Pat,

If you use the hay you might as well do nothing. It rarely works and takes time. I would go with gypsum or aluminum sulfate with a buffer after you prevent any soil from washing in. If your Ph is not that high and alkalinity and hardness low you can kill two birds with one stone by adding the gypsum. However in my area gypsum does not work well for clearing as the water is already very hard and alkalinity is almost off the scale it is so high. My ph is high too in the middle 8's.

On one of my ponds I purchased 6 foot wide burlap in 300 ft rolls for about $100.00 a roll fron a burlap supplier on the Internet and after seeding I staked it down around the bank. Above that I spread straw. Or if you don't want to spend that kind of money you can just use straw over the grass seed. I was amazed at how well the burlap worked. Even in a gully washer no soil washed in!

No use in clearing it if you don't stop what is causing it to be turbid in the first place. It will just get turbid again. Get that grass grows ASAP.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.