Have a 2500 gallon pond that I have had for about 12 years and herons are a continuing problem with eating any koi smaller than about 7 inches or so. Although netting works it is just plain ugly. I have been using 2 fishing lines for about 6 years with much success most of the time, but the height seems to be pretty critical. I recently have had the unwelcome heron visitor who has taken many of my small koi. I was determined to see how he was getting in and waited for him one morning this week and watched him land by the pond and saw him looking over the pond for several minutes. He then walked over and got down below the line and crawled under it. I of course chased him away. I was shocked at how low he could get. My lower fishing line was higher than I normally have it at that point, about 14 or 15 inches. My second one was about 24 inches. I have now lowered them to about 11 inches and 20 inches and hope that does it. Incidentally, racoons will be a problem if you do not have straight sides. They will not step into water over 10 inches or so. Make sure you do not have shallow sloping sides. Once they get in the depth does not seem to be an issue. Good luck!

Too funny, sleepless! I'll have to watch for that. I'm just a couple blocks away from our hs band's practice field. When dd was in school/band, I used to sit at the pond each evening and listen to them practice. My guess is somebody rang the dinner bell. What time of day is it? Is it nearing dusk? Now you've got me curious, too..

I use a net. I just feel safer after numerous heron attacks. It's not that bad - virtually invisible until you get close. I don't like the idea of fishing line because we have a dog who would run right into it and I don't want to hurt him. Also, we like to get into the pond periodically to fertilize and maintain the plants. All we have to do it take off the net. I don't want to mess with fishing line. We've come up with a pretty good system I think. We drive 4 foot stakes in the pond (3 feet when done) and secure the net to the tops and sides of the stakes keeping it about 6 inches from the bottom so the frogs and birds still have access. But I think the line would probably work if that's the way you want to go. I fence our pond over winter so no one accidentally steps into it - we can get many feet of snow in a season and the fence gives me a guideline since it's right off our patio. Also keeps the dog off it. By the time I can get the net on in the spring, no herons have figured out how to cross the fence - however that hasn't stopped them from visiting. I'm sure they're taking notes! Our fencing is 2-1/2 feet tall. Be sure you string the line as close to the edges of your pond as you can. If the heron can fly into your pond and land on something, the line will be useless.

Thank you so much for your compliments. I tried to figure out in my mind exactly what I wanted for 3 years, and am very happy with it. Aesthetics are really important to me, now more than ever. I have 3 kids who are just past the 18 yr mark and for years aesthetics could not be a priority. You'll go out of your mind trying to keep things looking lovely with 2 boys, 18 months apart. I was lucky just to keep things intact. LOL! We spent years renovating our house and finally could do the backyard, which was one big asphalt pad. You can't do something like that a little at a time. Now I spend a great deal of time out there and have discovered gardening with a passion. I am really enjoying this new stage of my life. I already have a big ugly pool alarm, the white box you can see in the photo. I have french bulldogs and they can't swim, so we had it built 2' high. That was more than tall enough and probably still is, but I have a very exuberant younger dog now, so that keeps me from being paranoid all the time. I seriously doubt he could get up there, but I would lose him in a matter of minutes if he did. Someone who lives a couple of blocks away was consistently losing fish from a small ground-level pond a couple of years ago. He finally caught a heron snacking, so I know there's one around here somewhere. I can't believe I've been this lucky for so long, but I did have some fish disappear last year, which I just thought was the raccoons. When I had it netted in the fall I found some water hyacinth fished out and left on the side, which looked like raccoon evidence to me. I would think if the heron had found them he would have cleaned them all out. Maybe not since they were really skiddish for so long. Thank you babalu aye for your description. That makes me believe that I can possibly get away with just stretching some line across the top a couple of times. I'll try that before I get all crazy with the whole thing. I hated to net it the first year, but was surprised at how it disappeared from a few feet away. And I really couldn't see it from the window which is how I view it for the most part in the winter anyway. Angela