Well, with real life experience going back to 1996, I can state definitively that live bait
out fished artificial 10:1. My best friend (deceased) was a tournament fishermen for years,
but got flipped. Fishing for smallmouth on the Tennessee River with him and another regular,
I fished artificial until my buddies caught 10 bass between them. Over more than a decade,
I occasionally caught a fish or two while they were killin' it.
On a side note, two years ago I fished a Rage Tail Menace that actually out fished live bait.
Five smallmouth 4-6 lbs on five consecutive casts! Only happen once, but MAN...