They are putting on weight for winter reserves. As long as they are aggressively feeding I would keep the feed rates up.
I hand feed daily so I get to observe every day the activity. I let the fish tell me if they are hungry.
The rates you are feeding are modest anyway. If you were feeding 5 or 10 pounds per acre that would be heavy feeding rates. But anything under 2 is pretty modest.
If it were me I would keep the rate you were feeding up till the fish started taking longer to eat it. But that is just me and I am no expert. I actually increase my rates in the fall over summer rates but I am also a lot further south than you.
Edit: you did not mention if you had aereation. In my opinion that makes a difference in what feeding rates a pond will support without running into water quality issues. I do aereate and have now switched to running the air daytime only to support warmer water temperatures.
Last edited by snrub; 09/29/18 06:54 AM.
