Ive been a minority here in Maine for many years, being into the big stuff. Was wondering who here lives the big baits? Whats your favorite? What do you consider big? What’s the heaviest or longest you’ve caught fish on?

My favorite bait of all time is a 9” slammer. I have a “few” of them dated back as far as 1998. For me, a bait isn’t big until you get to the over 10” range. My heaviest bait catch was on a Roman made mother I think. That’s an 11oz bait. The longest is definitely a slammer snake or super slammer. Those are 15” and 16” baits. That said, I do t really fish much of that stuff anymore. A lot more 6-10” baits for me now

Other than long worms, the largest baits I thrown were a Musky Jitterbug and a Bagley Shad, striper sized. Never caught a fish on either.

My best big baits are always 10” ribbon tails and 7” swimming worms. I also do pretty well on full size jigs with big bulky skirts and trailers. I like fishing the larger topwater lures like a bigger Buzzbait or bigger frog when the fish are biting really well. I have pretty good success every year on big swim baits and glide baits when they set up right for that kinda thing - right after they finish the biggest wave of spawning in the early summer and in the fall are typically when big swim baits play for me. Fun when they’re on that stuff for sure.

Wow! I thought I threw large baits but nothing like @Swimbaitstud uses!

I believe in larger than normal baits. I use SK 4.0 and 8.0 crankbaits, MB Kanata jerkbait, Mop jig with a #1 pork frog, spinnerbait with #7 blade, etc.

They all catch fish but I have not noticed any real difference in size compared to "normal" baits, but I'll keep trying!

Those are great photos of big fish and big baits!

I think a big misconception is that these are a one-bite-per-day kind of baits. That’s not true at all. Especially once you start to figure them out. Another misconception is that you’re only catching giants on them. I have days catching twenty 2lbers on a 8-10” wake bait. But it’s another technique you have to LEARN! You didn’t pick up a crankbait and become a pro with it in 10 casts, but you stuck with it. People make 10 casts with a big bait and immediately begin doubting the bait. “It’s too big”. “Fish aren’t eating bait this big”. “The splash scares the fish”. None of these are true. I fish team tourneys….by myself. Most days in summer, I only fish a swimbait. Spring and fall it’s a mix of swimbaits and conventional. My pb smallie and LM both came on a swimbait. My biggest 5 bag ever came on a swimbait. Most of my tourney wins come on swimbaits. They are worth giving a try!

I have no idea how I managed to post this in the tackle section 🤪

The way to break a mental block "That's too big." Turn a swimbait (Deps 250) so you are looking at it from the nose (staring contest with the bait). That profile is smaller than a flipping jig and trailer. Bass eat food head first, so if you start to think that way it opens some doors.

Maine has some Mountain Gorilla largemouth over there. Vermont, you'd think would too, but alas we don't, just orangutan sized ones.

I dont have a rod capable of throwing large baits. A Dredger 25.5 is the largest bait I throw now and at 1-1/8 oz. thats greater than the rod rating.

I thinking throwing those big baits would wear me out at my age. All I throw is lightweight stuff, the biggest thing I throw is a 8" lizard.

'

The year before last i started with 6” magdrafts and similar to good effect. So for last season I set up a rod, added the 8” magdrafts, grabbed a few hard swimbaits here in the flea market. And then barely threw them. So much other ‘new’ going on for me last year that I relegated them to the occasional day on deck- “I think this is a good idea in this specific scenario” but didn’t put the time in to learn them. This year I’ll do a better job of that.

Right now it’s a DRT K9. I’ve been looking for a 9” slammer, but I haven’t found one I like. I peruse SU most days looking for a deal…

37 minutes ago, Smirak said:

Right now it’s a DRT K9. I’ve been looking for a 9” slammer, but I haven’t found one I like. I peruse SU most days looking for a deal…

You will 100% not regret getting a slammer! 9” two or 3 piece is money in any color

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I dont have a rod capable of throwing large baits. A Dredger 25.5 is the largest bait I throw now and at 1-1/8 oz. thats greater than the rod rating.

