It is always a sad thing to have any lakes drop down to low or no water.
Now the fish appear to get smarter?,I think it is more of a thing like their
food is being brought to them. Like crayfish in the shallow parts of the water are being forced to go deeper as the water drops. So, now the fish
just lay around the bottom waiting for dinner to fall down on them. With
all that food being forced down to them why would they bite? But, now when the water rises the food will not be where it should be making it
harder to find. So this surely will upset a lot of things on the fish.
Good Luck !