When it comes to fishing big baits bass arent very line shy, once they lock theirs eyes on that big bait their aint nothing that can take their attention off of it. If u feel u need to add a steel leader to ur line ti protect from bite offs from those pike and muskies then by all means do, the bass wont mine. I fish in Southern California where we have clairty ranging anywhere from 5-30ft deep with 10-15ft clairty on average and i have caught many bass with straight braid on swimbaits, A-rigs , crankbaits and frogs eith no problem. My PB at 15lbs was caught on Straight braid with a 8inch BBZ in 15ft clairty in 2ft of water and less than 10ft from the shore. Bass seeing ur line isnt any issue with Big baits so dont worry