It's amazing how big a bait a crappie can get in their mouth. I was fishing for smallmouth with a 1/4 jig , 2/0 hook and 4" grub and felt a tap, tap and set the hook in a 9" crappie. I was amazed that it got enough of that bait in it's mouth to get hooked. Another time a 12 incher committed suicide by swallowing a #7 shad rap so deep that I couldn't even see the bill on the crankbait as I was reeling it in.