Blue Heron Attacks My Pet Bass 

Little did I realize, until now, just how much I care for two bass that live 830 miles from me!

I had a friend in Wilmington, NC who had Japanese Coy fish that he bought on auctions in Japan and had them shipped to him. His Coy pond was almost exactly like your pond. One of the coy he had was over $3000! One day he came over and wanted to know if I had a shot gun. A blue heron had eaton over $4000 of his Coy over a three day span before he figured out was going on. It’s against the law to shoot them in NC. He starts talking about nets over the pond and how that effect the purpose of the Coy, etc. I had him take me to Lowe’s and bought a few things. We then installed a motion detecter right at the surface of the pond. When any movement was detected, it turned on a sprinkler in the middle of the pond. Sprinkler disturbed the waters surface so that the Heron couldn’t see the fish well enough to hunt. It came back a couple times but still triggered the sprinkler. He then stopped coming back because he couldn’t hunt. Might consider doing something similar to protect Bonney and Clyde.

Moby has the speed of a Pike, the Appetite of a shark and the ferociousness of a piranha. Lmao thank god he’s only a juvenile bass... Well For now...

Moby could eat the heron

I've never before been on the edge of my seat watching security camera footage of a bird walking around a pond

The one dislike is from the heron

Our family use to have the same problem when i was a kid with our pond. Those birds killed a lot of our fish and you cant shoot them because there protected animals. We use to put bright colored boogie boards in the pond and it would freak the birds out. Preventing them from killing any more, we only had to keep them in the water around fall season (PA state). It seemed like those birds only come when the fish go deeper in the other ponds making it hard for them to hunt. So they find smaller bodies of water to hunt such as your pond. Hope this could help you guys out !

Who else came to the comments just out of nervousness??😅😂

I love your accent folks, I could listen to y’all talk fir ever . Also just amazing the lengths you went to to have a real bass pond in your yard. You have a beautiful family and much respect from all the way up in Canada 🇨🇦. Keep the Bonnie & Clyde updates coming . Peace and much love from Unkul Beanz & Canada

Your dog saved the fish twice now

You wanted a pond ecosystem, you got one. Predators come with the territory.

Before you try and kill/harm the Blue Heron (if it ever returns), know that they are protected birds under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. On top of all that, the Blue Heron in also protected under state law. I would try and just deter the bird without using extreme measures, or try and get a depredation permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I hope this helps!

Good! Get a motion controlled sprinkler! “Scarecrow”

"Hm, someone built me a nice buffet!" Honestly, it just looks like it found something new and appealing and was checking it out. Ponds will attract birds and predators and all.

Moby would have tried to eat it

I thought that blue heron was going to be the grinch who stole Bonnie and Clyde for Christmas..The bird will continue to come back. They have stolen thousands of dollars of Koi from ponds. You may need to make the pond deeper, more caves, and they also sell motion detecting water blasters for Koi ponds. Basically as soon as the bird comes around it will blast water at Heron. Most people use nets on pond but that also sucks. I hope you don’t lose Bonnie and Clyde. They are probably the most loved bass in the world. Please remember the heron and will return. Merry Christmas and happy new year!!! I hope. 😂😩😫😫

Around here if a blue heron finds your pet fish it's all over lol. We had one post up in the pond behind the house and eat every little bass and bluegill

It is only a matter of time. To put it bluntly, I was totally surprised you put the bass outdoors in a pond like that.

Dude, that was gut wrenching! don't ever do that to me again!

I never cared for some bass so much. Moby is really something. It's wild to see how different these fish personalities are, who would have thought? What a great channel. Thanks.

Make a fake pond and stock it with alligators and a lot of bait fish. The bird will go for the bait fish then get eaten by the alligator. Then say the alligator migrated to your pond when law enforcement ask questions

Why do I love these videos so much? I don’t even fish, nor care about ponds or fish in general

Your pond is _too_ realistic. Great vid. Viral, maybe?

