Thread: Downsizing helps catch tail nipper sunfish and perch

This week I found locations that had pannies primarily. At first, the bite consisted of nips of the lure on the retrieve but no hook-ups. I hadn't brought any small lures with me but shortened two that allowed good action regardless and caught fish.

The next day I was ready: smaller soft plastics used on lighter jigs with smaller hooks. Keep in mind I'm finding these fish in 3', some near pads, others on hard bottom flats so I needed to keep the lure in the zone off the bottom with slow twitch & pause retrieves. 1/64, 1/32 oz and 1 gram jigs allowed it. Hook size was a # 4 that didn't go to far back in the body of the 1 - 1.5" lures - just the right size but not too small like that of a #8.

Here are a few of the 40 or so fish caught:
This 2" hand pour has always done well for finicky fish:


Here I cut off a Crappie Magnet tail and added it to a thicker body:


The lures even caught sunfish under a float which also caught crappie!


The ice pick tail has a unique quiver that always gets bit:


I also tried a piece of a plastic worm and did very well:


Other days the bite was fierce allowing larger lures to catch fish like this 2.5" clear plastic stick:


... and 3" Slugo type lure - both on 1/24 oz jigs:


I'll always be sure to keep smaller lures in the boat anytime I fish for those light biters.

Those are some beautiful fish. Gonna have to try the smaller jigs. Their always bitting the tail off my jigs.