I would spend a while training my last minnow to behave like a boarder collie. Then i would put a leash of line on him and drop him down the hole, as he rounds up other minnows into the hole i'd just scoop em out and put them in the bucket, and hey presto more bait!
Or use the time wisely to experiment more with either plastics or darter type lures..... sorry how many beers were left??