Diane,
We have had a similar problem. Our pond is about same size as yours. Heron got two of our shubunkins (about 8") but did not get the much larger koi. The heron has made regular stops for the last 18 months. We put a "bird" net about 18" above pond. Without it, I'm sure the heron would still be getting fish. It just looks at the net and can't figure it out.

OK, plastic herons and snakes obviously don't work. My daughter saw the heron fly off with a koi this morning and was near tears when a co-worker picked her up. I'm glad I didn't see it. I feel particularly awful since we have the netting, but it was late by the time we got home with it and decided not to chance damaging the pond or falling in trying to work in the dark.

Wonder if I can at least get a refund on that stupid $60 plastic heron that isn't even a day old ....

I took my plastic heron back. It didn't work either. I know that without our netting "our" blue heron would not be deterred, it seems. They are very smart, bold and persistent.

A net is the ONLY 100% way to protect your fish from a heron. You must leave a low ground opening on the sides so you don't trap frogs, small mammals, and small birds. My net is open at the bottom on the sides about 12" (it hangs down on the sides (like a flap) and is not straght out) and this opening is out and away from the edge of the pond, on all sides, about 18".

My heron cannot walk up to the pond, it can't fly directly into the pond, it cannot duck under the net (or is too stupid to figure it out), and it can't stand back at the outside edge of the net to lean in and hunt.

It took some adjustments to get this combination working well for all concerned. On occasion I will get a big bullfrog jump on top the net, but they don't get trapped and bounce their way off. A heron could catch them up there if they just so happened to be there at the right moment, but it is very infrequent I see a frog on top, and because of my net I think this is why I have some very large frogs now, it protects them too. They can sit on the side of the pond, and in the plantings around the pond, and are protected from attack. They know the net is there and so do all the other regular vistors.

One thing you do have to watch is the net mesh size. Bird nets used to cover berry and fruit trees, the kind found in Wal-mart for $6, work very well for heron protection, but I will say I have seen a very small bullfrog nose dive into the net (when leaping away from another frog) and get it's head stuck because their whole body does not fit through the opening. This is not frequent - I've seen it twice in 3 years, and both I released, only to have the big bullfrogs eat most of them anyway at some point or another. That is the one flaw IMO, and I could buy a smaller mesh, but that has drawbacks to insects. I am sure I may have missed baby bullfrogs caught and other frogs ate them, but I have never seen one dried up in the net because it got trapped and left to die.

I tried a combination of fencing and fishing line and lost fish.

The scarecrow that shoots water (after it detects movement with it's electronic eye) works pretty good or so I've heard on this forum, but I was always shooting myself, my dog, and my neighbor (all of us much bigger than a heron) and I didn't use it long enough to see if it was effective or not with the heron because it was annoying. I did test it one time while turned on, moving the end of a crab net into the electronic eye area in several places where the dog just set it off, swinging the net like crazy, back and forth, up and down, and it did NOT detect the crab net at all, so I'm thinkng there are flaws to it's range and vision. I used the crab net because it had a 1.5" diameter handle (like a heron neck) and thick netting to simulate the body of a heron. Because it did not detect the crab net at all, IMO there are serious weak points with the scarecrow on birds with slender profiles and slow stalk walking, but some folks will swear by them.

Fake snakes, owls, other herons, alligators - waste of money for protection purposes.

Live dogs: Nope, not reliable. They sleep, they go inside, they get used to birds in the yard, even herons. Also, herons come in and out quietly, unless startled, then they make a loud, harsh, squawking sound on retreat. They are all about stealth. If a dog was taking a nap they would most likely not even wake up. My heron flies into the yard well away from the pond in an OPEN lawn area and quietly walks up to the pond, moving slower and slower as it approaches the edge of the pond. Unless you have a group of noisy dogs going at it most of the day, forget the dog. Helpful, but limited.

Once a heron beems in on your pond they will never forget the easy pickings. It took one year for the herons to find my pond and I put up a net right away and it stayed up 24/7 for over a year without one fish loss, but I wanted the pond without a net, got cocky about it, so I switched to staggered fencing around the perimeter to prevent them walking up to the pond (or so I thought) and then around and over the pavers on all sides starting 6" outside the pavers, over top of the pavers, and 6" inside the pavers over the water, I had multi-layers of heavy duty fishing line, a real maze of it, even zigzagged pieces of line between all the rows, figuring it would not see the line and get a rude bounce from it. Nope, fish killed in two days. The fence and all fishing line taken down, and the net was back up and has stayed ever since.

