I don't know which ones live the longest, but i will tell you that the blues are not nearly as hardy as the channels. When hooked and released I find that a lot of the blues go belly up and very few if any of the channels die. Maybe Bob Lusk can shed some light on why this is.
To answer your question, Big_Pond both species readily take artificals. I can't comment on which one fights the hardest when hooked. It appears that this is just relevant to the weight of the fish
