Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Using structure to protect from predation?

NE Mason,

Great question. It's something I've been struggling with for eight years now. My bluegill condos I think have a positive effect of keeping the bluegill slightly "offshore", so that GBH and other shore-oriented predators don't have such easy access. The steep slopes of my ponds make it so that the herons can't wade out very far, and consequently can't be a threat to the BG around the condos. Thank goodness no cormorants or mink in my aread lately. Whew! If there were, I'd bet that there would almost no hiding areas for the fish. I guess it's conceivable that the bird could be discouraged by a series of stainless wires suspended under the surface of the water, but I think the traditional method is to simply use audible and visual threats in the above water world. Meadowlark had purchased a propane cannon at one time that I thought was a very interesting idea, but if I remember correctly, his birds didn't come back the following year, so he didn't have to use it. Meadowlark is extremely creative and would love it if he sees a chance to jump into this thread.

I think that these predatory animals need to have good agility and intelligence in order to be successful, so my intuition tells me that no amount of bottom contouring or structure addition would be a complete deterrent. It would probably be cheaper and more practical to utilize your resources to add more fish later.

This is something I've given a lot of thought to, but the best structure addition I've made is the offshore condos. Encouraging fish to stay away from the edges is probably the most logical way to keep the herons at bay.

Cecil Baird has also been outside the box with his use of trip wires around the edge of the pond. Perhaps we can track down some of the old threads, that I thought were quite creative in regards to frustrating the herons with small physical barriers.