Big Fish, Small Baits

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******

#gethooked #louslures