I had a pond once and had a problem with raccoons. They like the water and would catch the fish and only eat the eyes and leave the dead fish on the ground. A Heron once ate a mother Mallard’s chick right in front of me as I was feeding them. The Heron flew in the pond and slowly made its way to me, which fascinated me. Little did I know they eat small ducklings. I was horrified! If your Heron comes back, I’d suggest getting wind chimes which stick in the ground (they’re tacky) but they may make enough noise to spook the Heron off. Really enjoyed your videos!

Time for a scarecrow 🤔 motion activated...ijs

The pond and the fish are cool and everything... but that baby is pure joy... love her!

it's illegal to kill blue heron in the US. they are pretty protected.

Years ago a couple living in the ritzy Chicago suburb of South Barrington had a pond built and stocked it with $25,000 worth of Koi, (yes $25,000) which in a few months began to disappear. The owner installed a video camera and found out that it was a Blue Heron who was using the pond as an exclusive restaurant. These birds are protected in Illinois so a dog was used to chase it away and guard the fish.

Imagine he did this so you would go check the tapes and right when you did it he picked up Bonny & Clyde. You can tell this crane has criminal experience

I have a dug pond on my property, about 120’ x 30’ max depth 6 feet. I had 5 nice largemouth I put in when they were about 9-10 inches. Two years later during the winter an otter went in thru the unfrozen spot above the spring and wiped em out. Have not restocked since. Glad your guys made it so far.

To stop the heron from coming add a fake heron decoy they usually won't come if they see it

A buddy of mine built a pond in his back yard and had a blue heron eat every last fish in it in a week. I live in an area with a lot of blue herons so it probably was different birds. Anyway to avoid losing any more fish he got a sprinkler with a motion detector on it. Whenever the blue heron landed the sprinkler scared it off. It doesn't scare them all away but seems to spook the young ones

Just an FYI the great blue heron is protected under the migratory bird treaty act! I understand you want to protect your fish but you can not kill them.

Once the heron find a food source they will come back until it is depleted. We found that out the hard way. We kept a pond full of fancy goldfish. They grew quite large and were inexpensive. The motion sensor sprinkler was a fail for us. The heron just stood there seemingly enjoying the shower. We ended up with a large net over our pond but it really took away from the enjoyment of it. Hope your fish stay alive and good luck.

Merry Christmas man keep up the great work hope you have a great Christmas with your family

My father has a huge koi pond in Northern California and he had crane or Herron eating his fish so a friend told me to put fishing line around the perimeter about 8-10" off the ground and the birds have not been back. I was told they don't like something touching thier legs. It works and its not an eyesore. Love your fishing videos, i wish we had better bass fishing in California

Spoiler Alert They didn't die

Nothing repels Blue Herons faster than a Pink Flamingo (fake plastic ones of course) the people next door will love them too Awesome channel.

But another option now that the Heron knows that there's fish there buy a blue heron statue put it right where it was he'll thinks another one has claimed it and chances are it well think it ate the fish so there's no more point for it. There eventually

Out of 500 comments, i hope this helps, but my grandfather lives very close the the Atlantic Ocean and he has 2 fresh water ponds with gold fish and many more different tyoes of fish. He had a trouble with all different types of birds like seagals, Pelicans, cranes, and many more birds eating his fish. The thing that helped stopped those birds from eating his fish was putting a rubber snake curled up under vegetation, but visible, in different locations everyday. Birds get smart, so moving the fake snake around helps trick the bird thinking its real.

I'm pretty sure every bird species in America is federally illegal to kill, even pigeons, at least without proper licensing. So the heron would definitely be a crime. Gonna have to get a net cuz there will be more than one heron coming, then you gotta watch out for the raccoons!

I've got a blue heron comes to my pond every year. I read they will come back same week every year for their entire life.

I hate to say this, but im pretty sure it is illegal to shoot a blue heron for any reason

Looks like the snowman is melting at at rapid rate ! Moby is awesome!

Courtesy of Google...Great Blue Herons are protected by state and federal law which makes it illegal to capture or kill them without a permit. If the birds become a serious problem, a depredation permit may be obtained through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Permit Office

That blue heron is prob like "you got lucky this time, but next time, imma bring my crew with me and we gonna create havoc."

