I already know I'm supposed to be worried about herons, raccoons, snakes and other wild critters, but we do not appear to have them around - at least yet. But we do have several feral cats! Will these cats fish in a goldfish pond? And if so, does anybody have any cat-proofing ideas?

aahhh cats.... I 'm not sure if cats would fish or not cause they usually don't like water but I would NOT put it past a cat to at least try.. if it's a small pond maybe a screen might work or sprinkler system in the pond or call the spca or humaine society they may try to trap them for you .good luck with your pond ,I want one too we have lots of strays around as well and I was asking myself the same thing ...dang cats LOL

They can and will. The big determining factor as to whether or not your particular feral cats will fish is going to be if you have ONE that does. If that ONE does, it will teach all the others to do so, also. If that one does not - they will not.

Just as it takes a mother cat to teach her babies to hunt, it takes another cat to teach others to fish. Usually this will be the mother cat that teaches her babies to do so, but sometimes fishing can be a skill learned by watching - not practicing like a mama cat teaches.

So, if you have one that fishes, you are going to have to assume that removing just that one cat will NOT solve the problem.

Setting the edge of the pond so that it is deep on the edge and so that there are overhanging stones nearby or at the edges where the fish can go under and hide will help a lot. NOT teaching the fish to come to the surface at the edge for food will go a long way to preventing a land-based predator from fishing. Hand fed fish will come to any creature at the side of the pond - and they are easy pickings for cats. Teach them that the food is tossed in the middle of the pond.

As daryl said, try not to encourage your fish to come to the surface if you have feral cats around, as they are more likely to hunt for their food. You could use a net over your pond, and plenty of hiding spaces for you fish to go to, keeping it as deep as possible will also help.

I have 2 of my own cats, a lodger, and numerous cats that come in my garden, none of them bother the fish, they all drink from the pond, and one of the visitors plays over the netting, but they are not feral and get fed at their homes.

Have fun designing your new pond.