Thread: Transition baits

I have this mold also. Me being in the South and not accustomed to making really small ice baits, im amazed at how little plastic is used to make a pile of these guys! I got this mold to target bluegill. Ive actually never used a bait this small for crappie, but this year i plan on it. In fact i plan on testing both extremes... 3" vs 1" !

Up here we get cold water and fishes' metabolisms slow way down. What you offer them has to reflect that at times, hence the smaller baits. The foods they eat naturally get quite small during the cold water period too so baits like this help to match the hatch so to speak. There are times even under the ice that crappies will settle for nothing smaller than 2" baits too. Everything depends on what the fish feel like at any given time.

Hey Guys, Good subject! When I fish with a friend we usually cast to stake beds. I use heavy and big curly tails(2.5 & 3"). He uses 1/16 and under with 1.5" curly tails. He usually catches more smaller fish and I usually catch the bigger fish. His strike usually comes on the first drop and mine usually comes on the first hesitation. I fish large baits year round while 2 poling and feel confident in my baits. I think confidence plays a huge part in my fishing presentation. We fish Ky. Lake and it is deep and clear most of the time. A lot of water and intimidating some times trying to figure out the bite. My go to bait hands down is Ron Don's 2.5" flapjack white/clear silver tail. I still try to out fish it side by side 2 poling. I have a hard time fishing small baits. Maybe someday......

ifish, you are still considered "southern water" in Kentucky. Maybe the top of the range, but still southern. I like to fish as large a bait as the fish will allow. I troll #13 Raps for walleyes here in the summer and catch lots of crappies on those.

Ifish also touched on another key factor... CONFIDENCE! There are a good many ppl around here that use 1.5" and even smaller baits that catch plenty of fish. I "feel" that ive had more success using bigger baits so I probably don't keep a smaller bait tied on long enough! Im going to make myself catch something on one of these Nanos though LOL.

Much of my confidence lies in being flexible when it comes to size. I've learned that I have to do that during the fall and spring when conditions change in a matter of hours or less. I've fished during a frontal change and had the bait size have to be down-sized greatly just to stay with the fish.

I got some awful nice fish this morning using the pink/chartreuse bait shown here. What was working on the larger fish on Tuesday only got small fish today. I up-sized and got zip, so I decided to try a move in the other direction and hung the little guy on the jig. It never came off. Crappies up to 13" were all over it and sunnies to 9" smacked it around pretty good too. I'm impressed given the size of this bait.

Good report CTom. Kind of makes me want to try some small baits. I will have to go to the store because I do not have anything that small. You never know what will work until you try something. Major cold fronts coming through here. I fished hard today and never caught 1 fish. That has not happened in good while. Are you casting or vertical fishing these micro baits and how are you rigging them?