over here on the east coast,except in a few select lakes :), it is so hard to sort through the 8 lbers, it gets ridiculous. there are lots of bigger fish, i mean dont get me wrong, but WOW are they hard to get to. not like structure wise, but you have to get thru their sculls and fool them. so you are trying to fool an EXTREMELY well whitted fish, who is extremely reluctant to touch a shiner, for fear of being pulled out of its habitat, like it has seen dont to her biddies before. so rooting thru the dumber almost countless 5-8's, and then trying to outsmart the BIGGER way fewer bass would be an extremely hard challenge, and personally, i would rather just throw a 19 inch trout plug to get them! hell you would probably spend so much time and money tryin to get a bass thats over 15, you may as well just get a house in cali and have it MUCH easier. HEY chris i have an idea, if you liek a challenge, relocate to florida and try to get a 15....BWA HA HA HA!! lol...got carried away....good fishin yall...
-patrick