May clean my pond in the spring?

Our pond is about 7 years old and has become somewhat overgrown with the plant live and has an accumulation of sediment. The pond measure about 6ft X 10ft and 2ft deep and the center. We are thinking of draining it in the spring and give it a good cleaning. We do have quite a few fish which we don't want to lose. Probably the best thing to do is nothing but over the years a layer of sediment has formed from leaves, runoff and waste from the fish and plant life. Is this OK to do or a complete no no? If ok to do then I was planning on draining the pond water into a kids swimming pool and or 5gal buckets. This would be to save as much existing pond water as possible. Then catch and transfer the fish. Thin plants, clean out the sediment, etc put the saved water back in with the fish and add additional water as needed. Our water system consists of both well and spring so non treated water is available.

Good idea or bad? Suggestions please.

bob

Sounds like a perfect plan. I would definitely save as much water as possible so that you don't shock your fish and plants with water of a complete different chemistry. Make sure you keep your kiddie pool the same temperature with circulation if you are going to work on this for a long period of time.