The U.S. catfish industry is evolving by adopting intensive farming practices such as intensively aerated ponds and split-pond systems. The functional relationship between fish yield and key production inputs in these intensive systems was analyzed based on commercial catfish production data from 143 pond observations (2010-2018). A Cobb-Douglas production function was employed for the intensively aerated ponds and a modified translog production function was used to define the production relationships in split ponds. Both models were tested for goodness of fit and econometric issues such as multicollinearity and heteroskedasticity. The results indicated that the size of fingerlings at stocking, stocking density, aeration rate, feeding rate, survival, and harvest size of the fish were statistically significant variables influencing fish production in intensively aerated ponds. Initial fingerling stocking biomass, feed conversion ratio, feeding rate, and pond size were the most important variables influencing production in split-pond systems. All statistically significant variables had a positive relationship to fish yield in both production systems except for the feed conversion ratio. Being an efficiency indicator, a negative relationship of feed conversion ratio to fish yield in split ponds indicated that a lower feed conversion ratio represents higher fish biomass in the ponds. Feed fed, as well as stocking biomass (interaction of stocking size and stocking density in intensively aerated ponds), were the significant variables found in both models. Both production functions indicated further room for improvement in the use of inputs to increase production, especially in feed management. This study provided insights into input elasticities and direction of effect of key production inputs on fish production in intensive catfish production systems.