In my area cormorants are a serious problem. As said, some scout and when they find a pond full of fish they call their friends. A few years ago 5 cormorans settled in mine and, in about 3 months, they eat about half of my fish, not counting all those who died because of the pecks but who were too big to be swallowed (most LMB among the 14 " and the 18 "...).
In the following years I tried all the legal methods known to keep them away (holographic tapes, flashing discs, fake birds of prey, gas cannons ...), but nothing worked. Then I got lucky with the scare eye balloons. I bought 6 of 3 different colors, hanging them on poles and moving them weekly alternating colors so that cormorans do not get used, they have worked for me. But they have two problems: they are not very resistant and if, for any reason, you cannot move them for a while, cormorants get used quickly and you find them in the pond anyway.
So studying and thinking I found a more functional, cheap and safe system. The only flaw is that it only works with small ponds like mine (1 or 2 acres).
As the cormorant is a big bird and its plumage is not impermeable to allow it to dive "ballasted", to take off from the pond it requires many meters of free water.
So in October 2017 I bought 1,000 meters of 80 lb fishing line, I planted 12 rebars in the pond about 7 'from the shore, leaving them 3' out of the water. Then I pulled the line between a rebar and the other, creating a sort of net suspended about 1 meter from the water.
Cormorants are afraid of colliding with those lines in landing and not being able to leave safely and quickly in case of danger, so they avoid the pond.
I install it in November and take it off in March (when cormorants are looking for ponds here), but the spaces between one line and the other still allow me to fish easily from the shore and from the pier.
Last winter I saw hundreds of cormorants flying over my lake but anyone in the lake. This year is going the same way, so I'm happy and my fish even more.
Last edited by ItalyBASS; 02/26/19 10:36 AM.
