What crafted bait has tickled your most recent B-I-G fish?
Of course "BIG" is relative to both location of the water fished and experience of the angler fishing, so let's make everything relative to your personal success...
For me, jigs have taken the overwhelming majority of my big fish (bass, catfish, muskies, panfish, and walleyes) over the years, but I was out recently chasing some of the finest fighters the Father of Waters has to offer (smallmouth) when the beast of the night hit a 3/8oz Do-it Buzz Keel equipped with counter rotating blades and a chartreuse 4" Ripper for the body. I was not at all looking for big fish that evening because my back seat was occupied by a relative novice on the water, so I was working along a closing dam for some schooling fish when a giant smallie took hold of the bait I was tossing. Truth be told, I did not boat the toad (because I was trying to play it out to land by hand), but we both saw it enough to realize its relative quality. I'll refrain form speculating about its size (because everyone losing a fish usually has a story far bigger than the fish actually was); however, I will say I have legit pictures of fish larger than the one I lost, so it wasn't the fish of a lifetime.
Regardless of actual size, this big fish encounter was out of the norm for me and it got me wondering about the bait that everyone else's most recent BIG fish bait bit on (not your normal go-to big fish bait unless that is what it bit)... please include bait and species and whatever other details you might feel as pertinent.
