!

Our pond got a bit neglected last summer, due to my ill health, so this summer I have made the effort to clean it out and treat the duckweed etc. Even treating the fish to a new net to protect from predators !!

Last night a cheeky heron flew down as we were sat near the pond but fortunately the dog chased it off. And then this morning disaster - it had managed to get through a small hole under the net and killed two of my small grass carp (to say the expletives probably woke the whole village is an understatement) , the dog grabbed at it and then my husband tried to wallop it with a broom but it flew off.

We have sealed the hole with more netting but tonight it is back .

Nearly all the koi we have were tiny when we bought them and are now about 10” (12x in total) plus we have a huge mirror carp which I am worried the heron may injure .

Please any suggestions or I could be facing a fine or worse 🥴

TIA
Jenny

Double net it, and make sure the net stands away from the pond. So they can't spear the Fish.

Originally Posted by Maddog1

Double net it, and make sure the net stands away from the pond. So they can't spear the Fish.

These is the best thing you can do...

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"Newbie & doing battle with a heron" describes the challenges faced by someone new to a hobby, likely related to gardening or fishing, as they try to protect their ponds or fish from herons.


To deter herons, you might consider using decoys, netting, motion-activated sprinklers, or planting dense vegetation around the pond. These strategies can help keep herons at bay and protect your aquatic life.

Banned after just 2 posts.

AI will get its revenge one day in the future.

Hi all , apologies for jumping on this thread but I'm after some advice regarding pond netting.
Firstly I'm not a keeper of Koi or any other type of fish . I'm here asking for my elderly neighbour, who doesn't have internet but has recently inherited some Koi for his up to now fish free pond.
I believe he has a couple of concerns.
1. Herons, one of which appeared recently.
2. Colour of net , he mentioned black for summer and white for winter ( which sort of seemed counter intuitive to me )
3. Size of net aperture.

He's already built a frame using polypipe and has some old netting. He's just looking for a net a bit more suited to the job.

Thanks for reading, any tips / advice much appreciated.

D

Originally Posted by The Donut

Hi all , apologies for jumping on this thread but I'm after some advice regarding pond netting.
Firstly I'm not a keeper of Koi or any other type of fish . I'm here asking for my elderly neighbour, who doesn't have internet but has recently inherited some Koi for his up to now fish free pond.
I believe he has a couple of concerns.
1. Herons, one of which appeared recently.
2. Colour of net , he mentioned black for summer and white for winter ( which sort of seemed counter intuitive to me )
3. Size of net aperture.

He's already built a frame using polypipe and has some old netting. He's just looking for a net a bit more suited to the job.

Thanks for reading, any tips / advice much appreciated.

D

WE have lots of heron activity but they never can get at the fish. Yet all we have I a black 10 x 5 m netting over the pond . You can get from Amazon a "small" mesh size but, in black, it seems invisible to the human eye but deters the heron absolutely ( so far ) . Very cheap netting too compared to some and just cut to size.. My netting is easy to fix with pegs though as it is "in ground' and surrounded by lawn.

Originally Posted by EME101

WE have lots of heron activity but they never can get at the fish. Yet all we have I a black 10 x 5 m netting over the pond . You can get from Amazon a "small" mesh size but, in black, it seems invisible to the human eye but deters the heron absolutely ( so far ) . Very cheap netting too compared to some and just cut to size.. My netting is easy to fix with pegs though as it is "in ground' and surrounded by lawn.

Thanks EME will get onto that 🙂

D