It looks really nice. Do you still think it's an acre and a half? From the pictures, it seems bigger.
My ponds are both in red clay, and it took a couple years to clear up. The smaller pond still gets cloudy after a big rain, but then when it clears up, the algae will take over in summer for several weeks. It's next to my barn, so it gets all of the animals in it to drink, and also bare dirt where they walk and tear up the ground. Horses are the worse.
My bigger pond stays pretty clear no matter how heavy the rain is, but it has a lot better vegetation around it. It's also my fishing pond, and I work harder at maintaining the grass around it.
You can speed up the process with gypsum. It will cause the silt that's floating around in the water to settle faster. I dumped a bunch of sheetrock scraps in my small pond and in a week, it was night and day better. A significant change!!! But then the algae took over and it was my worse algae bloom ever, so I've never done it again.
You need to decide what predator fish you want. Your pond is too small for more then one predator, so its either catfish, or bass. Don't do both, it will create too much competition and stunt the growth of both species. When the water clears up, start with minnows. I went with Fathead minnows. They bread like crazy and they provide a never ending supply of food for your feeder fish. I went with copper nose bluegill. I thought about crappie, but my pond isn't big enough for them, and they will quickly take over a pond. The bluegill are probably the best feeder fish for bass because of how big they will grow, and how well they do in my climate. You can put the bluegill and minnows in this year, but wait until the water temps are warmed up next year before putting bass or catfish in. That will give you a feed base that is breeding and increasing in numbers.
