Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Blue Heron is back

This time he is hunting at night. I saw him carring a nice size fish out of the pond. What can I do if they hunt at night? Is this a real problem for my fish or is it the way the good lord take care of the fish population?

I have the same problem and I use a pellet gun but I am thinking I will switch to a more powerful gun. I changed feeding time to throw it off time but nothing seems to work, yet.

Personally, the blue heron(or crane as we know them) are one of the ugliest creatures I have ever seen. That and they are taking fish out of my ponds is why I want rid of them in the worst way. It's too bad whenever I bring my gun to the ponds, it is not there.

Shoot, Shovel, and shutup!

When I deer hunt, I stay in one spot with camo for hours. Sometimes I don't see one but I go back again. And, I'm not mad at deer.

Cecil, I like your reply!

The famous 3 S solution.

Cecil, do blue herons really eat that much? Cormorants, no question. But unless a person has a small, shallow pond or is in a situation like yours where you sell fish, can a heron really do that much damage?

We have a heron around our lake every year but only one. So I buy into that theory that they are territorial. We just don't have that many places for they to stand and hunt so they're restricted to certain areas. I've seen them take small fish many times but have never seen a fish that looked like it might have been hurt by a heron. What is your opinion?

Blue Herons do not hurt much at all....leave them alone

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Blam, Got him. Blam-Blam. Just making sure.

If I had just a recreational pond I wouldn't mind, however, as i have related before they have a tendency to jab anything that moves in my pond and that means even large fish. Another thing I don't like is they are a parasite vector, and since I've kept them off with nonlethal means I don't seen any more "grubs" in my fish. Fish with grubs don't sell well either. Of course my yellow perch are eating the snails which may be a factor also in breaking the parsite cycle.

All a heron has to do is stand in your pond and parasites drop out of it's throat into the water. Part of these critters reside in their throats. If you don't believe me read up on it.

I was kidding about the three S's. I would advocate nonleathal means before I would purposely do that. In fact, I can apply for a federal permit to take one or two out if I want to, but have not done so.

I keep telling myself I'm smarter than they are and I should be able to keep them from doing damage. Other than one smart ol' bird that wouldn't take no for an answer and thank God has disappeared, I been pretty successful with the brightly colored catfish line strong around the pond.

I started with 350 fish and a small kingfisher. He regularily ate 3 fish a day. Just as I started to worry he left. Now I have a small brown and white heron. He starts eating about 2pm and knocks off at around 6:30 or 7. He wears camo and hides for hours waiting for me to turn my back. I am installing mono along the edges and he just walks around the newest end.
I stocked 600 3/4" fish about the same time he showed up. They and about a 1000 polywogs are now gone, 4 days. I am not sure who ate them.
These birds are plentiful, yesterday afternoon there were 2 of them. My monsoon has started so keeping up with moving the mono will be a full time job as the pond fills. I thought about a croc but the airfare was to high.