We picked up a property with a couple ponds this spring. We had high hopes for this pond (just under 2ish acres) but also planned for the worst going in. Well after finally getting on it with a depth finder, it pretty much runs around 5'-6' (just a blip at 7' in one very small area). I had already planned to raise the level a couple feet which we'll do for sure now but I'm looking for any/all thoughts going in. Built in the early 80's... and I think actually built and designed really well but of course has silted in over the years. At one time we've been told by many in the area that this was a prime fishing pond... certainly not these days but hoping to get it back to those days over time.

1) Grass growing around the entire pond in the water... is this what grass carp get after if we put them in??

2) There's some ??sea weed?? on the bottom of the pond... will grass carp get after this too? I'm assuming just adding more depth will help eliminate this as well.

3) We're buying a 8500 lb mini excavator (reach 17'-18' with a digging depth of 10'-11'). We're buying it to help clear the property but of course planned to used of for some pond maintenance as well... cleaning up shorelines and so on. Possibly dig down a bit around the pond shorelines to get add a little more depth. I certainly understand it'll have limits. At some point when I'm efficient with the machine, I figured I could rent a big boy excavator to get out and actually dig it back to 10-12' or so.

We have constant water flow coming into this pond from several acres of farm ground/water shed around us... the overflow pipe really dumps a pretty good amount of water. The pond stays at a nice steady level and in the winter I'm assuming probably keeps water coming for much of the winter as well until get really get into our hard freeze for the winter. I thought about trying to empty the pond and redirect that flow so I could piddle and dig it out, but I think that's a job for down the road after we have a little more personal history with the pond. For now, I'm looking for any thoughts at all since you guys are all experts. smile

Thanks!!

Pics were taken today. 5 28 17




Below it's hidden now by grass... but there is the overflow 18" pipe... this needs cleaned up... but my thought is to add a 90* elbow or T Connect which will raise the water up another 2' or so. The cool thing I noticed... is with the amount of water coming and leaving the pond, it seems that if I kept this area cleaned the top algae seems to make it's way to the pipe and exits the pond. Right not of course it's starting to build up because the grass is now stopping it from exiting the pond.



Last edited by Shawk; 05/28/17 10:39 PM.