Big Fish Moves On

From His Little Pond

By R. Scudder Smith

About ten years ago, give or take one or two, the late Jim Crick thought it would be fun to put a few koi into Hawley Pond and, as a member of the board of the Newtown Village Cemetery, owner of the pond, he felt he could get away with it. For in the past, any stocking of the pond had been frowned upon.

So, possibly in the dark of night, he gave three koi a new and expanded home. One was a bright golden color, one white with a bit of black, and the third black with white spots. The koi thrived in their new home, wintered well there, and grew at a fast pace so now they measure close to two feet long and probably tip the scales at about 20 pounds. In fact, today they are so large that they have often been spotted swimming about, especially when they come close to the surface in search of a tasty bug for lunch. Paul Miles, who lives on Elm Drive across from the pond, has seen the golden one many times while seated in his Adirondack chair on his terrace and enjoying some sort of drink.

One of the koi, the white one with some patches of black, ran into trouble recently and somehow ended up in the brook below the dam. How he managed to go over the dam is still an unanswered question, but fortunately he was seen in a small pool about 50 yards downstream by Ron Nicholson, who was walking his dog in the meadow. A call went out to Milton Adams, who is head of maintenance at the cemetery, and on Monday a plan was set in motion to return the koi to the pond.

A piece of fencing was put into the brook to prevent the koi from going further downstream, and a large fish net was borrowed from Newtown Bait and Tackle. Suited out in waders, which had only one leak in the right shoe, Ron went into the brook and managed to corral the koi, which was then transported by pickup truck, to save time, to the dam and set free. The fish immediately dove to the bottom of the pond, seeking water of a cooler temperature than the hole it had left, which was only about 18 inches deep.