camoback, welcome to the forum.

Turning your pond into a good fishery will probably take a massive amount of culling. I'd say it can be done; I've experienced something similar to what you are seeing. It has taken 12 years to get where I am now, and I'm not finished yet.

My pond had bass LMB, yellow perch YP, two grass carp, and reportedly black crappie BCP when we bought the place in 2009. No sunfish of any kind. YP were rare; LMB were everywhere.

I spent several years RUTHLESSLY culling some hundreds of bass. This is from a 1/4 acre pond. You've got a massive culling project ahead of you, it seems. Imagine removing 1000 bass. That could be a number that will get you near to where the bluegill you stock have a chance to prosper. Sounds like fun, like good times to me.

Some of us on the forum would rather kill off the pond and restock. I'd personally go the route you've started. Eat as many fish tacos as you possible can. Filleting a small bass takes a bit less than a minute. At some point you could cut the tails and fins off some little bass and toss them to bigger bass cruising by.

Eventually stock some larger bluegills BGs. I put 25 7" to 8" adults in at the start of the 2019 spawning season. In 2018 I'd added about that many various sized green sunfish GSF. Now I have an abundance of BGs. The largest of the recruited young from 2 years ago are 7". I had some for lunch today. The GSF are up to 10" now. LMB numbers are still way down but increasing. Their WRs are exceeding 100%. YP are not abundant but are large.

You are here in the right place for All Things Pond. Enjoy the journey of making your fishery into what you'd like to have.