Here in the Northeast, I think your plan would result in many deceased fish.
We had over 20 inches of ice over our pond in the middle of the coldest part
of winter. I had to cut holes using an ice auger just to allow the pond to
vent.

I would be very concerned that the decomposing leaves would substantially
elevate the poisons in the water. I used a leaf vac in the fall before the
serious leaf drop, then built a hoop house and suspended leaf netting over
that. It worked great at keeping the leaves off. I am happy to report that
all of my fish survived (unlike last winter when I had a half dozen fish
pops).

MSK

"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
Not sure if this is an original idea or not, but I am pretty impressed
with
results, so I thought I would post it. I decided not to net my pond last
fall so I could see how bad it would get, and to see how bad the cleaning
would be. I have TONS of leaves in the pond, as would be expected. The
cleaning as not been too difficult, but it will be some work. I have
gotten
a lot out so far, and the water is just about gin clear already.
Yesterday,
I decided to take a smallish (200 gph or so) pump...I placed it in the
shallows of the pond with the output pointing towards the edge of the
pond.
This very quickly got a small whirlpool going in the pond. The minnows
love
the current, BTW. Anyway, all of the debris, leaves, etc. are all
collecting
behind one of the containers I have plants in, and they are all at the
bottom of the pond! Instead of cleaning Everywhere, I now have a small
area
where the leaves and such are all densely piled. It's making cleaning a
lot
easier.


--
BenignVanilla
www.iheartmypond.com

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