I am east of Dallas, same winds and temps as you
. While a cheap winter cover seems not too bad price-wise, all the extras- water tubes, inner tubes for the middle, weights, etc put me off, plus the likelihood of it ending up shredded by high winds and/or critters.
My solar cover is off now, but when we had it on, it stayed on during some amazingly high winds. We cut it to an exact match to the pool (which in our case is round). I even cut it into three long sections because the one big 28 foot cover was too much for me to handle alone, and the sections still stayed suctioned down to the water in 40 mph winds.
It really cut down on evaporation, I ran the pump normally with no problems, and it caught leaves and junk that fell. It did interfere with the auto cleaner, so had to remove it to use that.
When we got ready to remove it for the winter, we pulled it off carefully and most of the junk came off with it. We then hosed it down and dried it by hanging it over a flat bed trailer. The solar cover extended our swim season by about 4 weeks this fall, and with our planned solar heater, should start us early in the spring. We used just a basic clear "bubble-wrap" type- nothing fancy.
I had read in some places in here where people tried leaving a solar cover on all winter, and it got waterlogged and was a mess, so that is why I opted not to go that route. (I could see leaving it on for a couple of weeks while we were out of town to keep the pool clean.)
Instead, I removed the solar cover end of October when we were definitely done swimming and put on a leaf net.
A leaf net may be another option for you. It did a great job of catching leaves and junk, but did not reduce evaporation much. It also did not interfere with running the pump. It did not catch Mesquite leaves (which are almost like needles), so those Mesquite trees near the pool are goners. But it caught all the regular-sized leaves- which we then scooped off with a leaf basket on a pole occasionally- very easy. We removed it too soon, and now am fishing for leaves- much harder. I suppose I could have left it on all winter, but I like seeing the blue water.
I am using polyquat for algae prevention, but the water temp is 45 degrees, so I do not expect to see much growing in there right now. Chem geek explained to me how to use the polyquat- add a full dose in front of the return and run the pump for 24 hours. Once a month add a maintenance dose to keep the levels up. Chlorine breaks down the polyquat, so it is an either/or sort of thing. Makes winter maintenance of an open pool easier- not having to mess with chlorine levels.