Depending on the type of vegetation, maybe you can manually clear it? I have a much larger pond that I work on manually. I keep my grounds mowed around the edges and weed eat right up to the water. So far, I've been able to keep cattails out by pulling them up by hand when I see them.
I also get out in the water and rake my coontail out and that stuff can grow pretty deep. That's a lot of work though and my employment allows me to have the summers off which is a luxury many others may not have.
When I first bought the land with the pond, I didn't realize the maintenance required to keep the banks clean and they it got away from me. After a major redo 2-3 years ago, I have committed myself to not allowing that to happen again and the banks have been relatively easy to maintain..
