Rising Water Levels-- Where did the fish go?

Do the fish (Crappie) head to the bank when the water in a big lake or reservoir is on the rise due to heavy rains? Or do they go deep due to muddy water?

I am thinking that the rains wash more nutrients into the lake from the land via the feeder streams. These new nutrients in the form of phosphorus and nitrogen promote growth of algae and the critters that feed on the algae. This in turn brings in the minnow and small bait fish to eat the zooplancton that has bloomed due to the added nutrients that washed into the lakes back bays. I have noticed guys catching big crappie right up on the bank last week after Patoka lake came up 2ft and got more color due to all the mud. Water in the back of these feeder creek bays was in the low 70 deg F temps at the surface. I noticed big catfish sitting on the bottom in 2ft of water. But then I also caught a catfish in 30 ft of water the same day. Although it was around 2 pm when I caught the deeper catfish and it was around 5 pm when I saw the other catfish in shallow water. Confusing to me! They are either shallow, deep or somewhere in between. LOL

I have always figured that when the waters are rising and flooding new territory along the bank that the fish will swim up into the newly flooded banks and feed. But if the water starts dropping they fish will move out of the shallows and suspend over deeper water?

Regards,

Moose1am