Fish in skimmer

[livetogarden]

DH just made a DIY skimmer. He did a great job. The only problem is we find fish in there nearly every day. Any ideas on how to rig something to keep them out? It's made from a large tote and has a slit across the front for leaves to skim in to. However, the fish tend to skim in too, how do you get leaves to go in but not the fish? We're lost here.
Thanks,
Cath

[Sunbeam56]

If your fish are leaf sized, I think you have to wait until they get bigger. 

[Rick]

How big are your koi?

[crazyfishlady]

Do you have a baffle in the leaf slit? Until something ate my goldies they frequently got caught in the skimmer when the baffle wasn't up. (new dumb ponders we just figured out the baffle was supposed to be up; skimmer sucks way better that way)

[livetogarden]

We're new at this skimmer thing. I have no idea what a baffle is.

[crazyfishlady]

I maybe didn't use the right word. It's a bellows. I'll pm you--maybe you could come look at mine.

[Julles]

On the pond tour yesterday, a guy had a similar situation.  He had a fairly deep reservoir where the skimmer went into.  His solution was either:

1.  The skimmer net was large enough that the fish could survive swimming around in the receptacle, until he fished it out the next day or so.

2.  Or, the net had a hole in the bottom, allowing the fish to get into the reservoir, and the junk that floated was still floating in the top part of the net.  In this scenario, it's possible he had even rigged a hole from the reservoir to the pond, down low, to allow the fish, but not the debris, to make its way back into the pond.

Sorry I didn't get full description, but that may give you some ideas.