I recommend salting your pond in the fall. By this time it'll probably be early or middle November. All leaves should have fallen so a good cleaning will remove any mulm and leaves, allowing our fish a clean bed for the winter. Ponds that winter over full of leaves and mulm are havens for parasites, aeromonas and pseudomonas. I hope everyone covered their ponds with leaf netting if their ponds are around trees.
Netting is an inexpensive way to make the pond cleaning much easier.
If you have a sump pump, raise it to a higher position, perhaps onto a plant shelf or milk crate. This will leave the warmer water on the bottom and only re-circulate the cool water on top. You should also slow down the flow of water from your pump with a ball valve or some other type of restriction. Colder water does not need to be oxygenated as much as warm water. The bacteria are still alive but, like our fish, become semi-dormant.