>>303571For bait I've been using just as I mentioned above; small jig spinners and crappie/panfish soft baits. The nice thing about them is that almost anything predatory will take them (channel cat above related) and if you're struggling to find the big fish switching to such a small lure will usually find you the small-to-medium ones so the day isn't a total wash. Johnson's Beetle Spins are a popular pre-packaged solution but you can buy parts ("jig spinner forms", colorado blades, swivels and split rings) in bulk and put them together yourself for way cheaper. This is almost a necessity when you switch to larger baits since it's gotten harder over the years to find stand-alone jig spinners in larger sizes in stores and if you do the prices are absurd.
Forgive the potato picture. It's from a phone I had back in '07. My tackle is out in the truck but I'll take some new pictures tonight. Anyway those are 5" Yamamoto single-tailed grubs in chartreuse/pepper. I'd usually have slightly larger spinner blades than that but this was back before I started building my tackle back up. The jig heads are 1/16 ounce. If I'm fishing rivers, strong tides or high-wind days I might switch up to an 1/8 ounce jig just to help the lure sink a little faster. Upping the bait size helps get rid of most of the small fries and should help to target larger fish. That said I have found bluegill to be greedy little bastards that'll try to eat something half their size so it's pretty often I reel in and the tail of my grub is missing.
