Hey all.  Like the rest of you I do a lot of fishig in the New England states, especially NH MA and VT.  Because of our shorter growing season we just don't have the same number of monster bass that you can find in the deep south or the south western states.  Growing beliefes of go big or go home has lead to bigger and bigger crankbaits, especially big swimbaits and hard jerk baits, in the hopes of catching nothing but big fish. For a short time I got caught up in this flurry of big baits equal big fish until my grandfather and father reminded me that you don't eed big baits to catch big fish and that fishing is a lot more fun when you are catching little fish inbetween the massive lunkers (or "big ol' hunybunks" as my brother sarcastically calls them).  Keeping this in mind I went out and added a new tray to my tackle box dedicated entirly to small cranks.  This box includes lures such as Yo-Zuri's Snapp Beans and Pin's Minnow and Strike King's Bitsy Minnow.  All three of these baits come in a variety of colors, though I find certain colors to be consistanly more effective than others (Ten. Shad for the Snapp Bean, Rainbow Trout for the Pin's Minnow, and Firetiger or Baby Bass for the Bitsy Minnow).  I've had sucess with all three baits catching not only a lot of fish, but big fish and a wide variety of fish (largemouth, smallmouth, chain pickeral, black crappie, walleye, even the occasional catfish).

So I was wondering if I was the only person who had discovered that small crankbaits can outfish oversized ones and if anyone else knows about any other highly effective small cranks.

I have also attached pics of the three cranks that I mentioned ... Hopefully the help you out

 

Here is a link to a page where you can order the bitsy minnow in all its available colors: http://www.landbigfish.com/showcase.cfm?PID=3243

I've had great success using small crankbaits, like the aforementioned Strike King Bitsy Pond Minnow for some lunker crappie and bluegill. It seems like any size fish is more willing to bite a small lure than a larger one, which not only increases numbers but also can increase sizes. I'm a big believer in little baits!

I can buy into the idea of small cranks producing more fish, especially crappie.  Although they have a large mouth in relationship to the rest of its body.  Being an avid bass fisherman I have come to the place where I would rather catch one large fish in the place of a dozen small fish.  Sometimes, just for curiosity sake why not right in the middle of catching fish switch over to a larger bait of the same kind.  Let us know what happens!  I enjoy crappie fishing as well and I call myself  sizing up when I use a small crank bait.  Looking forward to trying a small tube on the back hook of small crank bait.
Uncle Tom  Good luck and great fishing!