So, about a month ago we had torrential rains which made my pond look like chocolate milk. This happens ever so often and takes a few weeks to settle out. Well, my pond switched from a chocolate milk consistency with zero visibility to a rusty brown color with 6-8” of visibility over the last week. I thought it was just the mud finally settling down, but everything under water has a layer of “dust” on it and “poofs” into a rust colored cloud when touched. I am fairly new to the whole pond management thing. Is this an algae bloom? Fish don’t seem phased by it. They are feeding well and the top water bass bite is coming on strong. I checked the water temperature today and it was 62 degrees about 4 feet down. The weather has been warm and gotten into the 80s the last few days. Thanks.

It sounds like it was just muddy water from the deluge. The fluff is soil that has settled, and fish will dust everything off soon enough. The soils that were brought in with the runoff will probably not be an issue.

You can do a "jar test" by getting a sample in a glass jar and just letting it sit undisturbed for a few days to verify it all settles out...keeping a second jar sample in a dark closet will let you know if it is algae...(the sample in the light will not clear, but the one in the dark will, if algea)