I am 100% comfortable now that no heron will ever get my fish, other wildlife is as safe as possible from mishap, and I can move it off the pond in a few minutes if I feel like it or need to for maintenance. It also helps keep leaves out in the fall, although some get under the opening with prevailing winds, so I have to scoop some leaves with a hand net. I cannot stretch it to reach the ground in fall and winter, because it has to be nice and tight to be almost invisible from a short distance, yet be open. If I were to leave that extra 12" it would be to saggy and created folds that might trap others if I looped it up and held it with a zip tie. It does have some give to it for tall plants in the pond, and they grow through the openings too. My thalia pushes it up without the plants looking smooshed.

If you want to see it, or can't find it on the forum search, as I've posted detailed instructions on how I built it, with a materials list, and photos showing it, I will post again. Just let me know.

I'd rather not have a net, because I think nets are ugly, but some are uglier than others, and some are not functional with pond maintenance chores and times you might want to lift the net.

Some on the forum (or other GW forums) think it's wrong to protect non-native fish from native herons, but as long as you work it so nobody is impaired then IMO there is a happy medium. I am of the bent if I want pretty fish in my pond to enjoy than that is what I'm going to do, and on the same hand, work it so I don't create what I've been accused of before, of having a 'death trap'. When I first put up my net I had the bottom opening too low and I lost a a few crackles, but since I moved it up, all of the small birds I have move freely under it and out again. Dragonflies cannot land on the plants as they can't fly through the net and won't go under at the edges, but I have another pond that has no fish and no net, but they don't get caught in the net. I've have never, ever seen one caught. Bumblebees, if not too large, can go through it, and those that are big fly in and out of the opening to get at flowering plants under the net, and many of my plants flower right through the top of the net (like Pickeral weed). This is were partial removal really comes in handy. You can work around the pond without pulling the plants out of the net, each little hole.

I constructed mine to be easy to remove either partially or completely, by yourself if need be, but quicker with two people. This way if you have a backyard BBQ or something you can take it off completly, or if you are working around the pond, or want to take a photo, or vacuum, or pluck dead lily flowers, it's a breeze to do, because of the ability to partially lift the net and its supports from any section of the pond in a few seconds.

As long as there is people activity the herons won't come, but it must be in place all other times, with empahsis on early morning and dusk hours, but know that herons can hunt at any time. Hey, sorry this post turned into such mini-book length. LOL

CT

My opinion..
Because of the Heron problem and then the koi fish problem uprooting my water plants, I am almost to the point of having no fish except mosquito fish in my pond. I doubt the heron will want my crawdads and turtles.
I just want to enjoy the pond and not have to worry over these things.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond

The old fishing line around the perimeter of the pond works for lot of us. This is also a function of how large your pond is can the heron actually land in a shallow spot inside the pond. I had a heron problem 3 summers ago and put fishing line on bamboo poles (from the garden store) at 6" and 18" height around my pond. Mr. or Mrs. Heron did not take anymore fish.

The bird was actually scouting my pond from my neighbor's roof for a couple of days before it took 2 of my largest fish.

Thank you all for your responses. CT, I was not able to find your plans and photos in a search and would appreciate any information you can share. I really appreciated all that you shared in your "mini book" - no apology needed! The net we have is a fairly small mesh, and quite stretchy, so I don't know whether it's adaptable to your plan or not, but I'm willing to see what I can do. Right now it's effective, but downright ugly, and will make pond maintenance very difficult. We haven't seen the heron since, though I expect he has been back ... just wish I'd been there to see him get a faceful of net!

I don't know if there are any birders here, but I saw something the other day that struck me as odd: a heron sitting (huddled) atop a railing on an overpass over a highway. The salt marsh is about a mile away and was deserted at the time. We've lived here 30 years and though I've seen the herons and egrets perched in trees around the marsh, I've never seen one perched on the overpass like that.