I mean if it eats your fish, that's just a natural part of the life cycle. You definitely had to know the risks going into this. But you can take preventive measures to protect them. That bird has just as much right to be there as any snake or other animal does. Plus if you shoot it and put it on youtube you're just inviting yourself to having to answer to the law. It's a beautiful pond, and the fish are awesome, but this is just how it works in real life. You wanted a real ecosystem, this is what you have now.

I like the kitty backing up the dog.

This is why I keep a pellet gun by the back door. (And after finishing the video I'm glad he does too.)

A lot of very well known filmmakers could not mimic the suspense of this video! Thank goodness they survived.

Paintball Gun works great as s non lethal defense...plus its fun 😉

Im sure all the hard work u put into the bass pond is tough to say the least... me and thousands of other people look at it as a piece of art work its so beautiful thank u

Blue heron will be back. Bass 1 Heron 0 Till the next day

I've seen a number of your videos and never once considered that birds have wings. Its really neat that that bird enjoyed your pond but dang leave the bass alone bird. Seriously your pond is amazing I can't get enough

Put out a blue heron decoy

Moby is a absolute beast! Can’t wait til he goes in the big pond he gonna be breakin water!!

Solution shotgun

Never in my life have i heard of a bass "aquarium". Thanks for giving me another bucket list thing to do! Awesome video brother!

Buy a pit bull that should handle the bird problem

Moby is just savage, and growin!! Glad the heron didn't get any fish. Merry Christmas to yall from the Hilton's.

I thought this was a cool project till you broke out the pellet gun. What ever happened to survival of the fittest? Those bass would have to survive a Heron as well as other predators in the wild. You should just allow the dog to patrol the pond more frequently. The Great Blue Heron is a majestic animal and a valuable asset to southern wetlands. Killing one without eating it would be an act of cowardace, and yes, I am a hunter and a fisherman. Please do the right thing.

Hi Folks I only found your site Sunday 27th Jan 2019 and Am finding it facitating Thankyou for sharing I love the construction of the pond and the watching of the fish Firstly I am in Western Australia in a small Rural town in the wheatbelt Watching the Blue Heron brought back bad memories of what I went through After about 20 years I converted over my homemade concrete 4000 litre Spa into a Pond I already had a waterfall ruining into it and around 3/4 of it had a seat so I really didnt have to do much to do so I put a lot of plants into it ( all in pots) such as Water Chestnuts, Taro Bulrushes ( Catails as you call them ) Iris's and a few native Junkets and I also put in Duck weed , and Azolea weed both good for fish feed and as they absorb nitrogen and nutrients in the water they are good for the habitat as well , and they are excellent mulch for the garden as both grow so rapidly I also put in native snails , have so many frogs and tadpoles it inst funny and various other native insects etc that have come in from harvesting some of the wild growing plants I Stocked it with Western Australian silver Perch fingerlingswww.livefish.com.au/silver-perch-4-5cm-25-free-shipping.html from a nearby hatchery ( not the one above Though Im not sure now but thats some info on them) once I jumped through the hoops and got my License to have them I live Near the Avon River in Toodyay West Aust and our laws are fairly stringent at letting species enter the waterways that arent supposed to be there . All was going very well for a few months each day I was doing as you do I would go out with a Cup of Coffee and sit UNDER THE PERGOLA and shade cloth and watch my Wet Kids playing in their pond until one day I came out and saw a Blue heron taking off after a large breakfast of my Silver Perch I was shattered this was maybe 8 ish years ago now and I still havent restocked the pond with anything frogs have it for themselves now which isnt a bad thing anyway but the loss of my fish stopped me in my tracks 1/ I dont want to enclose the spa as that would defeat the purpose of having a natural system which alows all sorts of free food visiting and setting up a ecosystem 2/ costly to restock all the time with fish as it has been so long and the taro , Iris's , and bulrushes have grown maybe I can repopulate and they would have a better chance of survival If you can I would suggest seeing if you can find some Azola weed www.thepondguy.com/product/azolla/water-gardens-fish-ponds-floating-plants you might find it is a good cover for the pond and also the above reasons i have already mentioned you cant be outside 24 hours a day for the damn herons and you can always have a floating pool noodle or something to keep it contained in areas you want for the fishes protection And as a good side line you can sell it as it is in demand as well what is the flow rate and head max of the pump you are using please it seems to flow very well I have but dont use a 365 gal per minute mine de watering pump here with a 80 mm pipe it empties my pond un 7 minutels Lol when I have used it in the past , but it is to big for a general pump in the pond so I just use a 1100gal pump per hour My Bio filter I made myself is a 55 Gal Blue plastic drum with different size Pea gravel from bottom up 12mm to 4mm it works very well when again it was in use but for now i dont use any pump as the system is still and water is always clean as the plants do the filtering Anyway I just wanted to say I love the pond I cant wait to see more videos I hope you Liz and bub have a great 2019 Tony from Western Australia

