Dangest thing -

[NEK]

Lately here - I've been fishing for panfish - Yellow Perch and Sunfish - on a local lake using nitecrawlers for bait, and every time out so far - I have caught at least one, and yesterday - 3, big Smallmouth Bass on the tiniest piece of worm you can imagine. The pieces of worm were so small, that I had my doubts as to whether they were big enough to even tempt a sunny. I have fished for Smallies all my life in more southern waters and never had this happen before. It's weird - but a nice surprise.

[buckhunter14]

Originally Posted by NEK

Lately here - I've been fishing for panfish - Yellow Perch and Sunfish - on a local lake using nitecrawlers for bait, and every time out so far - I have caught at least one, and yesterday - 3, big Smallmouth Bass on the tiniest piece of worm you can imagine. The pieces of worm were so small, that I had my doubts as to whether they were big enough to even tempt a sunny. I have fished for Smallies all my life in more southern waters and never had this happen before. It's weird - but a nice surprise.

I often inspect the panfish and trout that I catch to keep, and you would be surprised the small larvae that is found in the stomach.

[Phil from Maine]

Originally Posted by NEK

Lately here - I've been fishing for panfish - Yellow Perch and Sunfish - on a local lake using nitecrawlers for bait, and every time out so far - I have caught at least one, and yesterday - 3, big Smallmouth Bass on the tiniest piece of worm you can imagine. The pieces of worm were so small, that I had my doubts as to whether they were big enough to even tempt a sunny. I have fished for Smallies all my life in more southern waters and never had this happen before. It's weird - but a nice surprise.

That happens up here alot when fishing for white perch. I use a small amount of bait to catch my perch on and always normally catch a few smallmouths that way and some of those are rather large bass as well. They say during August the large bass are underneath the perch waiting for one to come down to it for a lunch or something like that.

[NEK]

Thanks for the replies Guys,
Fortunately - there are no White Perch in most of the lakes around here yet, but there are gazillions of small Yellow Perch, and I guess that is what the Bass are feeding on the most. A firetiger Rapala has been the best artificial lure so far this year, and that has a kinda Perchy look I guess.
A while back - I read an article in "In Fisherman" magazine, that told how this guy is having real good luck using an ultra lite rod & reel and long casting, using light braided line and small Swedish Pimples and Castmasters with small crappie tubes on the single hook, (He replaces the treble hooks with single siwash hooks) and he has been cleanig up on the big Bluegills and Sunnies with some Crappies and other stuff thrown in. I have been trying this off & on for a while now and have had a lot of fun on the light outfit and am catching quite a few Yellow Perch and a few Smallies and a lot of Pickerel - some of them pretty good size.

[Knightia]

Have caught some suprizing fish on as you say very small pieces of worm in the past( smallies,pike etc of nice size yep.