Why some lakes produce, others dont????

[sleddog1]

Why is it? For example the lakes like Bitter, Waubay, Whitewood, Devils Lake & others consistently produce. While others like Lake Vermillion, Wall Lake are the dead sea, or produce sporadically.
I fish a lot of smaller lakes/ponds. Same thing, some produce consistently. I know there are good fish in the non productive waters, I've caught them, just not with regularity.
25 years ago Lake Vermillion had good Perch & Crappie fishing. Today I go by & not one person fishing!
A few days ago I was on a small lake, looking for Crappie/Bluegill. Drilled & moved a lot & put a few on the ice. Three others showed up & drilled & moved at least as much as me. They put a few on the ice too. Not near enough for the effort we put in.

[Seamonkey84]

So many variables for that, no one answer will fit all bodies of water. Big one would be fertility and bottom composition, which will directly effect forage base. The type of forage will change the way/location the fish tend to feed. Some places may have too much forage, so the fish are hard to catch as they are always well fed and don’t have to work too hard for their food. Not enough forage and there won’t be as many or as big of fish. Water clarity and fishing pressure is another big factor, fish that have been caught a few times before become much more picky with the offering. populations of both the target species and their food go through cycles, so water A might be on an upswing while water B is on the down. There are winter kills in some places that greatly effects the population and average size.
The list goes on and on. So it’s good to have a few bodies of water that you become familiar with and check them every season/year. Your favorite lake last year may be bad this year, so no point being married to the spot. I have some places that fished better open water than through the ice, and vice versa.