David....I am no expert but deeper sides can really help prevent or reduce certain kinds of moss and pond scum being along your shoreline. Of course most people dont want to step off into 10 foot of water either. I guess there is a happy medium.
I bought a place that already had a pond and have some trouble with moss/aquatic vegetation along my shores.
Mike Otto the pond building expert came out and he said part of the problem is my banks don't drop off quick enough. Mike stated a shallow gradual bank allows the aquatic vegetation to grow easier.
Mike said it's relatively cheap to make steep banks when building a pond, but once a pond my size is built it can be pretty expensive to go in after the fact and make the shoreline have a steeper incline. Mike said some people that don't want a steep shore dropoff on their entire pond can build half or just parts of their ponds with this steeper slope feature and thus prevent/greatly reduce the shoreline aquatic vegetation. If I had it to do over-again I would love steeper shorelines on at least 75% of my pond/lake.
See below the aquatic vegetation along my shore:
This pic shows my buddy standing in my shallow shoreline and Mike said that gradual slope makes it too easy for the aquatic vegetation in east Texas. This was earlier in Spring, it got much worse.
