I think it was the summer draw downs and the overharvesting of bluegill. When they were at a higher density they were very easy to catch by the fish feeder at dusk, and I freely let people do it. It started with neighborhood kids and ended with a couple adult men who would come every other day with multiple rods camped out over the feeder. Circling back to the original post when they came back this spring I talked to the neighbor who knew them and it turned out he was looking for an excuse to disinvite them. The moral of the story continues to be to just talk to people.
We had a big rain last night (2" rain = 10" of rise to the pond) and my DIY spillway seems to be holding with just a few little leaks between the blocks. So hopefully the drain issues are fixed. I do think the water dropping was hurting the bluegill spawns more than the minnows.
It actually goes down about 18" below the water level with a few deeper footers (where I found soft spots from crawfish holes). Has 40' of rebar in it. Lined the hole with bentonite before pouring concrete. I would have liked to have used 2x as much concrete but it was just me and a bucket and a shovel and I had to build it fast in anticipation of another storm that turned out to be a dud.
