I like the simplicity of the recycling of the Christmas trees like that. However, I always wondered if the pine acidifies the pond the way pine trees acidify soils? (Admittedly, growing in the ground is different than decaying in water, but the tree has the same compounds within it to start out with anyway.)
My biggest dislike though, was that they decay in time, leading to not knowing where/how good the quality of the cover is doing through time.
I had purchased some fish structure from a pond supplier and said "I can make those a lot cheaper!" This takes a bit of time, but can be done very cost-effectively.
This method involves rectangles of nylon mesh (or other synthetic) and twist-ties. Use the twist ties to turn the rectangles into tubes of varying diameters, some to hold bait fish, some big enough to hold the target fish. Then you attach the tubes together at right angles. The whole effect should look something like a tree. (Gee, I'm sensing a pattern here!) See below for a crude idea of what I'm talking about.
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***** ***** ***** *****
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***** ***** ***** *****
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Then the free ends or "trunks" of several structures can be tied to some kind of anchor. (I tied several structures to a rust-resistant chain.) The structures can be deployed in rows, curved into circles or even a straight line parallelling the shore, whatever works best in your particular pond.
The length of the structures should be enough to go from about a foot or so from the surface to about 8-10' down if it's deep enough in that area. Alternately, you can tie them to a string and that to the chain if the water is particularly deep, varying the length of the string so that the structure hangs appropriately in the water column. (The nylon structures usually float, so attaching one end to the weight causes them to "hang" upright in the water.
What I liked about these was that once they were in place, they will probably outlast me. However, if you had ever seen my truck, you would know that my philosophy is "overbuild it once and then never have to mess with it again."