I certainly don't have any problem with you voicing your opinions.
Your reference to live bait fishing with shiners, sure sounded like Clear Lk. to me though.... am I right ?
Ya' know it's funny, of all the live baits I have ever used, I think shiners are just about dead last on my list. They are expensive, they are a pain to transport and keep alive, and in my experience the dinky little 4 and 5 inch things that they call "jumbos" seem to deep hook too many fish...... or miss them altogether ! I used them a few times to experience these things, but catch my own crawdads for free, which I feel are a better big bass bait anyway.

Where is the challenge in live bait fishing ? Well for me, it is in catching a trophy bass. In 2001 I fished Clear Lk. aprox 90 days and caught very close to 1100 bass (28 of which were from 8 to 9.8 lbs, but about 1/2 of these were caught on the Castaic trout), for about 5000 lbs. More than 1000 of those fish were caught on tiny live dads and micro-light gear (and I had a blast doing this I should add :-). But considering the fact that among all those nice bass, I did not catch a single double digit bass, NOT EVEN ONE, (always my ultimate goal) I guess it was very challenging...... in fact, it must have been "TOO" challenging !

The other thing about live bait that always surprises people who have not previously used it, is to have a big bass swim up and eye the bait, sometimes for several minutes, only to turn there nose up and swim away. If you have not experienced this in your live bait fishing, then again, that must have been at Clear Lk. with those overpopulated, highly competitive, 3 to 6 lb'ers, in which case, I have to agree, those fish are about as easy as it gets...... but are still fun on micro-light gear :-)

Take this any way you like, but after thousands of hours of live bait fishing experience, I am very positive that giant bass, day in and day out, are "EASIER" to catch on artificial lures. This is exactly why I use artificial lures so much more nowadays, and why I catch so many more big bass because of it. I guess one could take this to mean, artificial lures are less of a challenge. But this is OK with me, because if 15's ever become "too easy", I will have to shoot for nothing but 18's, and then 20's, and then the world record.

There are things about live bait fishing "which seem like they would be true"....... and then on the other hand, there is "reality".

Peace,
Fish