"*muffin*" wrote in message
(awww he was soooo cute ...I hope we can catch him in an inopportune
moment
so we can get him inside for the winter.)

An easy but dangerous way to catch them in the fall is to wait for the first
chilly morning below about 55 dgr.F.More than likely your pl*co will be
lethargic and trying to sun itself in shallow water to warm up. Scoop it up
in a bucket, bring it inside, and gradually let it warm to room temp(in the
bucket) using a low wattage aquarium heater (like one made for a 5 gallon
aquarium). I say dangerous because I've had about an 80% success rate but it
was the only way I could catch mine because of the water plants and the
pl*co's normal nocturnal behavior. And yes, the first year it was totally by
accident, that I found three in different ponds on the same morning. If you
try it this way, you MUST check every morning once the weather begins to
cool down and your surface pond temp drops to near 70 F. because you never
know exactly which morning the water temp will drop to the critical temp.
and you MUST warm them back up gradually or that shock might also kill them.

RGB
Zone 5 OH