Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Efficient "muck" harvest

Hi, I'm cleaning my Michigan pond slowly but surely.

It's surrounded on two sides by large trees, some hanging over the water. the largest tree is a 6' diameter willow. It's huge and old and always dropping debris into the water.

Over the years there's been quite the muck layer accumulation.

I've started aeration a couple of years ago and adding bacteria to break up the smaller particles, but there's plenty of big stuff (sticks, leaves, etc.) to remove.

I've done the pond raking and it seems every time I rake near the aerator the next time I go out there, I have another new layer to pull out. I'm assuming the bacteria is breaking up the small stuff leaving the larger sticks that are now easier to remove.

I've used spades, pitch forks, manure forks, scoop shovels, lake rakes, and have scooped up yards of this stuff for the garden (nothing better once that smelly muck has dried out to form the blackest soil!) but it's still time consuming.

Other than dredging the pond, has anyone had a novel way of harvesting large amounts of muck quickly? I guess I'm looking to stay manual, but trying to find the perfect "scoop" to get as much per shovel as possible.