Thena - I'm pretty knew at this too. But the duck weed rope works great! We also had a duck weed problem this summer. We used the rope to collect it all to one side of the pond, then used an old small window screen my husband attached a long handle on to scoop it up. Be sure to dispose of it somewhere away from the pond.
We used Sonar to kill what was left of the duck weed, it works great. Very expense though. We just wanted to get out as much as we could though because I didn't want the decaying duck weed to add any more nutrients. Here is the 'clever' rope.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35766&fpart=1The other is water primrose. We had that too! It is pretty, but it did try to take over my small pond. I used a heavy duty rake to get a lot of it. But the plant is very brittle! You will have little pieces all over the pond. We sprayed what remained with Rodeo. It is not nearly as expensive as Sonar.
Hang in there!
