We live in Central Texas and recently did a pond ourselves. I had a friend with a dozer and I was on the excavator. It has a maximum depth of 10 feet. It's not a bowl shape and has deep spots in different areas. What we did was damn up an old dry Creek bed, so it meanders through the woods. The water is mostly shaded and I have aeration via solar. It utilizes a natural earthen spillway versus a culvert. It's about a quarter of an acre pond but it's only 40 ft across at its widest point. I haven't stocked it yet but wanted to do something other than channel cats. Everyone I have spoken to just recommends channel cats to me and if that's all we can do that's fine but wanted to see if there was anything else. I wanted to do something a little unique since it's in a unique spot being in the woods. Also sorry for the grammar on my phone and this is my first post haha appreciate all the help

Channel cats and bluegills

First I would stock it with fathead minnows and bluegills. wait a year and stock with channels

I personally would stock fathead minnows, then golden shiners, then I would stock bluegill. After all those get established, stock channel cats. You will have bass in no time, no real need to stock them honestly. You could always throw in 25-30 hybrid crappie if you want a few to catch, BUT, do not, and I repeat DO NOT stock black crappie in a pond that size.

Sounds like a great pond. Doing it yourself makes it even more meaningful.

How about a copper nosed bluegill pond?

With an effective predator to keep their numbers in check, you can grow them trophy size in that pond. For predators, the hybrid striped bass makes an effective predator to control bluegill numbers. They will not reproduce or overpopulate. Start out with just a few like 10 or so well after the bluegills and fatheads have been added. Add or subtract as you need to manage the BG population. After three years or so you will probably want to replace the hybrids with small ones again and start the cycle again.

I have done the above successfully in a 1/4-acre pond and produced some outstanding bluegills. It is a delightful fly-fishing pond and excellent kid's pond...every now and again they hook one of those hybrids and what a thrill.

Forget the channel cats...boring.

I't s a balancing act for sure. We did my grand dads pond several years ago with bluegill and channel cat in a round pond that was about and acre and 15 feet deep at the dam. I got the bright idea I'd release a 3 pound bass in it and couple of years later you couldn't catch anything out of it. The original stocking had gotten up big enough to be eating size but weren't huge when I put the bass in it.. After not catching anything out of it for a few years we decided to siphon drain it and restock it. All that was left was the largemouth bass I put in in it. I still think LMB's could be a possibility but as fingerlings and they grow with the rest of the fish population and stay somewhat balanced with the rest of the fish,

Great advice so far. Would also encourage you to consider a fish feeder. There won't be much primary productivity in a heavily shaded pond so most of the energy in the system will have to come from outside sources (insects, insect larvae, critters that break down leaves and sticks, etc). Bluegills, hybrid striped bass and channel catfish can be fully sustained by feed and all grow exceptionally well on it. Don't do bluegill by themselves though; you'll need some predators (catfish, striped bass or largemouth bass) in there as well to keep the bluegill population numbers under control.

Is the water cool enough for some trout?