This has prompted me to go back and check the literature. All suggestions point to cessation of feeding for HSB at or around 54 degrees. I think I've figured it out.

I believe that if you are in an aquaculture setting, that 54 degrees is the temperature at which you are not guaranteed a feeding. This makes a lot of sense because if you are feeding ten thousand HSB in a little pond and you feed even once or twice with the food all going to waste you are risking a fish kill. I think that ideally automatic feeders would be turned off around 54 degrees, with hand feedings possible down into the mid-forties prn.

I'm glad George brought this to our attention because I think I had a significant misunderstanding of what the literature was trying to tell me.

Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.