I had thought of just seining from an upstream point down to my actual damn. If I could accomplish this, it would bunch the SMB up in a tight pool just outside the 4' horizontal inlet pipe. Then I could life the gate and "shoo" them back into the pond.

I will need a few friends to help out which shouldn't be a problem for the fence/seining.

I was also looking for a slightly more passive way (the traps) where I could check it periodically. This is also because after we had some dry days, the creek lost a foot or so of depth. This seemed to disperse the SMB as far as 1/8 mile up stream into the deeper pools.

My search and rescue project may take several methods, and I may not ever know if I got all of them back into my pond (although they're not hard to spot).

It was when I was discussing these plans with a friend that the topic of legality came up (cast nets, etc.)

I also have the "just fish 'em out" method to fall back on. So far, we've fished (2) of them out. So I think I have roughly 8-10 still left in the stream.

Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."