Tracy, welcome to the wonderful world of a 30 to 1 stocking rate. The thing you have to separate is sport fishing from assessment. Like you, I always use artificials when I'm sport fishing my big pond, but readily admit that live bait can be much better(read quicker) for assessment, and looked at as a management tool, and not recreation.
The really, really good thing is that if they're hard to catch, that means those babies are eating, and probably eating really well.
I'm really anxious to see where your pond is in a year or two. Your upside should be tremendous.
