Rex, thanks for the ID on the minnow. I'm pretty sure that is what it is based on other pictures online. It is good to find out that the forage base was maybe more diverse than I thought in the first place. I wonder how he/she hitchhiked in? I wonder if they will successfully reproduce with some predator pressure from perch and RES?
Rex, also I will try to keep working on our seine technique. I agree, as the water got shallow and we got moving faster we may have lifted up the bottom line a bit or there may be natural indentations in the bottom of the pond where the goldfish sneak out. We will go low and slow next time.
SNRUB, at ice out I could readily get them to go in a trap with pellets. Now they must be too smart to go in the trap. I was searching for a smaller fyke trap (I don't need a 30 footer) to use as I think if it was a longer entry chute and a larger trap in general they probably would go in and stay in. The pyramid minnow traps they either don't go in or have found a way to get in and out freely. The metal minnow traps they won't go near.
The other option since they seem to huddle right at the same place at shore waiting for their pellet dinner, that I may be able to use progressively smaller enclosures. I could use my 25 foot seine and wrap it around 4 fence posts that enclose a smaller square with maybe one corner of the square opened so they can get in. I could just close of that corner, then go in with a net and try to net them out. It is just that netting them out may be tricky as they move fast. But I could probably scare them off to one side of the square, then divide the square in half again to make the netting of them easier.
