Dealing with pond muck is no fun. Likely why you are having trouble getting contractors to return calls. I have only used a dozer in the ponds I have cleaned out. The guys that do it regularly around here do it as you described. Use an excavator to scoop out the muck and a dozer to crowd it to the excavator. I would love to have an excavator.
It might be cheaper to build a new pond from scratch in a new location than to clean the old one out. Problem with that is, often times the pond to be cleaned out is in a strategic location and is the only desirable location for a pond. Thus the necessity of cleaning it out rather than building new.
I'm not a contractor, just a farmer with some construction equipment. But I know if I was a contractor I would much rather run machines building a new pond than cleaning out an old one. It is not the most desirable heavy equipment job in the world.
