A landscape rake works fair at pulling FA out around the pond edge. But it had its shortcomings. One was the FA would wrap around the top of the aluminum and then I had to tip the rake from side to side to try and get it to slide off. Lots of extra movement and effort to remove the FA from the rake.
Thought there must be a better way. Made the improvements shown in the pictures below and thought others might like to see them. The foam is some 2" insulation scraps that came out of some construction we tore down. I made it tall enough so it has floatation so the rake stays above the FA and never wraps over the top of the rake. That helps reduce effort of FA removal by at least a few hundred percent.
I've also found that with the flotation, once I remove a section of the FA I can put my hand on the end of the handle, shove the rake down into the water at the angle the pond bottom drops to deeper water, and make great turbulence (like a boat oar dipping into the water) and stirring the muck up off the bottom. The idea being that stirring the muck up will put nutrients into the water column and create a planktonic algae bloom rather than a FA bloom. As the rake is forced down into the water, the positive buoyancy of the insulation causes it to pop back to the surface for low resistance retrieval from the operation. Works much better than before the flotation portion was added.
Notice also the longer handle added. This was simply about an 8' piece of 2" electrical conduit I has laying in the shed. Gives the tool lots better reach. Bolted it on with a 1/4 x 2.5" bolt and nylock nut.
Works lots better than the original bare landscape rake.
picture 5 shows how I used a circular saw to make a slit to fit the insulation over the aluminum rake frame. Picture 6 shows how I used heavy duty zip ties (used to tie up household duct work in heat/air systems) to attach the insulation Picture 7 shows the handle extension Picture 8 shows it in operation
