I have an old pond. It's about 40-50 years old and yes, it's silted. Currently, it's 7-8' deep at the dam and 2-5' over much of the acre.
I know the best solution is to bust the dam, dry it out, dig it out and rebuild the core. The Pond Builders who are willing to return my call ( most don't want anything to do with rebuilds ) are tossing out $30-60K estimates. That's just not in the budget at this time.
I had a Biologist from the State Conservation Department ( there for other projects ) who thought the pond was just fine as is.
My question: What would it hurt to stock the pond and see what happens. What do I need to do if this is the route I want to take? There may be some fish in there. Do I just toss out a worm and see if there are any takers?
I've search around the forum and can't find a good plan for the above.
Use fishing tackle of various types. Worms will usually tell if there are panfish (bluegills and the like) pretty quick, hotdog or stink bait w/treble hook on the bottom for cat fish, minnow under a bobber or bass lures for bass. I like Rooster Tail and Mepps spinners.
You could also use a trap to see what comes in. I like to use a sock with some fishfood (dog/cat food works too) inside the trap,bread tied to the inside of the trap. This will tell you if you have forage type fish and, maybe, crawdads.
Some have had luck with throw nets...me, not so much.
Limb lines and trot lines are a more lazy approach. Not that there is anything wrong with that! lol
If there are fish in there and you stock small, affordable fish...they will likely become expensive food. If, by chance, you have decently balanced populations now, stocking may alter that in a negative way.
Using the above fish catching ideas may not produce much data until springtime. Wintertime tends to keep the fish much less active thus less hungry.
Your estimates are very high, indicating that they really don't want the work. I had my 1/4 acre pond renovated for less than $6K, IIRC and it was originally 10 foot deep, but had silted in with 8 foot of muck. It was a very old cattle pond. Of course, if you have to have the muck hauled off, that increases the costs a lot. If I recall, you suspected a leak too. That does not inspire most dirt guys. Your water depths would be healthy for a fishery I would think. So, you may be on the best course. Time to do some fishing.
Catch some between now and spring if you can. Measure their length and weights, keep track of the numbers and what species. Research "Relative Weights" of game fish and you can tell a fair amount about their health from that.
One, I added some photos to my original post. It will give you an idea of what I'm working with. Two, I know there is something in there. I sat by the pond on a calm night this week. I could see a fair amount of activity with water disturbance.
Not sure yet what I have but something is swimming around. The next 10 days won't break 20 degrees F so fishing will have to wait.
If you want to start over, you can make a temporary syphon with 2" PVC and Feldco gasket connectors, 2 elbows, a T with a cap, shut off valve, and a flapper valve for the intake. Once you really get that water down in the summer, the bass can really eat a lot of sunfish easily. It also is like catching fish out of a barrel. You might have a fish kill with the low water and low oxygen FYI. With the lower amount of water, electroshock would be easier too.
I have the same problem with an aging pond and silt. There's no cheap solution that I've found.
