I have a 3/4 acre farm pond ... had it re-dug in 2004 and it's been beautiful since, until this year. This year it has stayed muddy looking all year.

It's fed by underground streams, I watched them bubble up when the pond was re-dug. This past spring was VEY wet, lots of rain, and the pond was muddy looking ... understandably. But then it stopped raining and actually was drought in July & August, but the pond never cleared.

I'm thinking I have too many fish ... large-mouth bass, sunfish, 3 grass carp (been in the pond for years, they look like little sharks since they've gotten so big), fat-head minnows, there were 5 goldfish that had gotten pretty large (but I haven't seen them since spring because of the brown muddy color) and a friend added 5 koi last year (they have doubled in size in a year, these I see regularly and they look pretty happy).

No algae, another local pond is half covered with green algae ... really gross looking.

Not much plant coverage on the surface, 3 areas of water lilies.

So the only "new" thing that has changed over the years are the 5 koi.

Any ideas? I miss seeing all the fish and frogs in the water. I see the koi and grass carp when they are right near the surface .. and other smaller fish in the shallows.

I looked at the pond alot this weekend, it was hot so the dogs went swimming ... and it's more greenish water than brown ... so something makes me think it has to do with the amount of sun, and not enough plant coverage.

I'll see if I can find my local Soil & Water guy and ask him.

They used a pump to pump the water out and emptied it into my back pasture which slopes away from the pond ... I had already lost most my fish from a bad winter kill because the pond had too much silt.

They brought in a bulldozer and excavator and ended up right in the pond moving the gunk out. Since I was no longer using my back pasture for horses, they put the gunk in that pasture and then leveled it when they were done. If you can't do something like that, they'll have to haul it away (additional cost).

My neighbors & I spend the day catching crawfish, frogs, turtles, etc. (Even the guy on the bulldozer helped) Anything we saw that we could save, we put in buckets and they ended up in other neighbors ponds.

We dug it out in November, it re-filled itself (spring-fed, could see the springs bubbling up when they got to the shale bottom). The bulldozer was sparking on the rock when they reached the bottom. It re-filled itself by January.

In the Spring, I re-stocked with minnows, crayfish, large mouh bass ... bluegills and frogs came back on their own, and I eventually put in grass carp, goldfish and koi.

I'll post some pictures when I get home. Best thing I ever did.

I read through th 70 page catalog on Zetts website, and guess maybe my pond is OK. He says a clear pond is a sterile pond. My fish all look healthy, plenty of little ones swimming around the edges and shallows. He says Koi are good to have, since they eat algae, and mine have doubled in size in a year.

Might restock some more crayfish next Spring and talk to the guy at my local fish farm. But for now, I'll stop worrying about it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a digital camera in those days so I didn't document everything like I do now! LOL!

My niece and mu dog Brandi int he pond after it was dug ..

My other niece adn friend:

it will still fill quickly, we're getting lots of rain now ... I did mine in November and it was filled by January.