I have had a similar problem with white herons eating fish. I tried the net but then I couldn't access the pond without moving the net. I just bought a decoy aligator. I now see some fish I thought were eaten that school with the new comets I added. Only time will tell if the aligator works. Real aligators eat herons and the vendor swears by it. But he is trying to sell them. Does any one have any experience with such a decoy? I think if the fish percieve a problem with a predator they go down to the bottom and hide.

Please let us know if the alligator works. I have one made of concrete at the end of my stream where it meets the bog. It hasn't deterred Heron in the past but that may be because of its location and that it isn't painted to look real as some are. I hope yours works for the benefit of all of us.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond the way it was before the freeze.

I had a heron problem last year as well and used a motion detection sprinkler and it worked well for me. It is annoying if you walk into it and get whacked but I was able to adjust mine so that it didn't point where I normally view and any time I wanted to get near the pond to work in it, I'd just turn off the water source. I used it for about three weeks and then I didn't see him any more.

The Fishing line wrapped around bamboo stakes around the outside of the pond does work. Heron's walk into the water to fish. I use the water scarecrow most of the time. As the summer plants grow, they will hide the fishing line if you want to leave it up all summer.

Any idea how that fake alligator works?
Just had our first heron attack today, it showed up 4 different times. Really don't want to put up a netting or fishing line or anything. Going to try out a radio tomorrow

A great blue appeared at my crummy little 100 gal. pool on New Year's Day and got two of my five comets. The plastic decoy that I ran out to buy lasted a day before I returned it. I covered the pool with a net first thing and only that has saved the others but I removed the net after not seeing the bird after months and now one of my last three comets (my favorite) appears to have a stab wound and has been on his side at the bottom of the pool for five days. I'm doing all I can for him but wonder if anyone here has treated injuries from birds. I would appreciate any help.

A Blue Heron got a peck at my Koi a few weeks ago but I luckily came outside to find it out of the pond, I quickly ran over, picked it up and placed it back in the water. He is still alive and was doing fine until the same thing happened this morning! Unfortunately, he got pecked a bit harder a couple times on the head above the eye toward the gill. I again, ran over picked him up and put him back in the water, only this time, he has not recovered as well. After reading some forums on www.koi phen.com/forums I put him in a container, put some neosporin on the wound and put 5 drops on stress coat in there. He is such a Rambo! He is still "dazed" but looks at me when I walk up and is still breathing and moving his fins but he is ?lopsided? I am not sure that he will pull through... The other Koi didn't come up from the bottom of the pond until later this afternoon... poor things :(

Eliesha - I have a friend with koi and she told me about the neosporin. My fish's wound appears to be healing but he's still on his side. I've been trying to hand feed him and he is more animated. But it's been weeks now since he was injured. Melafix is a liquid antibiotic that you can put in the water. Smells very good because it has tea tree oil in it. All natural. She says you can put hydrogen peroxide on a wound too with a Q-tip if you're careful to keep it away from the eyes.

I think warmer weather is helping some now too as the water temperature goes up.

I'm still trying not to think about euthanizing him.

Good luck with yours.

Thanks Beq1,
Unfortunately "Rambo" died yesterday.... He never would eat... Thanks for the input, If it does happen again, I will definately try the Melafix... Thanks` I hope you have a better turn out...
E

Ah. I'm so sorry. Can you cover your pond with a net? It seems to be the only sure way to protect fish.

My friend had one of those faux herons, laying on it's side [like dead]. Don't know about that but I guess you'll try any/everything.

Lucky (because he's been a survivor more than once) seems to be improving. Yesterday I found him on his side as usual but on one of the plant shelves instead of on the bottom where he's been. Later I lifted him to try to hand feed him and he swam away twice. I haven't seem him move his tail in more than 2 weeks.

Again, I'm sorry you lost Rambo.

I now have netting on my pond after losing a fish to a heron. It is really not attractive and I would like to remove it, but do not want to jeopardize our fish. Sounds like the fishing line around the perimeter is not reliable. I was told by a pond store employee that a roof or partial roof like structure above the pond will stop the heron. According to him, herons do not like anything above their heads. Does anyone on this forum have any information regarding this idea? Will appreciate your thoughts.