We bought a house that came with a small 1/8 acre pond (at high water level) The pond is in the woods so it only gets a few hours of sunlight a day thus there is no vegetation anywhere in the pond. The sides are very steep with a max depth of 10-11 ft and last year it was that deep till late August early September then dropped to 6-7 ft till this spring. Is there anything I could/should plant to help the fish? I stocked last year with hbg, yp, Bc, lmb, and cc. There is a large tree branch that hangs in one end all the way to the bottom and a lot of branches and limbs that have fallen in over the years, is that sufficient cover or should I add more for spawning/small fish hiding places. Any input would be great I am hoping for a fast action mixed bag fishery for the kids
Here is a pic of the pond

Ok so I've been doing some reading on here and it looks like with my steep sides and water level fluctuations that vegetation would be a challenge. I was thinking of planting lilies slightly below low water level(about 3-4 ft below high water) and then adding some water hyacinth annually to provide cover for small fish. I also have last years Christmas tree that I was thinking of putting in for minnow cover. Any other suggestions?

Water hyacinth should work but might get a little invasive over the summer.

The cold weather will control their numbers

IMO Creeping spike rush (common rush) is also very tolerant of water level fluctuations. Plant at low pool.

Just thinking outloud. Looking at the picture, the pond is probably old and well shaded as you said. Since it hasn't developed vegetation by now on it's own I would personally try some aggressive evasive plants. Maybe thin the trees to get some sunlight. Life starts with plants, for eating, oxygen, bugs and structure, etc.

With all of the predators you have it looks like the fish will eat each other up and all will starve that are left. I'm certainly no expert so there's better advise on pond boss.

Thanks for the info! I am working on cleaning up around the pond by removing the large dead tree and several of the smaller maples so hopefully that will allow some vegetation to grow and less leaves in the pond as this will be an ongoing problem with this pond. The maple seeds alone covered the pond so bad 2 weeks ago that I couldn't throw a small spinner with out it snagging seeds! Oh the joys of a woodland pond! Oh well I'm having a blast messing with it and learning a lot!