Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Pond Questions

Well I moved this question from the new arrivals section to here figured it wasn't the best place to ask questions! hah

Well to sum it up, I just got this new to me pond, been dug for around 6-7 years and do not know where to start. To summarize the pond its .50 acre, kidney shaped. Have not gotten into it yet, but does not look to have much of habitat for the fish, 3 small cypress trees, and some log out in the middle don't even know yet if it goes to the bottom. There is hardly any run off from the yard it has a slight levee around it and gets filled with a water well if needed. From what I was told 4ft shelf all around the rest is about 6-7 ft and one little section about 10-12 foot. The pond is very muddy first guess is from catfish but don't know cause we have not caught any. Caught one small bass (while bream fishing) and some small bream or sunfish 3-5 inch fish. Pond was stocked before with bream, bass, and catfish guessing when they first dug pond. I just ordered me a minnow seine to try and seine in some fish to see what's in there. I throw fish food and the only thing that really eats it is the minnows! I have bass fished the pond hours and a bunch of days and nothing not even a bite. Go right next door to the neighbors and snag 3-4 bass in no time.

Im looking for a good bream and bass pond not any trophy size fish just some good fun. Im debating on making it a little bigger, mostly for the dirt but also I could drain most of pond and kinda start from scratch. But not sure that's gonna happen. Would like to try and get it cleared up and start building places for these fish to live around, maybe fertilize if needed? Add aerator or maybe even just a fountain? If over stocked with little sunfish should I try adding 50 lmb? Just not sure were to start...
Got a few people said first thing is get sample of water and send in for PH, hardness, and alkalinity. will be working on that soon. Also I took sample of water in jar to monitor for a week and see if it clears up. If is does clear up im assuming that means fish are stirring it up?
Thanks in advance for any input!

Welcome to PB.

Yes get water tested - LSU does that.

See link below on muddy water - catfish can add/cause turbidity (muddy water). Lots here also on the topic. See the bucket test in the link.


https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/108

So, got the water tested from a pool place around town

PH: 8.0
Alkalinity: 74
Calcium Hardness: 71

How's this water look to you guys? From what I could find looks pretty good...