Jeff,thanks for the response, I feel your pain, or should I say I am trying to keep from having to feel your pain. My hay and animal situation is totally separate from my pond. I was just making a comparison.
I too am just a normal everyday guy with a pond, trying to make the right decisions. I have no where near the pond knowledge that some of the people on this site have, that is exactly why I am here. I am sure these people realise that everyone here is not a pond expert. The trivial and redundant questions to them are often earth shakers to the novice.

My pond is 20 years old and I try not to interfere with it.I do not feed the fish or have aerators. It kind of does its own thing. It is full of fish including,catfish,crapie,BG,Bass,
perch,Koi (size of small submarines), and just about every other pond related animal you can think of, except beavers and musk rats. This may be the wrong approach to ponding but it has worked out so far,or so I believe. I subscribe to the school of,"If it ain't broke don't fix it!". But here in lye's the problem, you first must understand the definition of broke,which in regards to ponds, I am learning is not a clear cut defintion. That was the origination of my post Southern Naiad good or bad? I do not know just how much,or what kind of vegetation is supposed to be present. This makes it extremely difficult to define broke. Iam steady sucking up the info. though to assist in the definition.

Up until now I had the occasional FA outbeak, nothing to get excited about. Wait till it blows into a corner and dip it out. This is the first time this Elodea/Egeria & Naiad has appeared, or appeared in my eyes, it could of been there in very small quantities. After reading on this site and others I think it is something that I need to deal with before it gets out of control. As of now it is just along my edges, about 6' out, and reasonably accessible. Unless I can find some other type of info. to the contrary I guess I will,very reluctantly, use chemicals. Now I just have to figure out what is the ideal time. I would think that mechanically removing it would be a great head start to the fight, but once again that is why I am on this site. You just can not beat the, "been there done that stories". I am a research junky and I will continue on with the research and compile a stratedgy for the weed war. Sounds like the beginning to one of those TV surival shows!!

Thanks
Ron