How big, how small?

[ctom]

I'll make a companion post to Mo Qwuack's " proof that crappies hit big baits" thread.



That #13 Husky Jerk is a bait I like to troll on the Mississipii River during the fall months if the jig bite isn't producing. In many areas I drag this along rip-rap with fairly deep water snooping for waldo but catch some impressive crappies right along with the long fish.

The jigs shown near the penny is 1/32 and the plastic on it is only 1" in length. I fish this bait along some rip-rap and off docks for late fall crappies, but in the last four years five walleyes in the 29"to 31" range have hit it and been landed.

The big bait gets trolled fairly fast and the crappies that hit it and get caught are chasing it, so hook-ups are not incidental or accidental. These fish are shopping for large portions on their dinner plates.

On the other hand, walleyes of those proportions that hit small baits like this one are clearly not at all fussy about grabbing morsels and makes me think that they are opportunists....if its can be eaten and happens by they are more than happy to eat it.

So....what is too big and what is too small? Clearly I can't say because neither bait has been tied on in anticipation of catching the fish mentioned. At the same time, having caught these oddball fish on these baits, it erases any doubt that they will and do hit on baits larger and smaller than we expect them to. One just never knows....

[matt]

I troll 300 banits all the time

[pjmcla]

If a fish is hungry and the bait looks like it is something it can catch easily; and get it in it's mouth; it will eat it.  Big or small.  If the water is warm enough to support the metabolism to digest.  Energy exerted vs energy content of the prey.  This applies to fresh water fish and prey that does not have spines or other special defense mechanisms.   

[Jeff Little]

My first foray into soft plastic making was actually redipping a tube to make it fatter.  I used remelted scraps, and it looked awful.  A buddy saw it's dark green bubbled surface and said, "Dude, you made a Godzilla tube!"  It was fatter than the end of a broom handle at the end.  The first fish I caught on it was a 9 inch Shenandoah River smallmouth that got it stuck in it's mouth without even getting the curve of the hook inside.  It wasn't hooked, just wedged the thing in it's mouth hard enough that it couldn't spit it out.  Who knew smallmouth used shoe horns?  The flip side of that is that some of the largest smallmouth I've landed hit a 2 inch tube that is the keystone product of my business, Confidence Baits LLC.  It was featured in Bassmaster a few years back, and we can't keep up with demand.  It kind of depends on their mood, but small stuff almost always catches something, and big baits overall do weed out smaller fish But there's always that dink that is already the next world record in his own mind to disprove that last part!