I have taken two or three pellets for feeding trout and tightly stretched a piece of pantyhose over them and tied them off with fine mono. Then hooked into the pantyhose with a salmon egg size hook as the pellets are too hard to hook. Floats for a while. When they sink they still work well. Used this to harvest browns up to 9 lbs. from my private trout pond when nothing else would work.
A friend tied what he calls a pellet fly. Piece of foam painted brown to look like a pellet.
The thing is even a fish that was planted and has held over for a few years will still be imprinted with pellet as a food source.
These do not float but they work well on trout. Hook easily and can be used over and over again before they break off.
https://www.stubbysteve.com/pellets-page.html