Benthivorous common carp adversely affect water quality and aquatic community integrity in North American lakes. Sporadic mechanical removals of carp have been used in lakes in the Midwestern USA over the past several decades to improve water and habitat quality for the aquatic community. High carp fecundity and growth rates limits the effect of removal on long-term ecosystem improvement which has stimulated the consideration of ongoing harvesting to maintain low carp abundance. We developed a simulation model to evaluate the ability of annual and biennial year carp removal to achieve water quality goals (e.g., turbidity) for Clear Lake, Iowa, accounting for uncertainty in rate and type of juvenile recruitment. Annual removals rapidly achieved water quality goals, while biennial removal required additional effort to achieve water quality goals. Post-removal water quality returned to pre-removal levels within ten years for annual removals whereas water quality improvements were conferred beyond ten years for biennial removals. These results indicate that the combination of annual carp removals can quickly achieve water quality goals and biennial removals can maintain water quality over the long-term.