Yeah been here done this.

1. I did have an otter and thank goodness it left us!! LMAO!! Walk around your pond if it's an otter there will be bones on your shoreline for sure! I had a big ole male and thank goodness we noticed it when we did or my 1 acre pond would have been toast.

2. I'm in Arkansas and don't run my air much past October until the following mid March or so. No need remember cold water is 100 percent oxygenized anyway so unless you have long freeze over you don't really need to run it. When I say cold I would say anything under 55. Mods please correct if I am wrong on that one.

3. I have had the same exact scenario you speak about above happen to me a couple of times. This year for example. I know I have some nice LMB several to be exact. And I have hardly caught any this year. I to was wondering are all my LMB dead what happen? Where did they go? Then just the other Saturday early in the morning I had 3 big boys hit on a top water Buzz bait. They can get real picky and content in a pond sometimes even harder to catch then a actual lake IMO. Get out there on a nice cloudy day and fish hard for them. Like QA said try some live bait big shiners about 2 feet below a bobber and hang on!! LOL it will work.

4. Dead of summer I almost never have any luck with my bass it's just to warm.

The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!