Any hints on easy way to catch fish

Every once in a while I need to catch one of my fish, if it is injured or sick. Anyone got an easy way to do that? Last time I needed to catch some we wound up draining the pond, not a fun thing to do. My friend called it "Fish Wrangling". The bottom pond has about 7500 gallons in it, I would rather not drain it when it is 100+ degrees out. I have a couple of big rocks in there and all the fish gang up under it, that makes it a little more difficult. Any ideas would be great.

I'm all eyes/ears here too. I have gold fish to cull. What an enoumous pain. Last year we bought a huge marine net and seined. Got all but about a dozen. Drove the koi we want to keep crazy. I hope there are some clever people out there with ideas. I want to permanently eliminate all the gold fish from this pond.

If the fish are small you can buy a minnow trap. They swim in and can't get back out then you just pull it out and dump them.

A minnow trap is a great idea!
It also would allow me to keep them in the water until I can find someone who wants them.
I'll have to find one that won't allow our bigger goldfish to fit in, though. . .
Anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of 'bait' goldfish find irresistible?
Teresa

Gold fish like a wide range of fish food. you might try using some flakes and small pellets all tied in a piece of an old nylon stocking IE panty hose, hanging inside the minnow trap.
Russ

I think our goldies like Cheerios more than anything in the world. It's what we always give them when we run out of regular fish-food.
jo

I tried a minnow trap baited with raw liver per the directions that came with it. Never got one single fish. Took out the raw liver and tried two different kinds of regular fish food in the bait holder. Three weeks, keeping the food fresh and nothing. I have climbed into the pond and netted. We bought an expensive sein net and trawled the pond. Got a lot of goldfish but really upset the koi. We drained the pond about 1/2, the most I was willing to upset the water chemistry. Got all but about a dozen. That was last August. This week I counted over 40 goldfish again. Today I ordered Supaverm, a fluke medication which is harmless to koi but kills goldfish. I know, I know. It's rotten but I have to do it. This is a 2000 gal pond with 8 koi and lots of nooks and crannies where goldfish can hide. The koi need the water space as they are getting really, really big. Some of the koi are at the 24" mark. There are no homes for forty goldfish around these parts. They were going to be fertilizer one way or the other. Please, don't tell me how cruel this is. I'm already having nightmares about forty finny faces meeting me at the pearly gates. My DH is going to net out the dead ones. I can't bear it. But it will be a relief not to have to continually chase them down. I expect some improvement in water quality too. When they spawn, which is about every three weeks, they really mess up the water. The moral of the story is - don't put anything into your pond that you can't catch later if you have to, especially if it reproduces.

Don't feed the fish while you are trying to catch the little gold fish, in a trap.
Bait shops like gold fish. I don't know if yours too big for that. Of course you could put some small bass or blue gill in the pond. The little gold fish would soon disappear. as well as the baby koi. However the little gold fish eat baby koi too. So unless you get rid of the goldfish you won't get very many koi babies. You also have to be careful when you buy water plants as you can get goldfish that way too.

Most of the goldfish are 6 to 7 inches. Too big for the bait shop. Yes, I know they eat the koi babies. In six years I've not had one koi baby survive. I'd like to see some of them make it this year. There is a pretty good crop in the pond right now. The biggest koi fry I've ever had, so far. Some are showing good color too. I put in a lot of extra plants for them to hide in. I'm really glad you reminded me about being careful introducing new plants that could have goldfish. I forgot all about that and you are absolutely right. Do you do anything special to get goldfish eggs out of the plants?

Wonder if the Supaverm will affect Butterfly KOI ?
I like the idea and it will save me a lot of work and stress.
Will use the minnow bucket to catch the baby KOI and cull out the unwanted ones.

Snapple can you find a public pond or water garden society that would take your extra fish. Run an ad in the paper or hang up notices around town, surely someone will take your fish.

I have 4 goldfish that didn't stay in the top pond where I put them. I would love to catch them. They were spawning so I put a spawning mop in there and hopefully got most of the eggs in it.

My fish hate it when I get to messing with the pond even if I am doing the flower stuff.

Supaverm is supposed to be OK for butterfly koi. I have 4. I had the same concern. To kill flukes it should be used in water salted to .03. I called the seller and asked if it would harm the koi if the water was not salted and they assured me that the product used at the recommended dose but without salt in the water would have no effect on the koi. If you decide to go this route check with the seller and verify this information. You can't be too careful.
http://www.genkikoi-supply.com/supaverm.html
http://www.koiscapes.com/prod121.html

I had the kids net out goldfish for me last week (they got to 30 and then lost count) and they seemed to really enjoy it--the kids, that is.
Eventually though, I expect that the novelty may wear off and it would be quick and easy to use a minnow trap--if it actually works!

We took our 'extra' goldfish to a friend's pond--I don't think they'll survive due to predation/water differences, but my sweet and tender 5-year-old was distraught at the idea of 'Free-cycling' them which was my original plan.

Hopefully he will eventually let me 'Free-cycle' the excess as long as he doesn't suspect that whomever comes to get them may be using them as feeder fish or bait (although I don't think it is legal to use them for the latter here).

We don't have koi--just garden variety goldfish, but too many, I think, for our little water garden, so we're just going to keep the biggest, brightest (fastest?) fish and pass along the others--at least those that we can catch.

