Should I drain my pond? (Depth issue)

I would it you can afford it.4 feet is just too shallow,I think.
We built a pond last year,only 1/2 acre.About 1/4 of it is 8 feet,1/2 is 6 feet.

Every pond at some point will need to have the silt build up removed. Managing a varying species healthy fish population in a pond requires food, structure and varying water depths.
If a functioning fish pond is what you desire remove the silt.

I would recommend at least 25% of the pond to be 8-10'. that will help the fish in summer and winter. 4' will not allow for sustainable healthy fish long term outside of perch. Dig to 10-12' and it will silt into 8-10'

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About 1/4 of it is 8 feet,1/2 is 6 feet.

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What’s the other 1/4

If you have to ask

“What’s the other 1/4”
Wish I could post pictures.
The pond is basically rectangular shape with the levee on both ends and across the backside.
He left a strip 6-7 feet wide 4’ deep next to the levee.
Front side slopes up from 6 feet to the edge,of shore,probably 10 wide strip.
That’s probably clear as mud.

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I’m going to assume the answer is no, but I guess with a 1 acre pond it’s not possible to just get an excavator in there and dig it out full? Everyone always assumes you gotta dig the very middle but that’s not necessarily the case

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Thats what I did with my 1/3 acre pond and it was a disaster. There were a LOT more fish than I thought, which all died b/c of the muddy water. Big, stinky mess.

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Drained my last summer. Was 8 foot when we had it dug twenty five years ago. Was about four feet. It took a few weeks to totally dry up so they could dig it out. I had them dig it down to 15 foot. I restocked it with hybrid bluegill and shale crackers in March. They are almost hand size now. I built a dock in it before it filled back with water

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This is actually my full plan. I would like to also install the post for a deck prior to fill up as well as re-stocking with bluegill and bass.

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This is actually my full plan. I would like to also install the post for a deck prior to fill up as well as re-stocking with bluegill and bass.

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That one dude in Alabama who built his pond did the same thing but he put a fish pellet spreader on there with a timer. Turned out really great.

We cut the dam and dug out an uncle's pond late last winter. It was about an acre and same as yours, maybe 4 feet deep in the deepest part because of sediment over 30 years. By mid-summer, the vegetation would be so thick it was basically unfishable. The cover of the vegetation kept the water from getting too hot and killing the fish from low oxygen and high temperature, but you couldn't really fish it.

At the banks, we dug pretty steeply down around four feet and then took down to about 12 feet in the middle. It's kind of a long, narrowish pond as opposed to more round, and where the little runoff comes into the shallow end, we dammed up a secondary little pond with a 12" overflow pipe to act as a sediment trap area that can be easily dug out with a standard front end loader to keep most sediment from entering the big pond in the first place. After it filled up with the spring rains, it looks really good and we spent all year stocking it with golden shiners, gizzard shad and fathead minnows, and next year we're adding bass, bluegill and channel cats.

Long story short, 8 feet is a heck of a big improvement over 4 feet, but you can go deeper and there are certainly advantages in doing so.