Fish harvesting

I was wondering how you guys harvest your fish/other aquatic animals. Thanks.

Hi Heather, Welcome to Permies! Sorry it took so long for someone to answer.

Since I don't have any kind of aquaculture set up (yet!) all my fish harvesting is done by good ol' rod & reel, usually with a fly-and-bobber set up.

I know that a number of permaculture systems that have pond-based aquaculture have either a way to drain down the pond to concentrate the fish in the bottom allowing for netting the fish, or they have a little 'cove' built with a way to close it off from the rest of the pond. They feed the fish in the cove area so the fish are comfortable going in there all the time and when in comes time to harvest they just feed the fish and close the gate behind the fish, once again netting them out.

Thanks Michael. I hadn't heard about making a cove for that purpose. It's good that I'm asking before digging my pond. I was thinking of using a funnel type trap. I haven't gone fishing since I was very young, so this should be quite an adventure. What is the best way to kill the fish? Hitting them on the head? I was also thinking maybe a good way to harvest some of them would be to have people pay me to come fish at my pond.

Heather Stovall wrote:Thanks Michael. I hadn't heard about making a cove for that purpose. It's good that I'm asking before digging my pond. I was thinking of using a funnel type trap. I haven't gone fishing since I was very young, so this should be quite an adventure. What is the best way to kill the fish? Hitting them on the head? I was also thinking maybe a good way to harvest some of them would be to have people pay me to come fish at my pond.

Hitting them is a fast & easy way to kill fish. If the first couple of times you have a problem, take it by the tail and smack it against a hard surface. Sounds cruel but it is very quick.

I have found that a large net works just as well as anything when working with a "smaller" pond or pool. A gill net can be used, dragging it from one end to the other.

I'm planning on having rocks and tree branches in the pond for habitat and some aquatic floating plants, so this would probably make netting the whole pond difficult, but maybe the cove could be free of obstacles and a net could be used there. I'll probably have a friend that's familiar with fishing help me out the first time.

Heather Stovall wrote:I'm planning on having rocks and tree branches in the pond for habitat and some aquatic floating plants, so this would probably make netting the whole pond difficult, but maybe the cove could be free of obstacles and a net could be used there. I'll probably have a friend that's familiar with fishing help me out the first time.

I had a salt water set up with a lot of obstacles with red snapper. The tank was 215 gallons. One of the things that I found interesting was if I had fed the fish and stuck my hand in the tank on a daily bases, I could catch them with my hands. I have also found any fish in the carp family seems to automatically "want" to be hand fed. lol

I do realize that you can't do that with a pond due to the predator issue.

I look forward to hearing how it goes for you.

Hi Heather,

Here is a link to Jeoff Lawton's permaculture pond video. It shows the cove concept mentioned earlier and has some other tips on preparing a pond.

Perfect Permaculture Pond - Jeoff Lawton

Hope it helps!