So I have mentioned about our drought out west drying up my pond this year, for the first time in at least 15 years. Well I was checking it out tonight trying to see if digging it deeper would be an option while it was mostly dried up. Well I found there is about 16-18" of muck on top of a fairly hard bottom. My question is about the muck, my in-flow of water looks crystal clear as it flows into the pond, where would 18" of muck come from, is it plant residue breaking down, or does the bottom soil turn to muck after having water continuously on it for 15 years or is this just a result of slight silt amounts in the inflow settling out over time? I'm just really curious... Mostly wanting to know if it will eventually fill in again if I try to dig it deeper? I'd love to dig it down 10' deeper than the current depth so it would hold water in drought years so I don't lose all the years of fish development and plant growth and etc that it takes to make a healthy pond... Plus 10' would give it enough room to silt in until my days are done, otherwise maybe 6 to 8' would be plenty deep... My pond at overflow level is about 5-6' higher than current bottom level. Anyway appreciate your thoughts on this topic... Thanks Jeff