I agree with Dave. I am sure that some ponds have been de-mucked by pumping the water out and keeping it pumped out over the course of the drying season, but that has got to be very hard to do given you have 5 foot of muck...you pump all the water out, but the 5 foot of muck will still be wet and will never dry out. My pond had 8 foot of muck, broke the dam to let the 2 foot of water out in May, then came back and broke the dam further below the muck line down to the original depth (or very close) so that the muck could de-water. The pond was left to set like that for the summer. It rained regular, but the water that flowed in...flowed back out the break. It was de-mucked in October, took 3 days to de-muck and a day to pack the break back in.

Muck is amazing stuff...kinda like quicksand. It still flowed like lava as it was being put on the back side of the dam and we couldn't do any dressing until the next year. It takes forever to really dry out.

Fish on!,
Noel