Opinion on why my pond is so muddy?

Is it stocked?

Fill a 5 gallon bucket with pond water and see if it settles. If it doesn't, then you have some suspended clay particles. It won't clear without treatment.

if you have catfish it will muddy some. There are treatments that will clear it up. I used soilfloc to help with my water infiltration and it cleaned the water crystal clear grabbing the particles out of the water. Wasn't the intent but it worked.

I would recommend adding gypsum. That will work and not change the pond PH

We stocked in early April with bass, bluegill, fatheads. No catfish

I’ll report back

The water isn't turning over so it isn't clearing itself. When normal rain and runoff occurs again, it should start to clear itself. At this point the water is sitting in a big bowl, evaporating daily and concentrating the particulate, making it worse and worse each day.

The spring, by itself, should still have it at full pool and trickling through the spillway. But it isn't, so maybe it was a tiny little spring or maybe your spring got obstructed/collapsed in some way. Or your earthen dam is seeping.

Here are a couple publications that will help you better understand causes and “chemistry” of colloidal turbidity and possible solutions once you better understand what you think is the most likely cause.

Clay turbidity is more common in waters with low alkalinity (buffering capacity) so at the very least you will need a simple water analysis of your pond water. If you have a natural spring providing low alkalinity water in the pond on a continual basis that might be problematic.

By and large turbidity is more of an aesthetic issue than biological issue, though heavy clay turbidity does suppress phytoplankton growth and potential fish production - but for a recreation pond that is usually less of an issue to the owner than the aesthetics.

You can contact your county extension agent for some assistance if you feel it’s warranted.

Control of Clay Turbidity in Ponds

Clearing Muddy Ponds - Texas A&M

Its the catfish.

10-12’ at the deepest. Rather steep banks except for one large shallow flat

Spring is in the deepest waters

Will do.

What does the extension agent do exactly? I’ve had a few people suggest getting in touch with their office but not exactly sure what it is they do?