Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cleaning up a farm pond

Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess that the old gentleman that we purchased the place from 19 years ago used to somehow drag a old hay rake through there once a year! No idea how he hooked it up.

You can Roundup cat tails and kill them, but they still come back.The only way to keep them at bay is with a back or track hoe and dig them out by the roots.Copper sulfate will kill pond weeds,but is some highly toxic stuff.You can only apply so much in a ponds life and still be able to eat the fish you have.Ponds are a lot of maintenance.You should have them dragged about every 11 years to get rid of accumulated sediment.

Spring fed or just subbing in? If it just subs in (i.e. minimal outflow), use a shade chemical like "Aquashade" or "Aquaveil". Those filter the UV light, thus preventing plants to grow under water. Effective on rooted macrophytes, not so much on filamentous algea. These are best when used starting before the first sign of Spring growth, but they are quite effective, and inexpensive.

Some springs throw tons and tons of silt, Others throw tons and tons of minerals. Mine does both. If yours is a spring that throws silt..... better budget for excavation on a regular basis.

Grass carp will help with rooted macrophytes, but really need water temperatures above 70 degrees to work well. Some bottom feeders, like carp, catfish, etc, will increase the turbidity in the pond, also reducing the light that reaches the bottom, thus preventing weed growth. Watch out that you don't introduce something that you can't get rid of! Carp are hugely effective this way, but make sure you only introduce females or males, or there'll be heck to pay. Plus, they are good eating and very sporty.

Instead of using a back hoe or dragline, consider using a suction dredge if you want to just remove silt. It's easier to move the sludge away from the pond with a pump. That way so you don't have all the mud on the bank and avoid that restoration effort.

We had a small pond and had the same problems you are showing. I went to Tractor Supply and got Copper Sulfate and read the directions several times before recognizing I did not understand them. So I called the Department of Agriculture and they walked me through the process. You have to know how much water you have in the pond and then use less of the Copper Sulfate than recommended. Start at one end and wait two days. You will see the moss just vanish and then the cattails start to wilt. If necessary repeat in the other end. The process took about one week and the pond was clean. Yes, I had to use a drag rake to get all the dead cattails out and no they did not grow back the next year. Evidently the Copper Sulfate kills to the roots. I had to repeat every three years for the moss but lost very few fish. The one's we did lose were the smallest Blue Gill. No Bass were harmed. Good Luck.

Copper Sulfate or “blue stone” is probably the most commonly used algal treatments because of its availability and low cost. Copper sulfate comes in several forms depending on how finely it is ground. Smaller crystals will dissolve easier than larger crystals. In very hard water it is difficult to use copper sulfate because it binds with the calcium, precipitates out of solution, and renders the copper ineffective as an algaecide.

All copper compounds can be toxic to fish if used above labeled rates and can be toxic in soft or acidic waters even at label rates. Before using copper is it best to test the pond water’s alkalinity and adjust copper treatments to alkalinity concentrations. For additional information on using copper sulfate see the SRAC #410 Calculating Treatments for Ponds and Tanks.