I have a feeder on one pond, and I feed the fish in front of my house by hand every morning. But it takes some time for them to get used to the time and place (couple of weeks?). The ponds get muddy during the rainy seasons, but I can tell the kind of fish by the way they hit the pellets.
When I was worried about my fish being gone, I bought a minnow trap and 3'x3' seine from Academy. I never cought many minnows in the trap, but I cought plenty of mosquito fish, green sunfish and bluegill up to 2". I always seem to have better luck with the seine, with some bread tied to the mesh in the middle. I have better luck closer to the shore, with shorter, stiffer stick, when I can pull it out faster.
I hope this helps. I am going to try the flashlite at night method this weekend.
