"We" being you and the government?
What if you had too many small bass, causing them to be stunted? Would they be kind enough to allow you to remove some?
The pond belongs to my folks, thus the "we", I'm the fisherman in the family so I have a lot of input on management of the fish in the pond. PS I usaully catch & release over a 1000 LMB a year out of our pond, and yes some of those are caught more than once.
In Nebraska you can get special permision from the Game and Parks to remove small bass under 12" which we have done before but it takes a lot of effort to get that permission. Technically there is not a lot they can do unless the LMB under 12" actually leave the property. As a catch and release guy I have real hard time putting LMB on a stringer but find myself doing so when they start getting over-crowded.
In Nebraska, state bag and size limits apply to all private bodies of water that are connected by "inflow or outflow" to other bodies of water, which by their account would include most private bodies of water in NE. State regulations also aplly to private bodies of water that have been stocked with fish provided by the G & P. In order to skirt those rules one must retain a reciept for all fish that were privately purchased and your pond cannot be connected by inflow or outflow to other bodies of water.
