Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking Idea in 15 acre cold-water pond

Hello I am new to the forums. I have slowly developed some land in the mountains of western north carolina. I installed a bunch of permaculture swales on the mountainsides to harvest water and let it seep into the ground. After a winter of constantly soaking rainfall a few springs popped up on the mountain and a few more popped up on the valley floor.

Around two years ago I started developing these springs and now have a small acre pond on the mountain that is a collection of the mountainside springs which constantly overflows and forms a kinda mini-stream that flows into a 15 acre pond that was developed from the springs that popped up on the valley floor. I also dug a shallow area around the shoreline on one side of the 15 acre pond (hoping this will become a nursery for small fry) that has become full of reeds and water iris and I think some wild rice too, but I'm not sure. Along the edges of the rest of the 15 acre pond there are lots of fallen trees for cover and underwater vegetation that forms a kinda underwater jungle, I also stacked rocks to form caves and dropped in some old wine barrels for future catfish spawning. As for the upper pond that forms the stream, I didn't dig out a shallow area, but there is still lots of submerged vegetation and fallen trees for cover. I've monitored the water temperature the past year and since the entire system is spring fed it doesn't go over 70 degrees F, even on hot summer days. In fact, the deep parts of the 15 acre pond (which can go as deep at 25 feet) stays a nice 40 degrees F in the hot summer months.

With this kinda set up, I've been itching to try to raise trout in it. But what I really want is a sustainable pond that I don't have to restock ever, or give supplemental feeding. This pond is pretty cold, so I'm wondering what kinda cold-water fish combinations work well with trout. I was thinking bluegill and bullheads for a forage base, maybe some yellow perch too, then channel cats and maybe walleye as predators (maybe small mouth bass too as they are better suited to cold water than large mouths and maybe even chain pickerel) and of course the rainbow or brown trout. I'm hoping I have enough habitat for natural spawning. I'm sure I will have to help the predator fish by harvesting bluegill and especially bullheads. I'm afraid if I add chain pickerel I might end up with a bunch of fat chain pickerel and walleye that will eat most of the trout and yellow perch and that I will have a stunted population of bluegill and bullheads that the channel cats wont be able to keep up with (I might even try blue cats since they are better predators than channels). Hopefully I can help with the bluegill and bullheads by harvesting, as I like to eat bullheads and bluegill a lot. Other than what I've stated, does anyone else see any other potential problems? I've been very slow at developing this and I don't wanna mess it up. Oh and I forgot to mention that I've stocked nothing so far other than crayfish, which I hope will become good forage for many future fish.