Off topic, but can you tell me about that bait? Was just going to pick up a few. What setup you throwing it on?

27 minutes ago, Swimbaitstud said:

Off topic, but can you tell me about that bait? Was just going to pick up a few. What setup you throwing it on?

It dives fast and stays down there a long time.I use 12 lb mono. A lot of bites come close to the boat because it stays deep so long. The deepest I have ever caught bass on a diving bait was around 22 foot with the 25.5 Dredger . Its almost neutral buoyancy, rises slowly. I have one that suspends and one that sinks slowly but most will rise. I throw it with a 7 foot MH moderate action rod which is too light but thats what I have. I only carry a half dozen combos so it has to make do.

The biggest bait I've ever thrown was a 10 inch savage gear burbot. That was the mini version. Nowadays, I'll try to stay under 6.5¨ or 7¨ with glides.

I throw some glides in the 6-8” range. Just picked up a clutch boss recently which is my largest, but really looking forward to throwing it this spring.

This is the "biggest" bait I throw. I have been trying to get into big glides but my lack of patience for it keeps me from being successful at it.

Favorite is maybe my 9" 5.5 oz Bullshad. I threw a 9" Slammer for two years. My fish prefer the Bullwake 200 to 1 over the Slammer.

1 hour ago, GreenPig said:

Favorite is maybe my 9" 5.5 oz Bullshad. I threw a 9" Slammer for two years. My fish prefer the Bullwake 200 to 1 over the Slammer.

Bull wake is a good one. Probably my best night fishing bait ever

The heaviest bait I've fished with is one ounce. The longest is a 12 inch worm. In a lot of the lakes around me the bass seem to want a bait with a smaller profile.

I am going to try to fish some larger baits this year. I will probably stick to the 6 to 8 inch size. I am also going to try the opposite and go small on BFS gear. Should be fun.

4 hours ago, rboat said:

I am going to try to fish some larger baits this year. I will probably stick to the 6 to 8 inch size. I am also going to try the opposite and go small on BFS gear. Should be fun.

Lmk if you ever have questions on the big stuff!

The big baits are strangely popular in MA. Biggest I own are the Deps 250, Cl8 Baby Possum, 12" Slammer, and a Real Prey 10" Trout. I toss the Possum a good amount but there's a specific use case I like it for that I don't get to take advantage of much because of how prevalent weeds are in my lakes. I like cranking it into deeper laydowns I get some good bites deflecting it off wood. The Deps I should commit to more I'm just not really a glidebait guy. The Real Prey Trout, never seriously thrown it. But the first time I tried it I just wanted to see what it looked like swimming so I threw it without hooks, and there was QUITE the shadow following it back down below. That thing is heavy though, probably the only bait I own that makes my 867 feel a bit underpowered. The 12" slammer gets the most love out of my bigger baits.

But most of the time my big bait fishing is 9" slammers, Psycho Gill/Trout, Monka Crawler, 6-8" softbaits, 6" crankdowns like MDC or bullshad, the Gill and Shiner Real Prey baits.

If anyone can help me, please let me know what swimbaits/glidebaits in the 6 inch range work the best? I already purchased a magdraft and a trickshad. What would you purchase next? Thanks

Amateurs.

Try muskie fishing with big baits then we'll talk. Your arms, back, and shoulders will suffer for hours on end.

59 minutes ago, gim said:

Amateurs.

Try muskie fishing with big baits then we'll talk. Your arms, back, and shoulders will suffer for hours on end.

Yes sir. Remember those days when I lived in Wisconsin. I got really good with a bucktail so at the end of the day i still had to stoop over to tie my shoes. Big Suicks Giant Jackpots and Big Reef Hawgs will kill ya

1 hour ago, rboat said:

If anyone can help me, please let me know what swimbaits/glidebaits in the 6 inch range work the best? I already purchased a magdraft and a trickshad. What would you purchase next? Thanks

You have 2 good ones to start with.

Maybe look at:

6" Hudd

Spro Chad

Raid Osakana Slide 170

Freestyle Magdraft

Swimbait Republic 176 or 126