Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? DIY Dredge suggestions/experience?

Hi,
Appreciate all the knowledge and expertise in this forum!

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to dredge a body of water of muck/mud?
Based on some threads in the forum, was thinking about using a trash pump to suction and another smaller pump to spray water to agitate and slurry the mud/muck.

I have a 2 acre drainage pond/lagoon to manage. Over the years, it has been filling up with muck & silt, creating shallower water allowing for weeds to take over now that its shallow enough, and the die back each winter is creating more muck which feeds this cycle. Weeds are pickerel weed, pond weed, phragmites.

I have islands of pickerel weed that trap more debris and sediment and they continue to grow over take the lagoon.

I have been beating back the weeds with combo of herbicides and tarping method, but wanted to start tackling the muck. Goal is to deepen the water in some areas so weeds won't grow back so readily, and have more access for fishing boats. Water depth is 2 feet in shallows up to 6ft.

Was looking at one of these trash pumps:
https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-...ll-trash-water-pump-23000-gph-56718.html

Also saw these:
https://piranhapump.com/mini-dredges
But cost is too high at 13k quoted.

Has anyone tried using a trash pump to pump out mud and muck from a pond? Any lessons learned, tips, or design suggestions?
Wanted to try it out on a small patch of where there is a lot of muck first.
-Ray

Fastest way is mechanical removal.

DIY dredge is not going to remove the amount you want to in the timeframe you want.

Thanks. By mechanical removal, you mean like a long reach excavator?

Would DIY dredge it be feasible for say like a 80 foot section of shoreline? I am not looking to deepen the whole 2 acre area, but want to try on a smaller section.

Ray my pond is about one acre and 25' at its deepest and about forty five years old muck was about seven feet deep. I used the cheaper semi trash pump from harbor freight I reduced inlet and outlet down to two inch. Tried several methods of dredging the muck. With a twenty foot hose on the inlet you can work a pretty decent area. I piped the output to an above ground pool to let the muck settle out and drain the water to my bait fish pond. It is a long process but I was able to get a decent area cleaned out but after a little while the muck tends to migrate to the area that was cleaned out.

During the drought the pond got low enough to pump the remaining water to my bait fish pond and I then let it dry enough to get equipment in to clean it out. I ended up removing about two thousand yards with the equipment. I can't begin to comprehend how long it would have been dredging by hand

Yes I do.

I have the largest pump HF sells and it works well in the shallows if there aren't too many leaves to clog the nozzle. I'll be trying it again once the water warms up. I do sort of enjoy it although it would be impractical for anything over a 1/4 acre I'd guess.

If you have the mechanical ability and resources, I would get an old dragline. You can probably find one operational for scrap price or a little more.

I agree with you that a dragline would probably be the best tool for the job.

I have thought that a young single guy could drive around the country with a dragline and get a high pay rate for a few years. (If he could figure out a way to get referrals from all of the pond management companies.)

Ray, the HF pump housing, like most pumps, is made out of aluminum. SIlt ruins pumps far quicker than stones, so I might look at Northern Tool Honda powered pumps. They sell replacement pumps which saves a ton of money long term. I'm on my third housing, but still using the same Honda engine.

Also, leggy organics like coontail can back up at the pump's housing flap that keeps water in the housing. When that happens, you have to unscrew the inlet hose and dig the plants out so the water can start flowing again. The best way I have found to deal with that is to only vac up organics in small bursts, and then go back to silt or rocks to clear the hose.