Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Measuring muck depth?

Is there a preferred method for measuring muck depth? With my pond frozen, I was going to drill a few holes (ice fishing auger) in different locations to begin mapping some things out.

I have a portable depth finder so my plan was to drop the sensor in the hole to get water depth to the bottom. Then I would take some type of pole and jam it as deep as it will go. The difference in the 2 measurements should be how much muck I'm dealing with. Is this a sound approach or is there a better method?

Thanks!

I posted the method I was told to use by a muck removal company in this thread:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=421585

Here is esshup's post of how to measure muck depth.
"I was told to use a stiff piece of conduit or PVC pipe.
Shove it in as far as you can from a boat. Mark water level on the pipe.

Now place a coupling on the pipe or something else as a "stop", and add a short piece of pipe. Cut a hole in a 5 gal bucket lid, barely large enough to slide the pipe (but not the coupling) through. Now shove that into the pond bottom with the same amount of force. Now mark the water level on the pipe. The difference is the depth of the muck. Make sure the lid doesn't slide over the stop."

zuren - If you use both methods please post the results as a comparison of the two methods.

Thanks for the response. Was there any guidance on the diameter of PVC pipe? I have another project where I could use a 2" pipe. And is the diameter of the bucket lid important (I'm assuming a greater surface area is best to stay on top of the muck)?

My ice auger makes a 6" hole (I think). I could try to compare methods this winter but whatever lid I use needs to fit through the hole. I fear a 6" foot print is too small. The alternative is that I mark each location with my GPS, use the sonar/pole method this winter, then measure again with the lid/pole method once the ice is off.

Around here, when spearing northerns through the ice, we drill holes so that they just barely connect. You could drill three holes in a triangle so that their edges just barely meet. This would give you more room to work with.

I was told that I should use the whole top of the bucket. That way it gets a better reading on the depth of the muck. As for the pipe, they said to use 3/4" or 1" EMT tubing or same sized PVC. Easier to get a "feel" for the depth. They also mentioned that a pair of hose clamps could be used to hold the bucket lid on the pipe.

Think of using snowshoes on thick snow. The larger the snowshoe, the less you sink. So, the larger the bucket lid, the more accurate muck depth measurement. The more accurate the muck depth measurement, the more accurate their job quotes would be.

True. I was planning to measure at 6 or more locations across the pond; 3 or more holes per location just adds up to a lot of drilling with a hand auger but maybe I just need to look at it as my forearm workout for the week.

Much of the bottom muck is very light and fluffy in the first few inches which makes if difficult to determine the first fluffy surface.