I still feed the trout pellets but they don't require much.
Fathead minnows get hammered pretty good but I've had good luck with the Golden shiners maintaining a good population.
I don't see any real down side to adding minnows, but some structure like Christmas trees and pallets would really help their survival and spawning chances.
At least with a small pond it's not too hard to control fish population with traps or nets, I use traps to keep my Pumpkinseed population down, even though it's not really a problem.
