I spent today at America's Outdoor Show as it made it's way through the Chicago area. Babe Winkleman was one of the feartured speakers. One of his points was that big bait=big fish. This flies in the face of a long held belief of mine that the only thing big bait insures is that you will NOT catch a small fish and that fish feed on targets of opportunity and eat whatever will give them the most return on energy expended to swallow said bait regardless of size. Anyone out there want to discuss this? Tom

I think you are right up to a point. Big fish prefer to fill up when they have the oppertunity instead of many small bites, especially in cold water,  however I agree that large fish will take smaller baits.

Ill agree big bait=big fish but i also think, it all depends on what your fishing for. Some type of species seem picker than others.

Pegsguy,

I agree with this theory somewhat. I believe a larger fish will hit a lure that is too large for a small fish to consume. For example, a 12 inch pike normally
won't hit a 10" stickbait but a 30" pike certainly would. That's about as far as I subscribe to the "Big Lure = Big Fish" theory.

In my opinion it is far more important to use the right type of lure (jig, spoon, crankbait etc...) in the right color pattern, with the right presentation than
to just throw huge lures randomly and expect to catch big fish. My opinion explains why tackle manufacturers make lures in a wide range of weights and
sizes. The "Big Bait = Big Fish" theory would suggest all small baits are designed to catch small fish - and we know that's just not true!

When I watch the pro fisherman competing for money they very rarely throw big baits. Sure, there's a time and a place that big lures will work, but there's
also a time and a place when they won't. It seems every fisherman has an opinion (some good, some not so good) and it's fun to listen to them. If their idea
seems valid I'll try to incorporate this new-found "knowledge" into my own fishing style. Maybe it will work for me and maybe it won't, but it's sure a lot of fun
trying new things - especially when you stumble onto a bizarre little tweak that actually seems to work! That's what makes fishing different types of water
at different times of the year so fun - finding the fish and figuring out how to put 'em in the boat!

One last point: you said the show was in Chicago? I now have a theory that correlates Babe's "Big Bait = Big Fish" with the Bears' using " The Fridge" as a fullback!

Bill

I guess what I was trying to say is that I would rather not limit my catch to just very large fish and spend all day catching nothing. Big is a relative term. Some of the muskie baits I have seen are not big next to a 50" fish but are huge next to the average smallmouth. Tom

I think using a big bait gives you the opertunity to catch a big fish but saying big baits = big fish just dosen't work for me.
I have seen many small fish hit a bait that is larger than the fish and I have caught some big fish on some very small baits.
I like to eat what I catch and I have cleaned a lot of fish over the years.
Most of what I find in the fish that I catch is from 1 to 4 inches long with but a few exceptions.
I have seen some small snakes in some Bass and I got a 5 lb Rainbow one time that had eaten a bird that was the size of a swallow or sparrow.
Some years back I decided to try some Muskie fishing. My wife went to town and picked up some Muskie baits for the trip.
She got some Bucktail spinners, a big ole Rapala and the biggest spinnerbait I have ever seen.
I tried them all for the better part of a day with no results. Late in the day I wanted to catch something so we down sized for Perch.
We each tyed on a kastmaster spoon with a ice jig dropper and started putting some Perch in the boat.
Deb got a pretty good hit and as it came to the boat we saw it was a Muskie that was 26 inches.
About 10 min, later I got one 30 inches. Both fish came out of the same spot where we were catching Perch 4 to 8 inches.

I do not have a ton of experience so I really can not give an educated answer.  What I would like to see is if you fish a small lure and exact same lure in a large size using same technique and speed, etc. what the outcome would be.  Would you catch same large size fish on either and just not get the small fish or would you catch larger fish with the large lure then you do on the smaller. 

To me it seems that yes you may miss a lunker every now and then with a smaller lure but for me I would rather catch 10 smaller fish then 1 lunker (I am catch and release only so size does not matter as much since I am not looking at how much meat I get from a catch).

I upsize bait size, when I need to weed out the smaller fish. That's my philosophy.

I have caught several nice bass in the 4 to 5 lb range using small 2 inch tubes while crappie fishing. I think if you put the bait in the fish's face they will take it.

The biggest bass I ever caught I caught on a plastic worm that caught me the smallest bass I've ever caught. I do believe if you use bigger bait that you are only targeting bigger fish so of course bigger bait = bigger fish if you catch any at all.

i's sorry I missed this topic. I am a bit on the fence with this one also. I think alot depends on te species. I have caught 6" bluegill on 6" cranks. I like to fish streams for brown trout and use a # 5 or 6# vibrax spinner.Ya I may not catch many fish under 12" and am missing some opportunities with a larger lure but i still can keep my catch rate up and it seems like the bigger browns are more apt to eat other fish than smaller morsels. now the counterpoint to that is that plenty of hefty trout are caught on flies that are like a size 26 to 32 hook almost invisible to my eyes. I seen a couple of articles a while back on lure size versus bass size and found some of the studies interesting but I did not really agree with all the info.

Brian

When I am catching too many small fish, I just put my "No Dinks, Please" sign on as a trailer. Works every time

Tom,
I would just like to add. When fishing walleye in the spring , small perch seams to be the bait of choice. As the season progresses , of course the perch grow larger. Open them up to see what they are feeding on and match the hatch , so to speak! As bait fish grow larger during the year so should the size of your lures.

Joe