"small" baits/lures

[weknowhowtolive]

How often do you downgrade to smaller stuff? I have a whole section of small spinnerbaits and jigs that i NEVER use. I'm not sure if they are 1/8oz or smaller, but regardless, I have too much stuff in my tackle bag and Im thinking of taking them all out. Is that a bad idea, or are they just too small for anything but say, river smallmouth

[Justin Mahaney]

Sometimes when fishing pressured areas such as marina docks or shoreline docks you need to flip the fish smaller downsized baits for them to respond, whether thats a small jig or simply dead sticking a wacky rigged sinking worm/minnow.  I even have a seperate tube collection for docks only.

[hjerk24]

I always use smaller baits, baby brush hogs, and smaller yamamoto crayfish, with hooks just about as big...and have great success.   For me, a smaller bait, with close size hook gives me the confidence that if the fish bites, I will hook them.  I rarely miss (noticed ) bites.  Left that open ended for the pounding to occur.  That's just me.  My best baits...baby brush hogs, 4" yamamoto crawfish, and smaller zoom lizards, all with a crwfish spray added.  Fished on a 1/16th or 1/8th oz, slider hook, or a smaller ewg hook and a same oz. bullet weights, colored to the bait, and unpegged...depending.

Good Luck-

Jamie

[.dsaavedra.]

smaller baits will often get you bit more with generally smaller fish, whereas bigger baits will get you bit less, but you will generally have bigger fish.

[broncoboxer]

I keep small crankbaits around in case I notice panfish activity.  

A tiny Rapala Countdown Minnow (CD1) will absolutely slay bluegills.  So will Strike King's tiny cranks (sorry, forgot their name--something like Bitsy Minnow, or something like that).

[S I G M A]

i usually downsize when i'm not getting bites and i know there are bass around... however i end up with a bunch of dinks

better than getting skunked i guess

[BFBoy]

My first thought to downsize is after a front has come through. When the bite stops, it's time to downsize.

[BassFishingMachine]

I will usually downsize under a few different occasions.

1. If the forage the fish are targeting is small then a small size bait is what Im going to aim for. Although I do tend to break this rule.

2. If I know the fish in the general body of water that I am fishing is mostly dinks I will usually throw a small bait. I rather catch a whole bunch of dinks in a dink infested lake/river then get very few bites trying to find the 15% big ones out of the 85% dinks.

3. In the colder months (40-55 degree weather) I will usually always use a small bait. I have always followed the rule that in the cold months a small bait is the best bet, and the good results have kept me following this rule. The reason I follow this rule is because in cold water the fish's metabolism slows down, therefore IMO a small bait takes less time to digest. Who knows maybe Im wrong, but all in all the rule of small baits in the cold months has always paid off for me.

4. Fall/Spring. I really don't follow this rule too well, but I just thought I'd mention it. During the spring alot of spawning goes on, bass spawn, sunnies spawn, and if Im not mistaken crappies also spawn. So the forage tends to be the babies from the recent spawn, therefore a small bait is the ticket for matching the hatch. Come Fall everything from the past spawn is pretty much "grown up" so a larger bait tends to be the key to matching the hatch. Although I use large/small baits in the spring and large/small baits in the fall and I think the results are around the same. Who knows what the fish think, I guess if they're hungry they're going to bite.. regardless of what size the bait is infront of their face  :.