IL requires it unless you are the owner, owner's spouse/children, or legal tenant of the land the pond is located. If you get caught with a cooler full of bass on the road or a freezer full at home and you try to explain that you are just fixing a pond then you'll find yourself in a courtroom explaining that to the judge. 

Even putting christmas trees and structure is considered littering and not legal.

 

As far as adding minnows to a pond, that usually wont work either as they will probably all get eaten right away. It takes 10# food to grow one bass 1#. You need replenishing food like blegill.

 

Pond management is a fine balance and quite an interesting art