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Hi Guys,

I'm here in North Carolina. I just bought a 20 acre property. One of the major draws for me to purchase it was a pond on the lower corner. The pond was put in about 25-30 years ago. It is spring and runoff fed. It drains into a creek that runs below. The spring is up the hill from the pond about 150 feet.

The pond looks to be in the neighborhood of 1/4 to 1/3 acre. I'm not able to tell yet how deep it is but it should be around 15 foot at the deepest. Here's a picture:


It appears the pond was created by damming up a small valley. From the picture we're looking at it from the deep end. The dam seems very sturdy with no signs of leaks or erosion. The shallow end is more marsh like and tapers very slowly.

I don't think there are a ton of fish in there at the moment. A couple of attempts at hooking something have turned up no bites or nibbles but I have saw a school of fifty or so small bluegill in there swimming around. I may have just been fishing on the wrong day. I do plan on stocking it but there is some work to be done before I do. There's also a family of river otters living in the pond so that would probably not help the fish population.

My main problem is muck. I put on some waders to test out the bottom as I would one day like to be able to let people swim here. The muck is down right dangerous at the moment, like quicksand in some places and up to four feet deep. Using a stick to prod the muck releases lots of gas from beneath. There's no chance of me being able to afford draining this thing and getting heavy equipment to come in and clear the muck.

There's a power line the comes within 20 feet of the pond so my plan is to get some power ran down there, get a good aerator and hopefully within 2-5 years be muck free.

Is this a pipe dream? If so, do you have any other suggestions?

I'm not worried about a fish kill since I'm going to be stocking later but how long do you suggest waiting after starting aeration that I do stock?

Thanks in advance for any advice you all would be gracious enough to throw my way.

If you have a whole family of otters living on that pond they will keep it wiped out of fish. Anything you put in there will just be snacks for them. 4 foot of muck in only a 1/4 acre pond seems like a lot to overcome without digging out and starting over in my opinion.

It seems to me that with a 1/4 ac pond you could get her mucked out in a single day with some heavy equipment. Aeration will get you inches per year, and then only if the muck is organic and not silt.

You could consider gas powered trash pump and silt bags if getting heavy equipment on site is problematic

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll be taking the otters out ASAP. Luckily they aren't protected here and we can dispose of them legally any time if they are causing property damage.

I'll have to think more on the muck problem.