If its a blue heron you have 2 options kill the bird or have a fishless pond

Love from Greece! I've got an idea,overfeed the two basses with red worms and everything and make them huuuuge so that they could eat the darn herons!

Here in the UK we tie fishing line in a zigzag all across the pond but heavier around the edges and it does the job and also doesn't effect the looks that much.

You may want to consider putting netting on the shallow end. The deep end may be deep enough to keep them safe. I had a heron decimate the fish in my pond with exception of the 3 Koi that were way too big for him to eat. He ate around 200 fish worth about $5,000.00, in less than a week. Once they figure out there is a potential food source they will not stop coming back until all the fish they can eat are gone. My 3 pit bulls chasing him off wasn't enough of a deterrent to keep him at bay either. I learned my lesson and got the net plus a blue heron decoy. I haven't had an issue since and that was about 8 yrs ago.

My dad has his pond built 6 feet deep to provide a refuge for fish when predatory birds come around.

Honestly, that was suspenseful...so glad that bird didn't get the bass. Beautiful pond...love it!!

We build our ponds from 3’ to 5’-6’ for the deep ends for that reason right there! We get raccoons, cranes neighbors cat that gets our fish! Good luck keeping the critter at bay! They make netting that you can cover your shallow ends with as well that help

Moby grow so big now my gosh! Still Remember when he was still 5 inches when you guys got him! Now he’s like 10 inches.

I like the coverage of above water and underwater. Sorry to hear you have a new visitor, as once they know there is fish for them, they continue to come back until all fish are gone.

This was like a movie! Got me tripping and all. Hide Bonnie hide

As I said before, I had 180 gallon pawn in my backyard. One day I looked out the window to see a blue heron eating my fish. I grabbed my camera and took a picture, which I would post here, if I knew how too. We live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and never saw a blue heron, my other friends that have ponds use to get them also. But we haven't seen in the past couple of years. I think the pythons in Florida must be really wiping them out, along with everything else.

Your sister looks a bit like Reese Witherspoon...I'm almost addicted to these videos!

Wow, look at how smooth that bird is though. I can't believe I'm sitting here as if I'm watching a Michael Myers Halloween movie. I want to scream "HE'S BEHIND YOU WITH A KNIFE!" Hahaha!

Some of the most entertaining few minutes of video I have seen in a long time. Long Live Bonnie and Clyde!!

Just a suggestion, anchor a fine mesh black net just under the water over a small part of the pond the fish can hide under.

So glad they’re ok. The other thing to be careful of is raccoons. A Blue Heron ate 5 of my friends big, beautiful Coy fish out of his pond. So glad Bonnie and Clyde are ok!! I have 2 rabbits named Bonnie and Clyde, so the minute I saw your fish and learned their names, I fell in love with them. Raccoons won’t go in the three foot area, by the way.

I have a customer with a high end koi pond with some very expensive fish in it and birds of prey became a big problem. His solution which seemed very successful, was legal and non lethal as well as working for a vast array of predators not only birds was a few strategically placed high pressure sweeping sprinkler heads set up to a motion activated photo eye. The only down side he said was forgetting to cut it off when enjoying the pond himself. Hope that's helpful I have no idea where he purchased it at or if it was a custom build. Side note it also kept the neighbors kids outta the pond too.. lol

String clear 50lb mono fishing line in all directions criss crossed around the pond using small landscaping spikes to hold it down and with it being clear its not a bad eye sore either when the bird trips on the fishing line he usually flies off or gives up I've been doing ponds for a long time this seems to work the best

What you can do to keep the bass safe is you can put a mesh net over the pond for the winter so the blue heron can touch the fish

Put a heron decoy at pond and move around occasionally. That solved my heron stealing fast food. They are territorial, so, if they fly over and see the decoy, they keep flying by.

