My once 1/4 acre pond is now down 23" from full and has lost about 35% of its full volume. I have been feeding twice a day, morning and evening, about one pound at a time, optimal and catfish pellets mixed.

Should I cut that in half and go to one feeding a day, in the morning?

I hope to avoid a fish kill. I have about 150 adult BG and RES and about 70 CC averaging 12", along with a LOT of FHM and baby BG and RES. Stocking was done last Sept-Dec. I know I need to catch out some of the CC, but was hoping to wait another month for a little more size gain.

Water temps have cooled somewhat to around 80 degrees with the cooler nights and mostly cloudy days we are having, but the local drought continues.

I don't know the proper answer John but I can do the math. Quarter acre twice a day looks to be at a rate of about 8# of feed per acre per day.

I forget if you have aeration. Without aeration I definitely would cut back. With aeration I would sure watch the fish closely and at any sign of them backing off feed I would cut it back.

But that is just me and I have yet to kill a bunch of fish and as I understand it that is one requirements of becoming an expert which I am not. So it is just my opinion that with lower water you are definitely pushing it a little.

On the other hand in commercial applications they raise CC at multiples of your fish concentration. Was it Dirty Harry that said "are you feeling lucky?"

Here it is: Do you feel lucky punk?

Suggest you try and feed them twice a day at half the rate for 2 days. On day 3 first feeding put in 3/4 of original rate and see how long it takes them to clean it up vs the day before. How is the water quality ?

snrub, what do you consider "a bunch"? I might not be an expert yet either!

The water quality "looks" good, but I don't have a way to test it. It's fairly clear with a little bit of a green bloom. No odors.

The fish clean up all the feed in about three or four minutes, sometimes faster at the evening feeding.
I still have nine feet of water over the deepest quarter of the pond, and eight feet over the other deep quarter. Lost a lot of surface area in the shallows.
No aeration. The pond has been filled for less than a year.

I don't know. I was just parroting what one of the experts told me one time. I'm working on it though. This last big rain ran a lot of water through my pre-sediment pond and I think it was too much for some of the bigger fish (none are very big with the bigger ones being 5-6"). So I guess I am working on killing some fish so maybe I'm on my way to some day becoming an expert. That tiny pond probably had a hundred fold water exchange over a matter of a few hours.

A little "food" for thought...From my experience, if you cut back feeding the 70 CC, even at only 12", they will turn to any fish they can fit in their mouth to supplement the missing food. Actually, I'm a little surprised the CC are not larger than that after a year of pellets. Mine are usually 18 to 20 inches after a year of just supplemental feeding. If they are cleaning up what you are feeding in less than 5 minutes, I suspect you are not feeding that many CC enough. If you are going to cut down on the feed, I would definitely take out a bunch of the CC.

That would have probably been me. I've dang sure been curious enough, maybe just ignorant, to kill a bunch of fish. But, I certainly don't think it's made me an expert at anything.

They only took food for a month last fall after I stocked them at 6", and started taking food again this year in late March, so they have only been fed for a little over six months total. I have read that feeding larger amounts in the mornings is not as harmful as doing so in the evenings. Is that true?

I have never heard that. It could at the margin effect water quality overnight .

I suspect there are additional requirements Dave.

If only it were that easy.

I guess I will keep on feeding like I have been until the water cools enough to cause them to eat less. I really need to get some to eating size before cold weather. There appear to be a few "shooters" that are somewhat bigger, maybe 15". I will try to catch them out in October. I have not seen any spawn from my three brooder albinos; maybe some will eventually show up.

It was about the first of December before my water temperature dropped to about 50 degrees and the fish slowed down. Last year was warm pretty late in the fall though. You being further south I imagine you will be able to feed that late even if it is not an unusually warm fall. Mine ate really well down to about 55 degree water temperature then started slowing down as the water got colder. Towards the end they would come to eat on bright sunny days late in the afternoon. I would toss some feed out and if they acted interested would give them some more. If not many takers I would just skip it for that day.

The most important thing for me right now is getting some fresh water into the pond....hoping for some significant rainfall.

We are looking at Thurs and Fri rain at our place, (60 & 90%).
I'm hoping for significant rainfall.. Hope you get it also!

My catfish have all but stopped eating at the morning feeding after four consecutive overnight lows in the mid 40's. The feed response is excellent at the evening feeding, after the bright sunshine warms the water all day. Should I stop the morning feeding and increase the amount at the evening feeding?

Yes or at least cut it back to a handful unless they eat.

I only fed AM 400 to small BG this morning, no catfish pellets. I will increase the evening catfish feeding amount by about 50%, and go from there.

I'm headed up to the pond today. Haven't been there in a week or so. No rain, so I imagine my pond will be down another couple of inches. I'm still feeding, but will watch the morning feed, and see how fast it gets eaten. Thanks for the update.
FYI, I was riding a dual-sport motorcycle around Ark the last three days. We were off road most of the time. I notice every pond I ride by any more, and I noticed quite a few were low down there. I don't think you are in the only dry part of Ark.. Now, if you get over to the eastern part of the state, it's a different story. Just like Missouri, we seem to stay a bit drier in some parts of the state.
I'm hoping the YP are biting again though. These colder temps will keep me from swimming, but catching a bunch of YP for dinner will ease the pain. Ha

There is still no substantial rain in our forecast. The NW corner of Arkansas where I live and a swath across the south part of the state show up as abnormally dry on the federal drought monitor, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Isolated areas have had a lot of rain, and other isolated areas have more severe drought. A relative only 8 miles from me got 2.5 inches in a short drenching about two weeks ago. Had that happened here, I would have no pond worries. As it is, the pond is almost 29 inches below full pool, but I still have 8.5 feet of water in the east basin and 7.5 feet in the west part of the basin. All I am losing now is evaporation, only about 1/8 to 1/4 inch per day. The feed response from the CC last evening was excellent, after the sun warmed the water all day. I increased the amount of pellets by about 50% since I only threw a little AM 400 for the BG yesterday morning. I don't worry so much about a fish kill now that the water has cooled some and will hold more oxygen, even though I have lost substantial surface area in the shallows. Hoping to catch some catfish out of there in a couple more weeks, if I can catch the bigger non albino ones.

Keep in mind when considering the amount of water loss that the top foot of the pond holds a lot more water than the second foot. This assumes a bowl type pond so the actual comparison depends on pond shape and bottom slope. If you have a pond full of fish ( at carrying capacity) and you lose 2 feet of water and that 2 feet is 15% of your total water then you should watch water quality based on that % not on inches.

ewest,
In my pond, due to extensive shallows at full pool, it has probably lost 30%, and 20% from what I call "normal" pool. I like to keep it about 4 or 5 inches below full to allow for unexpected downpours to be absorbed without going over the emergency spillway. Just trying to get maximum growth out of my CC before I harvest some of them. I will try to harvest some within the next few days to see if they are really eating size or not. Probably would not get much more growth out of them by waiting a month.