The live bait thing doesn't taint it much in my mind. A little bit, but not much. I don't agree that live bait is a magic bullet... yes it is a deadly weapon, but you still need to know something to wield the sword effectively unless you get lucky. I would agree it does open up the "get lucky" factor considerably.

Guys fish live bluegill for stripers in the delta ALOT (I don't), but you don't hear about too many teener largemouth eating them.

Where do you draw the line? I fly fished for stripers almost exclusively from 2001-2006, and I can tell you that many fly fisherman LOVE to look down their noses at other anglers, as they delude their egos into believing that they have reached the highest peak of angling challenge. Saltwater fly fishing with the 100' casts with shooting heads, etc... is kinda like riding a bike. Real hard, almost impossible, until you know how to do it. Then it's just another deadly weapon.

I can tell you one thing, for many catching a FEEDING fish that eats a live bait is alot less tainted than sight fishing a huge broodstock spawning female off of her spawning bed. Sight fishing spawning fish is celebrated by many, and despised by many.

But I won't throw any stones, when I was gillnetting bristol bay sockeye salmon we laid gillnets out across the final estuarine funnel, at the end of tidewater, and plugged the nets with perfect nickel bright chrome ripe salmon returning to spawn. But I was younger then....

Marcus