Do live bait catch bigger fish is a question that I used to get asked now and then. I can unequivocally tell you the answer and that answer ’sometimes’.
In my 60 years of fishing I know I can catch bigger fish in the fall with live bait. Of course I use bigger bait in the fall than I do in the spring or summer. Maybe I should say bigger bait catches bigger fish. For some reason it seems to work better in the fall tho.
Now I fished in the era when only rich people had boats so I fished from shore 99.5% of the time. My fall fishing techniques are much better at walleyes and northerns from shore than from a boat. Walleyes and Northerns have been my favorite fish all of my life. Crappies and perch are my favorite panfish to catch.
Anyway, over the years I caught a lot of walleyes in the fall 8#s up to 10 1/4#. I used he same bait every fall and those were just huge chubs, at least 8 inches if not longer. So big it made the whole rig hard to cast. Then sit and wait. If you haven’t had a bite for an hour, move. Unless of course you are so familiar with the lake you know what time the fish will be cruising by.
So how do I know big live bait catches bigger fish. Because big live bait was scare in the fall I’d end up with 3 inch minnows at best and sometimes just crappy minnows. The smaller the bait the more often I caught smaller fish. The bigger the bait the more often I caught bigger fish.
I’ve had lots of success casting jigs from shore in the fall and even more success when I’ve added live bait to the jig. Live bait helps more often than not but I’d still like to have bigger live bait to catch bigger fish.
I’ve had as good or even better luck fishing northerns in the fall with live bait. Once again, the larger the live bait the better. Catching a 17# northern on a foot long sucker is a lot of fun. OTOH I’ve caught 10# northerns on crappie minnows. Lol, still live bait. Of course no one with any brains would purposely fish for northerns above 10 pounds with crappie minnows.
Spring and summer smaller baits worked better for most species. Northerns being the exception in the spring. Crappies liked crappie minnows in the spring but would hit 3-4 inch minnows inn the fall. Of course it was accidental the first time as I was fishing for walleyes but it worked at the same place a few more years.
My opinion is live bait can catch bigger fish at certain times.
