I believe that pellet feeding may play a role in reduced "catchability" of your fish, but I don't believe that it's possible to completely eliminate the predatory instinct just by adding a feeding program. However, I think other factors come into play here also, such as the amount of artificial feed that is supplied, the time of year it is, the species of fish involved, and whether the fish in question are subject to fishing pressure, and/or a program of catch and release.
I currently feed in four of our ponds, three of which I consider supplemental programs while the HBG pond utilizes AQ500 as a primary food source, as that pond has no aquatic vegetation or structure necessary for many types of natural forage. And I have noticed that the HBG are much harder to catch than both the supplementally fed ponds, and the ponds where no feeding occurs. BUT...the HBG are also more heavily pressured, and catch and release is the order of the day. I do believe that fish can display conditioned behaviour, whether or not that is ascribed to intelligence is up for debate.
