I noticed in one of Eric's reports that he saw some crayfish moving about in the Fox. As our Illinois streams wake up for spring fishing, are the smallmouth looking for a larger meal, or are they still favoring smaller float-n-fly sized offerings? It would seem logical to start the season with smaller presentations and increase the size as the year progresses, with the largest baits offered late in the summer and into the fall.
On the other hand, the first bait fish and crayfish to become active after a long winter are going to be fairly big in order to have survived through the coldest months. So, wouldn't it make sense to start out with large baits in the very early spring, and then down size after the fish and crawdads have spawned later in the year, before returning to larger baits in summer and fall?
I guess another factor to consider is the presence of bug hatches. Last spring in Door County I saw many big smallmouth landed on what I considered to be small flies, while large plastics were not producing as well. Go figure.
So, is it the size of the bait in early-early spring that entices more strikes, or do temperature, depth, color and speed trump the profile of the lure? I'm going to do a little outdoor research this afternoon.