I was new to the site a wile back, did a few post about my pond, din't realy kow where to go with it wanted fish but confused on kind.
So got wife pregant had little boy now im back for help
Here wat I got

60 year old man made pond spring ground water
3/4 acre no inlet or outlet
shape round trees around 3/4 of it
was over 15' deep at one point
filled in with leaves, pine, ect
no cattails or duckweed
real thick weed on bottom looks like "pine tree"
depth finder shows 7' in deep hole but lots of weeds
water real clear can see 4' down noproblem
lots of rainbow cubs
have planted bluegills and a catfish made it 1 year found at ice out dead. minnos make it every year
ice gets about 2 1/2' thick

So I want it back to 15'
less weeds
fish all year "for my boy"

talked to a guy with hydraulic dredge said two 10 days of work he could remove all weeds and muck for "big bucks"

so let me hear it from the pros, am I just going to have minnos or is this fixable?

MY boy is 9 months would like his first fish to be in the pond...

Thanks for any info
Ekim

Is there land available to dump the muck and sediment that you take out of the pond? I was talking to a heavy equipment rental place the other day and they said that hydraulics beats cable every time for speed. It's not good to dig in water with hydraulics, it's much better (and less $$ spent) to pump out the water and dig it dry (or as dry as possible).

Yes i have land for muck, no halling needed

As for pumping out the pond ... well thats a lot of water around 1 million gal.. There is a swamp across the road I could go there with it, but I don't need to flood out my neighbors. it might hold it?


g. earth photo

Just to get a idea what does the dredge cost for two days.
There is not really any cheep way clean out a pond, but as esshup said it cost less dry.

Otto

Hey UNM Whenever I get confused about what fish I too get my wife pregant..:)....In your situation I think it wise to listen to Nancy Pelosi and............ "drain it"

Well when I'm confused I do what I know


OK If I knew the swamp across the road would hold it
I would pump it out.. but how big of a pump dose a guy need? haha a big one
I know. Will a 4inch trash pump work? And your certain the water will come back 100%

With that 4" trash pump you probably could pump it dry in 2 days of running. (23000 gph)

Will it fill back up? Nothing in ponds (well almost nothing) is 100%. Where does the water come from now that keeps the pond full?

I used a 3" semi-trash pump to pump my pond dry and keep it pumped down so we could renovate it. It worked great. I learned that I needed to float the intake screen from an innertube to keep from sucking up too much sand from the bottom of the pond, which filled up the intake hose.

Or at least put in some practice time!

The ground water level I think is keeping it full
But no way to know 100%
Water is level with swamp across the road
The swamp is mostly cattails and grass A floating bog


Practice makes perfect

If it's groundwater, then digging a deeper hole in the pond, locating the pump there and continually pumping while digging out the muck would be one solution. As long as the water table was higher than part of the pond, the pond would fill up to that depth once the pump stopped.

I went out on the pond today. Drilled 38 holes with auger, ice about 2.5' thick and no slush. Water smelled stagnate, took readings with a pole marked every foot with 38 holes I averaged 6.2' deepest hole was 9' Water is about 2' low from the dry fall we had last year.
I could feel the muck with the pole then pushed down till I hit hard bottom some places 2' others not much I don't know if this is very accurate way to measure muck depth but its all i got. Over the 38 holes it came out to be 1' of muck more in some less in others

For all you boys down south I had -20 last night don't you wish you were me !!!!!!

I ran the AC for awhile today.

You'll get even in August when I get my electric bill.

17°F here last night, 42°F today.

String it up a little last year. Baby is almost here, dad can't go fishing

A couple of duck photos

The first picture, Hen Bluewing Teal or Hen Mallards?

Hen Mallard w/kids
We have a nesting pair, they come back every year before ice out.
Hang out, mate, have 9-14 ducklings each year...

I think they gave my wife an idea

Send us a picture of the new baby when you can.

"I'm ready to go ice fishing....get some fish in the pond, dad."
"Maybe the guys on pondboss can help you fix the old pond, dad."


Any thoughts on the pond?
pump it....... dig it...... hope for water..... restock ..... install air pump.....enjoy......

$3,000 to $30,000, thats it?

The first goal is learn how to print money.

Yep, you answered it!

Look at the brightside...The pond will cost and talk back far less than your wife's idea, gleaned from the Mallards. The pond will also be the source of incredible joys and relaxation both with and away from said "idea" for generations to come....if we could only get ponds to produce grandchildren they would be perfect!!!

again

In Texas we have a conservancy that will pay you for land renovation. I used to know the guy. He would call and ask me if I knew any land owners renovating their land or ponds etc. The biggest problem was you had to pay for it yourself first and provide receipts and then he would cut you a check for what you spent. You may check with your Minnesota DNR and see if they have a like program.

That would be nice, but with all the cuts to the government
But then again they do look out for us

DNR

DO
Nothing
Right