RC I'm just starting to deepen the shoreline of my pond with my small diesel tractor-backhoe, scraper blade, front bucket. Water source is nearly all irrigation delivered May to Oct. Pond at full pool is 6" to 3 feet deep just off the bank with agradual slope out to 9 feet in center. My attempt will be to deepen some of the shallows. I'm condsidering piling some of the mud into islands, either exposed or submerged, and building aome sort of retaining wall around the islands with rocks, chicken wire fencing or something else to keep the mud from gradually spreading back out. I'll try hauling some of the spoils up out of the pond with the tractor bucket, though this will be slow going.
Water level drops 4 feet from Oct. to the next May and exposed shoreline drys out pretty well. This part of sw Colorado is arid.
If I only get the tractor stuck occationally, I'll keep smiling. Read catmandoo's thread back in 2010: Dry Season Pond Maintenance -- and Tractor Bathing; and the current thread: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=279813#Post279813
I'll photograph my work and post on the forum.