- Kevin Payne
Big Fish, Small Baits
Updated: Feb 25, 2020
Throughout almost all of my fishing career, I have always leaned toward smaller baits over larger baits. The logic was simple, any fish will eat a small bait, but a small fish may not eat a large bait.
This seems simple but there are a lot of factors that I have learned and put into my arsenal over the years. The average fisherman goes through similar stages throughout their career. 1) Catch a fish
2) Consistently catch fish
3) Catch a large fish
4) Catch a limit of fish
5) Catch a limit of the largest fish you can.
Most of us have gone through this without even noticing it. I currently am at a new stage, I want to catch a lot of fish but also want to catch the best species representative in any water system. With this being said, I still lean toward the smaller baits to accomplish this. The below list of species with bait used represents this theory:
Carp - single piece of corn
Catfish - ultra light Little Cleo spoon
Chinook Salmon - 3" walleye stick bait
Crappie - 1" Mister Twister
Largemouth Bass - Ultra Light Beetle Spin
Musky - walleye jig
Northern Pike - Ned Rig
Steelhead - single salmon egg
Rock Bass - live 1" gold fish
Smallmouth Bass - ultra light square bill crank bait
Sheepshead - #0 Mepps spinner
Sucker - ultra light sassy shad
Walleye - 7 1/2" culprit worm (this was an exception in dirty water)
White Bass - 1" white Mister Twister
Yellow Perch - 1/16 oz ice fishing jig in open water
As you can see, small baits are prevalent on this list and most likely due to the fact that I have high confidence in them. Do you get bit off occasionally? Yes, but usually a small bait will end up in the corner of the mouth of most species.
The next time you are out fishing, tie on at least one rod with a bait that seems exceptionally small for what species you are targeting and let me know what results you get.
Always fishing, even if its in my mind - Kevin
*****The best time to fish is when it is raining and when it is not******