BigEBass, I'm not too far from you here in Atlanta. I fish Lake Allatoona mostly, which ranks in the top 5 every year of the busiest corps of engineer lake in the US. Heavy pressure, lots of tournaments due to it's proximity to Atlanta and lots and lots of small fish both spots and largemouth. Here is what I have learned works for ME and my home lake.
For my home lake and if I want to catch the biggest fish in the pond for me bigger baits work better. I've fished 5 and 6 inch baits till I am blue in the face. I get tons of fish but no heavy weights (based on what is in my home lake). When you have alot of small fish like Allatoona you have to try to weane off the smaller fish to get to the bigger ones. How many times have you reeled in a fish and had a much bigger fish following the fish you are reeling in? By using bigger baits I have found that it helps weane off those smaller fish some. It does NOT completely weane them off but it does help. I've had clients and myself catch crappie on 8 inch swimbaits and I have gotten 1.5lbers on my 8 inch swimbait last week and I thought I had pine straw on my bait? LOL.
If I look at my catch rates over the years I have caught more bigger fish recently by throwing bigger baits than I have in the past throwing smaller baits.
Now if you fish small lakes or ponds that are loaded to the gills with big 8 to 10lb + fish I'm not so sure it matters what size bait you throw. Your odds of catching a bigger fish go up dramatically just by fishing them.
I have zero doubt that you can catch big bass and plenty of them on smaller swimbaits I got a whole photobucket account full of them. But it's lake specific alot of times. What works for one lake might not work for another and vice versa. Oh and btw spots absolutely kill 8 inch swimbaits and to throw you for a loop I do fish trout swimbaits in lakes that have no trout and I have done well with them.
A good way to start with swimbaits to get instant confidence is to fish them in a schooling situation. Thats one of the best ways to catch a swimbait fish. Guntersville is a great swimbait lake as well to cut your teeth on swimbaits. It would also be a great lake to fish smaller baits on because it's slap full of 5lb fish.
When I am fishing with swimbaits in my home lake I'm fishing for 1 or 2 bites. Often times I have gone a month without a bite on big baits (I throw other baits as well). By my lakes standard a 5lb largemouth and a 4lb spot is a fairly big fish and most times wins you big fish in a tournament setting. I'm shooting for 8lbs + largemouth with a goal of a 10lb fish and a 5lb + spot with a goal of 7lbs. Many say there isn't a 10lb head or 7lb spot in my home lake just to give you an idea of pushing the limits.
It's will take some experimenting on your part to determine what works best for you. Remember there are no rules in fishing and thats what I try to do when learning a new tactic. Take everything I read with a grain of salt until proven by experience. That way you don't brainwash yourself from really learning the tactic and over look things.
I think it's great that your trying to learn new tactics especially swimbaits. Big swimbait guys are a different breed of anglers and you got several of them on this post contributing.
Good Luck
Mike
