I don't think you will lose your minnows over the winter due to environmental conditions. My pond sustained a massive population of FHM last winter with no game fish. We even had 6 to 8 inches of ice over that lasted several weeks. I could see tadpoles, frogs, and minnows through the ice and never saw a dead minnow...the frogs did not do so well however.

You are basically feeding your fish the minnows so if the minnows are gone by spring it will be mostly due to predation. Some might argue that it would be an expensive way to feed game fish and considered a waste of money anyhow, especially compared to pellet feeding. It certainly won't do any harm and can only help. Consider adding some pallet stacks sunk in 3 to 5 foot of water for the FHM to spawn on next spring. You will not likely get a sustainable population, but you would certainly get some fry added to the pond for smaller gamefish forage.


Fish on!,
Noel