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Last year the best bait for me was a 5 inch red Tiki stick, its was my money bait all season. This year I cant buy a bite on it!
Now the only stick style bait that produces is a 4 inch bait. I started fishing the 4 inch version in spring as I had no takers on a 5 inch bait. I based my switch to the smaller bait in the spring using the logic of matching the bait fish in size and it worked.
What I find unusual is we are now into July, IL has had 9 straight days of 90 + degree days with rain fall down nearly 6 inches over historical totals. Vegetation is thick, frogs are out and guys are fishing slop baits and I would also normally. To my disbelief the 4 inch stick bait is still the ticket. I can't attribute this to any thing other than fishing pressure (down sized baits produce more bites), or a slower fall rate (lighter small bait stays in the stick zone longer). Do you agree? One last thing: all bass caught have come from small open pockets with thick vegetation typically in water less than 4 feet deep.

Bassin
Butch

Butch, sounds like you're on the right track for this year. We in Iowa are seeing the same thing. I think it's because we had such a delayed spawn by shad and gamefish that the fry are still small instead of grown, so the fish are used to feeding on tiny baits. Also, as you stated, fishing pressure may come into play. I've got a lot of six inch worms that are now four inchers after I bit their heads off. Lots of luck. Johnnie

Butch it is funny how you can absolutely kill on a particular bait one year and the next it won't get a sniff. As a guy who learned to downsize to get more consistent bites, it is no surprise to me that the smaller bait worked out for you.