Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Dream Come True but need help with Muddy Lake

I have been inspired for some time by everyone at this site living their dreams of building ponds. I just bought my dream piece of property in Oklahoma. 280 Acres of pond building heaven!
There is a 15 acre government built watershed lake with a 31' damn. It is really nice and is fed by 3 major creeks in east central Oklahoma.

The lake is very muddy and I believe does not clear too much even in the summer. The property is about 15-20 miles west of the area in Oklahoma that is more rocky where ponds tend to clear well. The area of the property is typical Oklahoma red clay and there is a lot of sandstone.

I have looked over for some time the postings on muddy water and reviewed the solutions of hay, gypsum, etc....my question is how do you correct this long term. The lake has good overall grass surrounding the impoundment but the owner has put in grass carp to keep the vegatation down around the edges of the pond. The creeks seem to be where the muddy water is draining into the pond. 8 years ago the spillway was raised 5 feet by the state as it has silted in pretty good. I am planning on building more ponds on the property which will help control the silt into this impoundment.

Is the key to do something to the creek beds to improve the filtering of the primary water shed runnoff???

I recognize when big rains come I will be muddy but how do I get this pond to clear more in the long term???

Also, after the spillway was raised 8 years ago the owner re-stocked the pond with:
313 Florida Bass
313 Hybrid Bluegill
313 Black Crappie
300 Channel Cat
200 Copper Nose Bream
188 Big Bluegill
8,000 Flathead Minnows

What do you think?? Aren't Crappie a bad mix if your goal is trophy bass??

Your thoughts are appreciated....

Not trying to be a spoiler but I could have swore I read that in some parts of Oklahoma the water never clears due to some type of clay suspension from the soil. Don't know where I read this though. Could have been here?

I would say in a normal circumtance a settling pond would be an answer as would increasing aquatic macrophytes.

I'm not sure either but I believe in the red soil area there is a good chance that will be a unsolvable problem for you. Think about it The Red River is called that for a good reason. Hope I'm wrong. Good Luck.

Here's something to read related to your question.

http://agfacts.tamu.edu/D11/Calhoun/Mar/Recfish/Pondmgt/mudpond.htm

I have been researching this for quite awhile for the lake I live on a shallow at most 25 foot 14 acre lake.

1 - you have to have some type of plant life

2 - water fleas and or water daphnae live on the plants in the shade of the plant

3 - fry eat the daphnae

4 - bigger fish eat the fry

5 - water daphnae eat the algae which causes discoloration

6 - plants cause the silt to drop down

you can put all the fish you want into a pond and it wont mean a thing without plants

the plants also absorb the extra nitrogen from the fish poop
and
they block the sun and that keeps the algae down.

A great pond plant are impatients - mine are over 2 feet tall now - i put them right into the water

now sadly you have the grass carp which will eat the plants, so put the plants into a fenced in area in the pond or shoot the carp!

the plants also protect the pond from wind, which will also stir the bottom up.

Kill all the catfish - they also stir the bottom up

Kill all the carp - they also stir the bottom up

build small weirs for the creeks, to slow the water coming in

Their are also various creek plants as well to help slow the water down, once slowed down the particulates will drop out.