Family Farm

-Pond is .19 acre surface area and currently ~.93 acre feet

-Immediate Watershed is 3.95 acres - with 90% of that being open grass field.

-Last "dug out" about 20yrs ago. - is silted in now with top 1/3 being 12-18" deep and deepest part ~5-6' -sloping up very shallow at the dam.

To my surprise this past May - when I threw a line in the pond for the first time in 30+yrs, I caught a great selection of Green Sunfish and (I believe) Florida strain LMB. My grandfather had done it right, but somehow none of us knew about it! hahahahaaaa...
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I am in the beginning stages of exploring the feasibility of:

1) Cleaning up the edges of the pond and digging out as much silt as possible - would like the average depth to be7'. - should put the pond at .23 acres surface area and 1.6 acre feet... but I think that is probably being too optomistic.

2) Cleaning out the vegetation - but need to know if I need to provide shade of any kind (dock, some vegetation left?

3) Possibly installing a proper drain and trash rack and raising that section of the dam to the height of the rest of the dam.
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We've always (the few times we've done it) used our own Case backhoe to do any work on the pond, but I'm not against renting a larger excavator... IF some reasonable work can be done without draining the pond.

While I do not want to kill of the fish (I know they've lived through digging pond out before - don't know how), I also know that the pond is on a terminal trajectory if we don't do something.

Pictures are attached - Grateful for any wisdom, knowledge, suggestions or other comments that may be offered.

What are your goals for the pond? If improved fishing & better weed control, deepening seems urgent. Usually the cheapest way is to raise the dam rather than digging out the muck.

Can't tell you what to do, obviously. But if it were me I'd drain, poison fish (green sunfish are size limited and tend to overcrowd), raise dam, add some habitat (trees, rocks) on pond bottom. My guess is that a 20 to 1 watershed to pond ratio near Nashville is adequate to refill, but you may want expert opinion on that. Then start over with fathead minnows first, then bluegill, then LMB. This will involve some expense, and you will lose your current fish, but otherwise the future sounds bleak.

For that size pond, you'd be money ahead by draining the water down, digging it out to as dry a condition as possible (more efficient in moving dirt dry vs. wet), and then get busy with moving dirt and placing habitat in the pond for the fish before it fills up.

The $$ spent on stocking new fish would be the least of the money expenditures of the whole project.

If done correctly, and stocked correctly, fish can grow much faster than you think. We have had Largemouth bass stocked as fingerlings in early May reach 12"-13" by late September. If the goal is to grow large panfish, that can be done relatively quickly too.

anthropic - the only real goal is to extend the life of the pond. I was surprised how many LMB there were in it, and more surprised that it was supporting a couple of giants.

I wouldn't fret over the money spent to restock as much as the time, and even then. long term viability of the pond is the goal, so we may just have to do what has to be done. hahahaha. Thank you both for your advice. It's incredibly helpful.