Anybody using weed rakes at their BOW? I'm considering buying one, would like the benefit of your advice as to what is best & what I can expect.

I made a floating weed rake for FA last year out of an aluminum landscape rake, some pool noodles, and rope. It works alot better than a regular garden rake. It's still work, but not near as much when compared to the standard rake.

If your are talking about the cutters, here is an older thread that touches on the topic...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=474005

Some other threads I had on a watch list...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35511

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=220413

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=382093

I have the lake rake. it sound like what QA has said it is aluminum and wider than a normal rake. It has a long handle and a pool float that sure helps when dealing with FA. you can remove the extension and tie the rope to it and throw it out and drag it along the bottom back in. Of course with the float off it will drag weeds and all sorts of stuff off the bottom. It is a lot of work but sure beats the standard rake.
Dave

When I used one, it made things much worse. I now call it a propagation rake! Maybe your experience will be better, but in my case, it simply made things 1000 times worse.

Thanks, guys. JKS, how did it make things worse? I have solid pond weeds, not algae, up to about ten feet out from the bank where my feeders are located, so some feed goes to waste. Just want to make a lane for fish to get to feed near bank, even though I know it will need clearing every week or so.

My concerns would come from the plants that grow/spread through fragmentation by raking or cutting. In my pond the American pondweed spreads around the pond through fragmentation. My Golden Retriever will swim through the weed when retrieving and it causes some of the pondweed to break away, float across the pond and start up a new pondweed bed. I think my bushy pondweed is doing the same. I like the American pondweed but not so sure I feel the same with the bushy pondweed so I am in the wait and see mode with the bushy stuff.

This was my issue. After raking/cutting etc., I ended up with a much bigger problem. I ended up taking a mini excavator around the edges and just mechanically removing all of the excess vegetation.

Good point re fragmentation. Funny how a couple of years ago I paid to have pond weeds planted in my infertile BOW, and now they have taken over the shallows in my fertile BOW! I was pretty well balanced last year, but that was just in the middle of the swing from not enough to too much.

Funny how that works.....but true