Small natural pond clean out project got a bit carried away!

Hi all, so about 4-5 years ago I dug out a small pond on our property as a test run to see if it would hold water. the pond was about 30' x 40' and 4-5' deep. The soil was good heavy clay and it held water very well. this pond was in a pasture where I allowed our pigs (American Guinea hogs) and goats to graze. I have since sectioned off this part of the pasture and other than the ducks our animals don't have access to it, however the pond had very steep sides and the pigs had pushed alot of mud down into the pond to the point it was only about 2 feet of water with 3-4 feet of mud on the bottom.
I allowed the pond to dry up completely over the past year and had a guy I know who digs ponds bring his bull dozer over to clean it out and make it a little bigger. well apparently his idea of a little bigger and mine were a bit different. long story short the pond is now some where between a 1/4 acre and 1/3 acre and is 10-12 feet deep at one end and 5-6 feet deep at the other. He did a good job the sides are sloped properly and even at 12 feet it has remained good solid clay so I don't expect any issues with holding water. the pond is on flat ground and does not receive any run off to speak of so it will rely on rain fall and water from a livestock well to keep it full. oh by the way I'm in southeast Texas on the cusp of zone 9a and 9b property is about 40 miles from the gulf coast if that's relevant.
Getting to the point I am looking for advise on how to proceed from here. I would like to stock the pond with native fish and I also like the idea of starting a food forest type of thing around the pond, this is something my wife and I had thoughts of doing at some point in the future but the pond is dug so I guess now is the time but I don't really know the best way to proceed fish first? plants first? trees?
the pond is currently empty they just finished digging it and we have not had any rain to speak of, but the spring rains are coming so I have limited time before it has water in it.
I did order an aerator system rated for 1 acre and up to 50' deep. should I add a pump and bio-filter? or will this pond keep it's self clean since it's a natural pond?
I'm guessing I should place stuff in the pond for fish cover, any ideas on what I can use that is free,cheap or at least wont break the bank?
sorry I know this was long, I appreciate any advice you can offer.

Welcome to the forum!

My first thoughts would be to let the pond fill with water first.

For fish cover, old dead tree are a good option.  Maybe some folks still have a few Christmas tree laying around.

Do you have any fish farms near your location?

For plants you might want to consider some that are edible.

Hi Tim, welcome to Permies!

I'm no expert, but a thought about what to do first: I think there's a general permaculture design principle that says to add features in the order of greatest permanence. I think this makes sense, since if two things end up not working together, there's less risk that you'll have to redo everything from scratch. You've got the earthworks done first, which is in line with this principle, since that pond might still be visible a couple thousand years from now. I guess the second-most permanent of the things you mentioned would be the trees. Also, many fruit and nut trees (especially some nut trees!) take a very long time from planting to first harvest, so the sooner you plant them, the better. Before planting the actual trees, though, it might be good to do some more, smaller, earthworks to make good places for the trees to grow.  Here is an excellent article by Akiva Silver about the importance of uneven ground.

Once you have the trees growing, you could start working on the smaller plants and fish. Would you like plants in the pond as well? Depending what plants you choose, they might provide good cover for the fish. I'm thinking things like lotus (Nelumbo lutea or N. nucifera) and cattails (Typha sp.) that you can also eat if you want to.

Just some ideas. Anyways, very nice project, please let us know how it goes!

I uploaded a few pictures just for reference.

Anne Miller wrote:Welcome to the forum!

My first thoughts would be to let the pond fill with water first.

For fish cover, old dead tree are a good option.  Maybe some folks still have a few Christmas tree laying around.

Do you have any fish farms near your location?

For plants you might want to consider some that are edible.

Hi Anne, yes we do have a fish farm near by and I do plan to utilize them. I have a couple of mesquite tree logs that I can use but I'm thinking I will need to anchor them some way so they dont float up.

Zach Weiss built a pond for Permies Wayne Fajkus. here is the thread about the build. I haven't seen Wayne around here for a couple years, but the project is in Texas so what he planted may be of use to you. Here is a presentation by Zach, and a bit about him, as to why we ought to listed to him.

I have been researching stocking levels for fish verses pond size which I understand can vary widely but does anyone know if there is a minimum stocking level for a pond? I know I need to add minnows first but figured rather than adding a lot of fish all at once I would just add a few of each species I want and then let them breed and populate the pond naturally on there own. is this a viable approach?

Look at this document
PondsSmallLakesKentucky.pdf