Hi Pond Boss Forum!

I'm hoping I can get some input on what to do with my pond. I bought a house about a year and a half ago and it came with a .3 ac pond that was first dug about 25 years ago. It is fed mostly from surface water and there is an overflow pipe on one end that feeds a much larger pond on my neighbor's property. There is pretty major stream that forms when we get a heavy rain.

Here's the overall shape:



The stream feeding it last year during a good rain:



Some other pictures:




There seems to be a pretty good fish population of bluegill and bass. I only found 1 or 2 fish dead after this past winter (very cold in NorthEast Ohio).

We have a small waterfall that I have hooked up and that provides a very small amount of surface aeration but some nice background noise.

I'm looking to turn this pond into a usable recreational area. My neighbor's have said that years ago their kids used to swim in my pond. I'd be happy just floating on some rafts around the dock (which is in bad shape currently)...but my major concerns now are water stagnation and muck. When it's dry and hot, it seems like there's no movement in the water and the algae starts taking over. When there's a good rain, a lot of it will wash away.

Wading through the pond, there seems to be an awful lot of muck everywhere (1-2ft). I'm optimistic that it's mostly organic matter and not just dirt being washed in because when I've tried manually removing some, it's got quite an odor.

I'm told that the pond was dug to ~12 feet in the very middle. It's currently about 5ft off the end of the dock. I'm hoping to get out on a kayak to take some depth readings soon to get a better feel for what I'm up against.

I'm trying to figure out if aeration is what I need. Because my fish population seems to be thriving, I don't know that I really have a problem there.

In terms of investment, I'm not looking for anything huge right now. I was quoted a small fortune to dredge and that was not appealing to me so I started looking into other options. I have electricity right at the water's edge for the waterfall pump currently so hopefully that simplifies things.

What other information do I need to figure out if aeration is right for me?

Thanks,
Eric