Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Stopping Blue Heron

Will a 4 ft fence around the edge of my pond stop blue heron from killing my trout ? I was told that they need to land on the land and not in the water. I need to know before I do the work. Sick of them fishing out my trout out of my 1/3 acre pond.

I'd think they might just stand on top of the fence. I have a blue heron that hangs around my pond. I've only seen him take one bluegill (I'm sure he has caught more) but he seems to take a lot of snakes, frogs and crayfish.

He looks very ungainly crashing into water after fish but suprisingly accurate - he grabbed one of my lures one time - luckily dropped it when I yelled at him. I just let him hang around.

There's a GBH that hangs around my ponds a lot. It got almost all the small CC I was feeding and raising in my forage pond. I don't know that they can be stopped, short of netting the pond with chicken wire. If you took out one GBH, another would take its place. About a year or so ago, I came up to the ponds and a GB heron tried to fly off with about a two foot snake. It dropped the snake somewhere out in the hayfield above the ponds. I've seen a few 8-9 inch dead BG with heron strikes on their heads, and one 2.75 pound LMB with the same.

Wonder if chicken wire just out to, say, 3 or 4 feet deep would work. Obviously not for cormorants, but may deter herons.

Driveway markers with a mesh of your choice works for me. I set them at a 40-45 degree angle in the water at the closest bed to the bank, and then put the marker ends out into the pond a smidge. Herons still hit the pond, but rarely do I see footprints adjacent to the beds.

It's worked extremely well in my hatchery pond where the CNBG tend to spawn in the same location. The depth may change, but the location stays the same.

If you apply for an aquaculture license with your state [in NE it's $75 annually] you may subsequently apply for a depredation permit for critter causing fiscal damage to your business. Cormorants, GBH, Muskrats, Beaver, et al could be on the table. Just a thought.

I had reasonable luck with a simple claw trap set in the grass along the edge in about a ft of water, they will step in them and then you are able to relocate them.

I've had luck with a blue heron decoy I bought off of amazon. Blue heron's are territorial so it seems to work. Problem is White egret showed up and doesn't seem to mind the decoy lol.

It's generally illegal to kill migratory birds. But, your pond, your snake.
If I considered it a problem..............