Last summer the neighbor who shares (about 50-50) the shoreline of our 2-acre pond put in 5 or 6 "koi" that he bought cheaply somewhere. In last summer's drought, when the water level was extremely low, we saw them break the surface occasionally. This spring we have plenty of water, but it looks muddy--and I saw 2 of these big fish--ugly, about 15" each--swimming in the shallow end.

Our pond is clay-bottomed, built 30 years or more ago by damming up a ravine. At its deepest now, it's probably only 10 feet or so, having silted up from muskrat action and the city storm sewers that have emptied into it since the development was done 25 years ago. We have an algae problem from lawn chemicals, but the water is usually clear. We have lots of migrant birds and usually duck and/or goose nests. The pond hasn't been stocked in more than 20 years, and I haven't seen minnows for almost that long.

So--the koi: Are they the mud-makers? How best to catch them? Thanks!