Hi, little history. I am in Western NY and have two ponds on my property. One is 1/2 acre and has LMB and bluegill. The 2nd one we built a few years ago is only 1/10th acre in an oval and about 8ft deep. We wanted to do channel catfish so we put 30-3" catfish and 1000 fathead minnows in. We fed them every time we went up and the first year they grew to about 8-9". The second year they were even bigger and got to be like 13, 14". We would throw food in and they would come to the surface and eat like crazy. I have a small aerator for the pond and all winter it keeps a small hole in it. So this spring we went down to start feeding them and saw nothing. Not one come up. Tried time and time again, not one catfish spotting. The only thing we see in there are the two original carp we put in (which are about 30" in size). Where did they go?!

I called the fish farm guy and told him the story. We have no trespassers on the property fishing them out. His only thought was maybe having a hole in the pond over the winter a Fisher or something like that got them and ate them??

Anybody care to shed their thoughts and opinions on this?

I've played with CC in many community ponds and it's been my experience, they become more sly about taking food with age. They seem to learn to utilize more components of the pond as time goes by.
I'd say it's likely most are still there, they've just changed their habits and don't want to show their faces as easily as they once did.
Have you tried fishing for them??

An otter(s) cleaned out my catfish ponds a couple of years ago. They like to take CC in the winter when the fish are slow.

I'd try to fish for them with chicken livers or stink bait to see if they are there.

Winter time aeration may have over chilled the pond if that is even possible. How deep was the diffuser set? Do you know any pond water temps from this last winter?

Well we tried fishing for them with worms and got nothing. The diffuser was placed right at the bottom, in the middle of the pond-so 8ft. As for temps, I would say cold, really cold. It hadn't occurred to me I may have over-chilled the pond as here in WNY we can have a few weeks in the teens. Would really cold temps kill them? We didnt see anything floating and not even one trace of one fish carcass.

I can't answer the questions about over-chilling the pond and killing fish. That was a WAG on my part, but it seems that most folks who run aeration in the winter use a shallow water diffuser that is placed close to shore. This does two things...it leaves the bottom of the pond (and far sides) undisturbed, and it puts the hole in the ice on-shore in case someone or animal falls in, it has a chance to walk/crawl out.

Try chicken livers for bait.

Welcome to the forums BTW!

Well we put 30 more CC in today. They are only 3" in size so I'm starting over...if it were a critter that got em, anyone have this issue and do something to prevent it from happening again?

There's not much I can do here about otters, except hoping they don't come back. I don't think they have returned since winter before last.