Size considerations:
jig head wt.
line test
bait size (length and girth)

Today I decided to hit my local crappie lake. Fortunately there are large open areas to fish free of weed or along scattered weed edges. I wanted to see if going smaller in the above would make a difference so I used a 4# test leader, a 1/32 oz jig head and and 1 1/4" minnow grub (shown below).





The depth to be fished needed to be over 9' or at least close to it seeing as how thick the weed in shallower water.

At first, the lure was difficult to cast into the wind, averaging only 15', so I increased hook size to accommodate a larger soft plastic minnow that weighed a bit more. Once I let the lure drop more than half way, I started picking up many small fish in four species: crappie, sun fish, bass and yellow perch. (I won't count roach because their good for noth'n).

But even though small fish were caught, larger yellow perch were caught in the same area and I found most areas where fish were caught to have mixed species. I decided to then rig up two other rods - one with a 1 3/4" minnow grub and one with a 2 1/4".

If the larger lure was nipped, I would follow up casting the smallest lure and catch that fish and more in succeeding casts. If I caught a decent size crappie or yellow perch in an area on a smaller lure, I switched to the medium to largest baits and caught 5-10 more in the same area of the same size and of three species.

I alternated lure size on an off all day and did fantastic! The water is pea soup green and loaded with suspended algae, so the lure sparkles came in handy. The hits were strong and easy to detect and hookups were missed only one per 10 fish caught. Many fish hit more than once on the same retrieve in a hyper-excited mode.

The day was perfect : sunny, breezy, 77 degrees and water about the same temp. Quality fish were caught all day and especially from 12-3:30 pm. Some fish were caught higher in the water column, some lower, but all near 8-14' of water even if adjacent to shallower rock humps and cliffs dropping into deep water.

Did changing sizes matter? For smaller fish, definitely! For larger fish, most likely to help them see more flash of lures' metal flakes and their inclination to hit a larger lure for whatever reason.

Ah, what a feeling coming home after catching 40 plus fish!