[Sanke56]

B Scott yes I am sure you are right. I will have to get one of those bigger dip net my old one is getting worn out anyway. I will practise the technique you mentioned as well. thanks for the advice. Some of my ponds are mud ponds and I can't see the fish and they also have bull rushes in them. The plants are good for the fish but bad for catching also some of the edges of the ponds have undercut from the water and fish feeding on roots. I have a big drag net with floats and weights that I use but some always get by. I need to relandscape the ponds like the ones in Japan that I see in the pics. Mine look very natural but they have their drawbacks. I have one plasitic lined one and it stays clear it is about 8 feet deep and about 6000 gallons. One of my mud ponds is about 10 feet deep and maybe 50,000 gallons it is the growing pond for some of my choice fish. I just aerate the mud ponds no filtration. I top them up from a little lake whenever they need it.There is lots of natural food in the mud ponds and the big ones is quite weedy. The weeds decrease in the fall when it cools off. I put netting over the top of the mud ponds to discourage predatory birds