I am thinking of buying a seine to collect the BG and LMB that I am holding in my small pond while we drained and fixed the large pond. When we drained the large pond we collected the fish with dip nets and buckets. This was not very efficient. I think a seine would be better but there are a myriad of sizes at Memphis twine and net. I want one that 2 men can handle while 2 others collect the fish to move back to the main pond.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to put them in? It is a 100 yd move and we did it with feed buckets and was very streesful on the fish.

Thanks.

For an easy to do seine go to Wal-Mart and buy 2 20ft 1/4 inch mesh minnow seines and put them together with small cable ties. Makes a great inexpensive 40 ft seine for your purposes. You can design your own to your needs and get Brunson net to make it if you need a better net. Check out this thread and Brunson Net Company. They can make anything net wise you want and are easy to deal with.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=22522&fpart=1

http://www.brunsonnet.com/

Hey Mark,

I've got one of the 20-foot seines that Eric mentioned above. As just a 20-footer, it does a pretty good job for sampling. (40-ft would probably be better to get a lot more of the mature fish.)

These seines don't come with poles. When I first got mine, I tried it with a couple of broomsticks. My son's pole broke. He didn't get hurt, but it sure was sharp. I went into the woods and cut some small hardwood saplings about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. They work great.

I wish my work schedule wasn't so darn crazy. I'd love to come and assist.

Ken

How deep will the water be? 4' may be too shallow for your needs. You may need a 6' deep seine. Let me know when you are doing the haul. If I am off that day, I'll gladly come over and help with the transfer...

Travis -- I'm really glad you posted. I think you and I are probably on opposite ends of this spectrum. I'm small and old. You are young and big.

Maybe some other little old guys (like me) and some of big burly guys (like Travis) will chime in about how size matters. Maybe some of the average guys will post -- but who wants to be average??

Over the last 40 years, I've pulled a lot of 10 to 40 foot seines, from 1/8-inch to 1-inch mesh. Nearly all have been 36- or 48-inch width. As I mentioned in my post above, my son broke a broomstick pole in our 20-foot x 4-foot x 1/4-inch seine. It broke from water drag, not from the fish.

A 6-foot x 40-foot seine, even with a 1/2-inch or 1-inch mesh, takes long arms, one heck of a lot of strength, and a very solid bottom to pull.

More experiences about length, height, and mesh size would really be appreciated.

Regards,
Ken

A lot depending on the bottom material, the vegetation you may be pulling the net through, etc... I use a 50'x4' seine regularly and don't find it overly hard to pull. But I am pulling it on a sandy beach with no vegetation and very minimal snags. Since this is for transferring adult fish, look into a bigger mesh size... The drag in the water will be greatly reduced. My dad and I often use metal broom poles for the supports on the bigger nets as they are stronger. Brook poles sometimes just don't hack it as Ken pointed out...

Thanks for the replies. I first thought this might be a stupid question but I guess it wasn't. The pond is 1/2, 4 to 5' deep with a muddy bottom. We will drain it first to accumulate the fish better. Once it is drained and the fish relocated back to the big pond we will rework the dam and deepen it some. My plan is to make it a CC pond with a few BG and LMB for kicks. This way I can grow some CC and transfer individuals into the big pond to grow larger and not have to worry about BH invasion.

I will post when we do this. It will probably be a couple months since the big pond needs to fill some before I transfer. They are just now finishing the bottom and beginning the dam repair.

I use a couple of pieces of 1x2 lumber. Never broken one(yet).