Take Control With The 'Tiny Terrors'

By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan

Who doesn’t love a big topwater walker explosion, a crushing jig bite or that slack-throwing swimbait thrill? Nice when that happens, but bass aren’t always keying on forage that would merit such exuberance.

Fact is, bass can be remarkably, if not downright frustratingly fixated on miniscule meals; and when this happens, the bite can become unbelievably challenging. Summer and into fall often finds bass targeting tiny baitfish and snubbing just about anything else. This is when downsizing bait profiles is absolutely critical.

I’ve seen this multiple times through Bassmaster Elite Series coverage and other outings; from Lake Chickamauga to the Sabine River and into the Mississippi River. Little silver shards offer bass mouthful opportunities, but they tend to strap them with blinders.

As Elite Series competitor Brandon Card notes, the small baitfish scenario tends to be a warm-season deal. Spring hatches yield a lot of little forage each fall, while some of the minnow species that rarely reach the 2-inch mark are abundant throughout the warm season. Moreover, energy consumption regulates winter feeding.

“Usually, in the wintertime, they’re not as keyed in on small baits; they’re more on bigger bait,” Card said. “Their metabolism is a lot slower, so instead of exerting a lot of energy chasing a lot of little bait around, they would rather exert a little bit of energy and get a few bigger meals.”

Infiltrating the Fracas

During a photo day in the La Crosse, Wisc. area, Gerald Swindle and I ventured into a fertile Upper Mississippi River backwater with small pockets of pads and milfoil where an abundance of tiny baitfish had the bass popping and swirling, but largely ignoring my small topwater.

During a moment of conversational distraction, I had stopped retrieving my bait. Apparently, dead-sticking an enticing profile was more productive than walking the relatively modest form alongside baitfish half its size.

Still, as Elite pro Mike Iaconelli points out: “The phrase ‘match the hatch’ isn’t just for trout fishing. When the fish are on those tiny baitfish, you gotta use baits that look like what they’re eating.”

Case in point: Another Mississippi River trip, this one out of Winona, Wisc., offered an even greater example of the challenge facing anglers perplexed by tons of teeny-weeny baitfish. Iaconelli and I peeked into a back channel and where it met the main river, we found a small notch in the point that was absolutely loaded with tiny forage.

As channel current piled the mix of minnows and small shad against a bank of river grass, the water glimmered and flashed with tiny bodies not much longer than a quarter’s width. Spurred by the frequent explosions of smallmouth and largemouth blasting bait, Iaconelli tried a variety of offerings without a touch.

Then, it hit him: Go small.

“I’ve seen this many times in my career; the fish are so focused on that tiny bait, they ignore your standard-size baits,” Iaconelli said.

Biting his 3-inch swimbait nearly in half, he ran the minimized lure though the gorge-fest and immediately found a taker. Continuing this strategy with a mix of plastics and hard baits produced an hour of nearly nonstop action.

Bait Options

Card summarizes his targeting philosophy: “A lot of times when they’re dialed in to that small bait, the baitfish has been pushed up pretty shallow. The fish are feeding on them either at the surface or right under the surface.

“That’s why I’m usually not using any baits that dive really deep. I think that those tiny baitfish tend to stay pretty shallow.”

One of Card’s favorite baits for the tiny forage scenario is a Yo-Zuri 3DR-X, a 2-inch (1/4-ounce) crankbait that runs 2-3 feet. For mid-column presentations, he likes a 3/16-ounce Yo-Zuri Rattlin’ Vibe, while a Yo-Zuri 3DR-X Pencil handles his surface work.

While Card fishes his crankbait on baitcasting gear, he likes medium-heavy spinning tackle with 15-pound Yo-Zuri braid for the lipless and topwater baits.

“If I’m twitching the topwater fast and I don’t think the fish are seeing it, I’ll go with straight braid,” Card said. “If I’m working it slower in cooler weather, I might use 12 to 14 inches of 16-pound Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon.”

Iaconelli likes the Rapala Ultralight Crank and Ultralight Minnow, along with micro swimbaits like the 2.8-inch Berkley Power Swimmer or the 3-inch Berkley Ripple shad. When small crawfish and/or small gobies abound, he likes a Missile Baits Ike’s Micro Jig.

Complementing these, Iaconelli keeps a panic box in his boat. This go-to section includes a killer option for the tiny baitfish dilemma.

“The baits that have bailed me out a lot is a 1/8-ounce in-line spinner, like a Panther Martin and a Rooster Tail,” Iaconelli said. “People forget about that for a bass bait, but it’s very effective when you’ve been catching them on a spinnerbait or a ChatterBait and that bite goes away. I’ve pulled that out many times and saved the day.”

Card offers a couple tips for fishing around tiny baitfish, especially when the area holds a huge volume.

“Matching your bait color to the (forage) is good, but when there’s so much little bait in the water, sometimes, something as simple as just showing them a different color is the key,” Card said. “Maybe something like firetiger or black back chartreuse and just reeling it fast through areas where the bait is can get you some additional bites.”

Also, if fish are following his topwater without committing, or if one boils and misses, Card follows with a wacky-rigged 4-inch Senko. Big enough to cast well, but not oversized, this rig looks like a wounded baitfish descending – basically easy pickings.

Made for the Task

While practically any small lure could conceivably tempt bass locked onto tiny forage, you have to be careful about raiding the crappie and panfish tackle trays. Most of us have landed incidental bass on small jigs fished beneath slip floats or shot under docks, but consistently handling bigger bites requires baits built strong enough to handle the strain and stress bass inflict. (Hooks large enough to keep a big one pinned – that’s another key consideration.)

For example, BOOYAH recently expanded the Covert Spinnerbait line, designed by Elite pro Jason Christie, with a new Covert Finesse model. Built with the same strength and durability as the full-size baits, the Covert Finesse comes in 3/8- and 1/2-ounce sizes. The key here is the way BOOYAH distributed the weight to allow maximum castability while maintaining the compact form.

Similarly, SPRO’s Bronzeye Pop 40 frog measures 1 1/2 inches, weighs 1/5 of an ounce and carries a 1/0 Gamakatsu EWG double hook. About half the size of SPRO’s Bronzeye Pop 60 (2 3/8 inches, 1/2 ounce), this finesse frog lands lightly and does a good job of probing grass edges where tiny baitfish often roam.

As for an angler-generated form, the Tiny Child rig – Texas-rigged 3-inch stickbait with a screw-in tail weight ¬– provides a modest profile that slips in and out of grass holes for a deeper presentation.

Proper Mindset

First and foremost, the sooner you embrace the fact that the fish are going to do it their way, the better off you’ll be. Not to say that the occasional glutton won’t break from the tiny baitfish train and slurp down a full-size frog or drop the hammer on a standard swimbait.

However, perspective determines action. Noting that he has definitely caught his share of 3- to 4-pounders while throwing the tiny bait imitators, Iaconelli said he believes picking through quantity to find the quality typically produces better than sticking with the big bait/big fish approach.

“I’m not always talking about catching the biggest fish doing this; but I’m talking about getting bites when you can’t get bit on any other thing. I’d rather get seven or eight bites that weigh 10 pounds (combined) than one fish that weighs 2.”