I am planning starting construction on a second pond. Last year I had a 1 acre pond built and it has turned out well. We are blessed with clay in the previous spot and in this new spot is also laden with clay. I have an experienced pond builder but he is not a fisherman and knows nothing about habitat or others features that people may want in a fishing pond. My initial layout has an island, and several fingers and I plan on creating a lot of structure using rocks, pallets, metal, cement blocks, etc.
I will also build fathead minnow fortresses for them to spawn and evade predators also. This pond will be filled entirely by rain from a 180 acre watershed.
My main question is are there some major things to keep in mind when creating a pond? This whole pond thing is frustrating because there seems to be hundreds of experts that all have different ideas about how to build a pond and what to stock in it. This will be built in Southwest Wisconsin.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions that I am missing