Man I was on the edge of my seat.So happy all is well. Please take care though, I think those birds are protected.

I'd suggest putting some poles by the pond and then hang a brightly colored piece of cloth or air balloon on top of them, that's what farmers here use to keep birds away from their crops, as logn as you replace them every now and then so the animals do not get used to them it's pretty effective.

Scary Bama! BUT BELIEVE IT'S NOT OVER! He and his friends will be Back! might need to think about some type of net to cover the pond. IDK? You and your family have put a lot of time and money into this project. Hate to lose the stars of the show...

I have an old mill pond at the end of my garden and a heron visits every two weeks, it's like it has a diary system going on. Very smart birds and fascinating to watch. My study has so far concluded that they do their best fishing when they stand in the water. That's a pretty sophisticated predator for pet fish to deal with I wish them well.

I have a considerably larger pond in the middle of my yard that's about 20' deep in the center. I've got catfish, perch, largemouth bass, minnows, frogs and even some crawdads and turtles in there. I've got cats, chickens and ducks running around in the yard and the ducks love the pond. I've watched my cats catch frogs, crawdads and even perch out of the pond and yes, they WILL eat them although I feed the cats very well.

Your pond videos are my favorite videos to watch.

If you plant bushes close and around the pond the birds won't eat your fish. You can also buy sprinklers with motion sensors on them if you don't want the bushes.

Either an owl statue or a bald eagle statue will stop any cranes or herrons, they're instinctively afraid off all birds of prey.

I have friends here in MA that have koi ponds. They have lost MANY kois from blue heron. It's a good thing you have bass in there! Kois are easy targets. Grid fishing line around and over the pond, that deters them well. Herons are protected here in MA, not sure about bama, so keep it on the DL when you kill it ;)

A friend of my family has a couple ponds on his property stocked with nice trout and salmon that he spent a lot of money on. Bald eagles kept ganking them. He eventually dyed the water blue so the birds couldnt see them anymore.

Heron are specialized hunters. They stand in very shallow water (typically a few inches to 1 foot deep) standing mostly still, then attacking fish by it's feet. They don't really actively hunt, and they're not good at catching fish in deep water.

I had a 2000+ gallon pond that I selectively bred goldfish for long fins for 10 years. The best 150 to 200 were in this pond. Several hundred lower quality ones were in 3 smaller ponds. I started to notice some were missing. Finally one morning, there it was. A huge Great Blue Heron. That bast*rd decimated my prize fish. When it was too late, i read that you should string clear fishing line randomly back and forth over the pond, and they wont land there out of fear of getting tangled in it. A heartache and an expensive lesson.

An option is to get a large blue heron decoy. They like to hunt alone, so having one will help keep them away. The only trick is your decoy needs to be on the larger side. If a bigger heron sees a smaller one, it will attempt to scare it away and take the spot. You could also add additional decoys like owls, coyotes or snakes. One problem is, these birds are not stupid. They will eventually figure out that the decoys are fake. I don't know if moving it to a new spot would make it think it's real or not. In my opinion, the best option would be some sort of motion activated scarecrow. As stupid as it may sound, a wacky wavy inflatable tube man might be a good option too.

He'll be back for sure. I follow the same blue at the same pond to locate the baitfish.

Herons will always heron, and they should be respected just like every other living being.

Buy yourself a heron deco and place it by the pond. Helps keep others away. 👍🏼

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Are you sure you weren't a film director at some point in another life. Had me sitting on the edge of my seat with anticipation. You don't know how many times I yelled at the screen trying to scare the bird.

Seriously good Vlogs from the start! I am hooked, line and sinker! Go Mobbey!!