Just a curious question and this may seem obvious. Our 1/3 pond is basically gin clear to 5-6ft right now and we haven't seen a fish other than the trout in weeks. I guess it's possible with the cold weather the HBG, Perch and HSB all huddled up in the 8-10ft holes but it seems off. There's no evidence of die off or poaching so I guess they're in there, just seems like you would at least see the the others.

Is this normal? I know fish go rather stagnant in the winter so maybe I'm being paranoid.

Either deep or evading predators (you). Trout from fish farms aren't like that, they are used to seeing people who feed them.

They pack in the deep that tight over winter? Obviously I've read eating slows down to a crawl so why waste energy, certainly hope so.

They could see you coming before you could see them and just be keeping out of sight.

I fished in a lake one winter through the ice. The ice was like a sheet of glass, and the water was too. We fished in 8'-12' water, easily seeing the bottom and never caught a thing. A week later with snow on the ice we did very well in the same holes we were fishing the week prior.

Agree with Esshup. I remember fishing the small creek near my home for creek chubs as a boy, never caught a thing when it was clear. After a good rain when the water had a good green/brown color you couldn't reel them in fast enough!

It is normal to not see fish as active except maybe trout when water temperature drops below 45F. Cold water dramatically slows their activity.

Thanks for the info, it just seemed strange to see nothing moving around besides trout and minnows and could not see how anyone could net or fish out the pond without disturbing something (structure on the bottom or just being lazy and leaving a beer can or something).