Where in VA are you Mark?
It's tough to get the catch and release mind set out of your head when it comes to bass. However, in small private ponds, the harvesting of bass is absolutely necessary to maintain a balanced fishery. From the sounds of it, you need to heavily harvest the smaller bass, this will allow more BG to reach larger sizes. They will in turn reach a size your bigger bass prefer to feed on and start to balance the pond out better.
