Not sure if this is the appropriate spot for this as it could cover a few areas but I had an interesting run in the other day. While fishing my 2 acre pond (that was excavated and stocked by my family) a conservation officer entered the property. I have realized they have a very broad authority to do so (even if I don't agree that they do not require probable cause) but I was still very surprised. At first he came off as nice but when I told him I didn't have a valid fishing license (expired end of March and haven't gotten a chance to renew it) he got a little... Shall we say bossy? Asked me to come to shore and while he didn't ticket me he did write me warnings for no license, no throwable floatation device, and to many bass in the live well. All of these surprised me but the fact that I was required to follow catch limits on a privately stocked pond really got me. I had spoken with the fisheries biologist a few months ago about transferring lmb (pond is bass crowded) to another pond we have prior to getting my perch and shiners and was told by him it is perfectly fine and I don't have to follow any limit or get any permits. Now DNR is telling me otherwise about permits and numbers. The point of this is to both inform you guys of what I have been told by DNR (in Illinois) and ask if you guys have any advice? I'm not sure in this instance who is the governing authority? Either way it's pretty ridiculous that I have to follow these rules wheni paid for the dang fish... At least in my opinion