Interesting you say that Theo. The typical feeding cycle for my HBG on floating pellets is that they start eating low volumes in the spring right after ice out (this last spring they hit floating pellets quite well the same day the ice melted). After water hits mid 40's they start feeding heavy. They feed the heaviest from there to mid 70's. Then they slow down when water is in high 70's to about half the peak volume. They continue to eat at about half volume until water gets down into the 40's then cut back to about 1/4 peak volume. They continue to feed gradually getting slower all the way up to the day before ice over. The warmest my water got this year in the top 2 feet was 81 degrees. My water is now in the 40's and they are feeding very consistently at about 1/4 peak. Last fall they fed quite well the day before freeze up. I speculate that the slow down when water reaches high 70's is due to abundance of natural food not actual slow down in metabolism. I say this because the fish remain very hefty all through this slow down in feeding.

BTW Ewest, thanks for those pics. I think I could do this. Next time I get some scales I'm going to try it since I do have a microscope. Might be next year unless is doesn't hurt fish to remove a scale and let him go?

Gotta get back to fishin!