Is that natural selection at work?

Teresa

I don't know if it is natural exactly, but it sounds better than chemical genocide, which I am about to commit. I just can not catch all the goldfish. I would have to drain the pond and I won't do that. It's too hard on the big koi and no temporary quarters for eight very large fish. Lesson learned.

We just caught eight fish in our pond for a friend . We had a trap and put pieces of bread in it, closed the lid and had four fish within the hour. Removed them and returned the trap to the pond and caught the rest within two hours. The bread really worked.

What kind of trap did you use? Maybe those goldfish will fall for that. Bread huh?
Worth a try.

The trap was homemade - a wooden frame 24 x 12 x 12 covered with screening like you use for pourches. On each end a small opening was cut and then a cone of screening attached inside. The fish go in but can't get out through the cone. the cover was 1 x 2's covered with the screening and held in place with hooks. There are eyehooks on the corners to attach a line to help guide it and reel it in. Very easy to make with scraps you might have around. All the fish we caught were goldfish. We made the openings small so the comets couldn't get it if they wanted to.

Just came back from vacation and dosed the pond with Supraverm today. It takes 7 days to kill the goldfish. They claim 100% morbidity. We did try the trap again with bread and didn't feed anything for two days. Gave up on that as there were no takers in the trap and I didnt want to let the koi go hungry any longer. Sigh :(

Sorry all your efforts failed, to otherwise relocate them. I am curious though how well it worked. I drained my pond to clean it and take out all the goldfish. That was last week of April 2006. Now that I have been retired a while I am feeling the pinch of the utility company. I am toying with the idea of scaling back on the size of the pond, so I can cut back on utilities. This might take me a while but, I feel it is a measure I have to take. Just when my pond is getting the number of koi built back up. I don't really want to go back to work just to support their needs.

I will post the outcome of the Supaverm on the goldfish. It will be about a week. I would'nt go back to work to feed a hungry utility company either.

Can you not get a more efficient pump to put in there to cut costs

Dylancgc; My pond is right at 3000 gallons. The flow needed to properly filter and ariate the pond don't leave much room for pump choices. Yes I could get a UV filter for $800. to $1000. and then get by with a smaller pump. but the $800. is kind of out of reach. on social security. I think, with every thing I'm doing, the veg garden, mowing several yards, and trying to keep all the flowers weeded. A smaller pond might be the better way to go. I won't feel the loss of all the koi nearly as much as I did when someone came in and stole a bunch. I felt violated. I don't if that word is even discriptive enough, However if I give something away I feel far better.

Before you downsize take a look at these Mag Drive Pumps by Danner. I swear by the brand and the efficiency. My big pond is 2000 gal with 21 feet of head. I turn about 1.8 times per hour with a pump rated at 3600 gph. The pond turnover, filtering and oxygenation all are excellent. It is comfortably supporting 10 large koi and about 40 (soon to be dead) full grown goldfish. While I do have UV's installed they only kill the green algae and don't really contribute anything to the filtering ability. In fact the dead algae adds to the work load the filter must do. We esitmated that our monthly electric usage due to the 3600 pump is about $22. I have had two of them in service (one on the 2000 gal koi pond and a much smaller one on the 440 gal goldfish pond) for six years. I had to replace one impeller. That could have been avoided if the pre- pump strainer hadnt fallen off and a toad got wound up in the impeller. They are cheap efficient work horses.

http://www.azponds.com/subpumps.htm?source=google#Pondmasterpump
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/8804/cid/4016

I'll bet there are other ponders out there too who also have a favorite brand pump that are also reliable and efficient. Maybe you will get some better suggestions from others. We want to keep you ponding at full tilt randbponder!

Snapple; My pump is only supposed to draw 3.5amps, I have been running that 24-7, It only runs right at $15.00. it is a 8500gph pump. My falls is 5' above the water level. This summer has been so humid we have had the air on 24-7 as well. That is another $45.00 extra. And we have been helping our daughter with keeping her insurance while she is unemployed she has an artery in the left side of her brain, not in her neck, that is blocked. She has had just about every test imaginable. Which she would not have gotten without insurance. We are not her only support on this as her sister has chipped in as well. But that is one of the reasons for pinching pennys. I am hopefull in a solution. But we are still waiting to hear if it can be operated on. we already know that it would have to be a teaching hospital. and it would be the same as a brain surgery. And kind of iffy If they decide not. Then she will have to medicate to try to maintain what she has. That outlook doesn't look good either. So we have put a lot of things on hold.

Sigh, I should be taking lessons from you in many, many things randbponder. About your daughter's going to a teaching hospital - good decision. We do the same back here in Ohio. If the problem is complicated or unusual most head to the Cleveland Clinic. It is a good strategy. My daughter's best friend's mother is alive, cured and well after local doctors said her brain anuryism was untreatable and fatal but Doc's in Cleveland "coiled" the anuryism. It was a total succcess. Your daughter I'm sure will find the right doctors too.

My thanks for the vote of confidence. I am thinking positive on this matter. We have been in prayer many days over this, it has taught me to trust in our Lord more, and to realize just how much we have to be thankful for. We take soooo much for granted. Right??