I would not put cut buckets in the pond--those are likely to be used by the catfish for spawning. If anything, add structure to hide the baitfish, not the apex predators.
Do a creel survey--i.e. record weights AND lengths for the next 100 or so fish that you catch. Cross-check those numbers against the Weight Ratio charts that you can find here. It will give you a really good picture as to what the population dynamics are like.
