Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Pond clean out

HI all

I have a 3 acher pond in Leesburg Virginia. The Pond is 50 years old. The orginial owner said it was 15 feet deep when he first created it. Now the deepest part is only 5 feet with most of it 2 feet. There are tons of big bass 10 lbs and other fish in the pond. The algea has started to get real bad. The pond never freezes in the winter even though other water around it does. We are told it is a spring feed pond.

Questions....
What is the best way to solve this problem? What type of machine should be used to dredge?
How deep should I make the pond?
How long would a process like this take?

My wife would not like to lose the fish as they are fun to catch.

I have lots of land to place the dirt that is removed from the pond.

From what I've read around here, you have a few options:
1. Drain the pond and maybe move fish to another pond
2. Drag-Line it. Basically a large crane with a bucket attached to the cable, then dragged back. I've seen one around Oklahoma. Pretty slick, but not sure how expensive.
3. I'm pretty sure you can use a Trac-Hoe to dig out, but you are limited to the reach from the shoreline.
4. Deepen the pond by going up with the dam. This was recommended to my by my USDA advisor. Cheaper and eaiser than digging down. Also tends to greatly increase the size of the pond.

if the fishing is good you should consider digging pond out with fish and water in pond.alot of contractors dont like to dig with water in a pond but it can be done.it does take more time and larger equipment to dig while full of water but i have seen it done.another idea would be to lower the water some and dig out the area that has been drainned down to get on dry ground.not sure about your part of the country but were i'm at 7-8'is plenty of water.

Lazor:

My impression is that you are eating a sweet pickle that is going to get a lot more sour. That shallow water is going to become overgrown with weeds which might be great for forage fish to hide, but will eventually cause problems.

My gut instinct is that the most practical (considering cost, etc.) would be to bite the bullet and drain that rascal for a complete overhaul. A few trackhoes (very few) are big enough to effectively reach out far and dig it out; but you are talking about a lot of muck and fairly considerable cost. With one, you might be able to dig one end out deep so the water and fish drain into it while you dig out the rest...

It is impressive that the pond never freezes. Maybe you have a really good spring that circulates well. That spring could be your salvation or could turn into a huge vacuum.

I'm not sure how well the fish would like the muddy water, but I'm sure they'd prefer it to clean air!

Hopefully, the pros will jump in here with a response so I can learn what one really should do in your situation.

Please provide updates periodically on what you do and how it goes.

Jeff

P.S. FWIW: A municipality I know of had their lake drained and dug out. It seems like they dug out a similar depth and size using trackhoe and trucks. Lake was about 6+ acres originally. They did roughly half of it. Seems like cost was around $90K at prevailing wage.

Is it possible to build an island or two out of the muck with a bulldozer ?

Equipment needed
2- 4x4 trucks
1- 6 or 8’ snowplow blade or box blade
2- Couple hundred feet of chain or cable
Attach the chain to the blade to form a “Y” configuration both top and bottom of the blade (balance is critical) you are trying to keep the blade vertical as you dredge.
Attach the above configuration to the tow truck and a retrieval chain to the other vehicle.
Start at one end of the pond and start your dredging, when you get to the other end put the tow vehicle in neutral and let the retrieval vehicle pull you and the blade back and repeat. It takes a few times but once you get the hang of it…..its fun and it works.

HAUS,this shows there are many ways to skin a cat,this is a new one on me.sounds like a great idea but alot of hard work.if you use a 7'blade how long does it take to dig a 3-4'trench???

thanks for all the fast replys. I have been looking on the web and found a Dredging company that rents a a Dregding machine. Has anyone used these? they rent for about $14,000 a month and move 75 cubic yards an hour.