Carp in the pond

I have about an acre pond in Kentucky that is a muddy mess, I think its due to carp stirring up the bottom, possibly catfish as well. Anyone have any experience on getting rid of them to clear up the water for more beneficial fish? The landowners here are talking about calling in the electroshock fishing guys, and I would like to avoid shock treating everything else that calls the pond home besides the carp. Lots of frogs, birds, bluegill etc. I'd be all for leaving it as is, however I only manage the land and don't have the final say. Maybe I should just go fishing more? hehe.

eat the carp

mmm fish sandwich.

Here's a good article on processing carp if anyone else is interested.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1975-05-01/How-To-Clean-Fillet-Cook-Carp.aspx?page=3

I doubt if getting rid of the carp will help the mud, but making the pond deeper would probably help that. Getting rid of carp will encourage growth of more grass and weeds in the pond, but that's usually less desirable.
Carp make good cat foos when pressure cooked for 90 min. Many people from Asia will gladly trade you something for them -- make some arrangements!

Easiest way to harvest carp is with bow and fishing arrow on a string - pluck them off the top in hot weather!

I hesitate to suggest introducing a species that isn't already there, but you might consider adding some kind of filter feeder, like snails. The difficulty here is that if conditions are optimum they may breed too fast. But, if there is a species of freshwater snail that is indigenous to your area, this could be a solution.

Good suggestion Willy! I use mussels in my swales that keep water yearround..

I am guessing those are zebra mussels, Eric? I grew up on Lake Erie in the 70s and in those days the water was always murky. These days the water is much more clear because of the invasion of freshwater zebra mussels. They have become a major problem in many ways, but one benefit they have is of filtering out the sediment. I wonder if they would survive in a pond in Kentucky.

We have a few varieties of mussels native to Washington - these are black, oblong, and about 3 inches long... edible out of the creeks, but I don't eat my swale cleaners...

OK, Eric, now you've got my curiosity up. How is it that your swales are always full of water? Do you get that much rain?

Our homesite is near the bottom of a small valley (2000 ft wide and 200 ft deep) so we get a lot of runoff going through -- really there are a lot of places where you can follow the water paths even 2-3 feet underground!
We have a piece of lawn that slopes gradually downward into soggy land that borders a year-round creek. The swale i keep at the bottom of this stays full year round - really the swale is more for spreading water and providing an overflow than it is for holding water. The two upper swales also take in rainwater and seepage from a sump under the house (also year-round!), but one of these goes dry in summer.

I still have an area about 40x100' that has winter standing water but is outside the creek's protection boundary -- maybe someday I will get a "last stand" swale on the bottom of that and mound up some usable soil on it...but I would need to be hurting for space or have use of a spare excavator to make it worth it..