On a small pond, pollution can be quite volatile in a short space of
time. Leaves can take months and years to decompose in cool waters, you
can take your time fetching those out, what you want to keep an eye on
is aquatic plants that turn to mush, the build up of silt and sediment
low in a pond, reducing that gunk will improve water quality. A few
leaves make for useful Winter cover for hibernating frogs fish and
critters...

If you get a sturdy net and a bucket, gently remove one or two buckets
of debris at a time, that routine will steadily clear the pond of
debris over a period of time.

Pond debris and sediment are usuallly benign in a pond, unless
something a bit nasty has gone in to pollute it, for example dead
frogs, large fish spawning, excess fish food. Fish will 'cope' with a
minor dredging, no need to remove them, they will be enjoying the tid
bits it stirs up, a few bugs like crustaceans, aquatic worms to find
here and there

A simple routine to maintain would be to take a bucket or two of gunk
out per week until there isn't enough to fill a bucket when the ponds
foliage fades in late Summer, so by the time prolonged frosts arrive,
there is very little stuff to pollute the water beneath the ice

If you reliably vent the ice through freezes, it's not too crucial if
there is some leaf litter about, that in itself is useful cover for
Wintering critters

What might really bump off the fish is if they have been feeding
heavily over Summer, combined with a lot of foliage dumped in the
water, that can be a quite lethal concoction when ice seals the pond
over for more than a few days

Don't fret too much about the fish breeding, they will 'go at it'
whenever the mood takes them, a gentle clean out will stir up plenty of
extra tasty tidbits that will perk them up through the warmer months

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html
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When is the best time to clean my small pond (I live in the UK and it's
winter here)? It is around 250 gallons and contains around 15 goldfish
but the water is very murky and contains plenty of leaves from the
recent autumn.