Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? My Pond Renovation Thread.

I just wanted to introduce myself and my pond.
Most forum's have a "New" category,since they don't I'll do it here before I ask questions about my pond situation.

I'm Eddie,I live in Oklahoma. I have two acres in town,1 acre has our house and the other has a 1/4-1/3 acre pond and 30x40 shop.

We bought the property about 5 years or so ago.
At the time the pond was nice looking,just needed cleaned up.
Everytime I threw a fishing line,I caught a fish. Which is exactly why I wanted it besides having a place for the kids to swim. (My son was born the week before we closed on the house,he's 5-also have 9yo girl)

I built the 30x40 metal shop building a year after we moved in,the dirt pad was already pushed up as the builder planned another house there.
Perfect for me,the shop was in the plans anyway.
I figured we would build a deck to a dock on the pond eventually.

I stocked the pond with fish I caught on my not so often outings. Same things that were native to the pond,bluegill/crappie,bass,catfish. Other than that just weedeated and weedkiller.

Fast forward 2yrs ago,I get the bright idea to dig out the pond because I was bored and renting the backhoe to dig the footer for the shop had been fun.
I use a 3/4" sump pump in a bucket to drain the entire pond in a week or so. Took three try's as the weather in Oklahoma is insane.

After it's been dry for a month or more I try to rent the backhoe. Guy reccomends strongly against it(He said No).
Said that no matter how dry it looks on top,backhoe will sink.

I can push an axe handle into the silt (floating in a boat,still wet) all the way so I imagine i've got 4-6ft of silt on the bottom.
I took the guy's advice (especially after he said insurance didn't cover it,had to pay out of pocket) and forgot that idea.

But I still had a dried out drained pond. I simply left it alone as I was working like a madman to pay off debt and had no time or extra money for a project.

This caused it to grow up even more weeds,and it filled in again pretty quickly(especially after some ditching to correct a driveway trench).

Now it's full again,and I'm thinking of draining it for the summer to do some digging by hand maybe.
I hope to have money to work on this at the end of the summer maybe. My wife wants the ridge in our backyard dug out first,and I will price the pond work at the same time.

My problem at the moment is my dam seems to be leaking on two side's. A low side on the west and the dam on the north side.
It's affected my mowing in these areas,though doesn't seem to affect pond level a whole lot.

It is a safety factor though as there is a street about 40ft from the dam that is regularly used. I'm not worried the dam is going to break,there is no sign of that and i'm sure it's plenty strong.
But should I be doing anything about it?
Will draining and digging by hand on the pond a little bit help or hurt anything?
Our property is all dense clay,some rock. I just want to maybe dig some silt out to help with the dirt work cost and maybe shape the walls a little bit.
There are currently no fish in the pond,just a grown up pile of weeds and mess.

Sorry for the long post,wanted to give all the info that might be needed.
I plan to ask alot more questions,but i'm mainly a lurker.
Wanted a thread I could come back to for more questions.

Sorry,the only pics I have of the pond currently are background from a few other pics.
But they will give an idea,most are within the past year.
I'll take some today when I get a chance.