If you are talking about true playa lakes, then you will never have much luck. They dry up most years during the summer. Fish can't survive on dry land! Great for waterfowl hunting - terrible for fishing.
During that horrible drought we had back in 2011 a lot of the "playas" that are normally full all the time dried up completely.
I live near Clapp Park and used to love to go there after heavy rains to catch bluegill and carp that washed in through the drainage system from the other lakes that drain into it. It was always fun while it lasted, since the Clapp Park "playa" dries up several times a year (it's too shallow to hold much water for long -- hard to believe TWPD used to stock fish there).
Since 2011 though I 've never seen any fish at Clapp Park -- I'm guessing that all the other playas that feed into it dried up during the drought and the fish are gone for good, since most aren't in parks and will never be re-stocked. May be the same thing OP was experiencing, you have to check the TWPD stocking reports to see which ones have been re-stocked.