Ok, bare with me here.  It seems as though everyone and there cousin is throwing a swimbait these days, and with much success.  Myself being from the deep, dark, cold depths of WI, see this and become a little green with ***.  In the upper mid west a pig bass is 6lbs+, with your average being under 5lbs.  How big of a swimbait is to big to throw at these "up north" bass?  I understand the adage of "big baits catch big bass" but 5"+ swimbaits just don't seem very reasonable for these fish, I could be wrong though.  I know I have to "pay-to-play", so a higher priced swimbait wouldn't be to big of a problem.  I just feel as though some of the bigger baits would just constantly be getting hammered by northern and muskies.  I guess I am just looking for some of your guys opinions, I'm pretty new to swimbaits, and am looking for some help.  Oh and I do have the gear to go anywhere from 1/4oz up to 8oz.

Thanks guys.

yea i am in the same boat you are in. i live in ohio and i had the same question but just didn't get around to postin it

This question in different ways has been covered on this site a bunch. So . I am going to try to answer it a different way. If myself, being a guy who throws swimbaits almost every day of the year on a big fish lake in the South , came to Wisconsin to swimbait fish for big bass here is what I would do. I would have five to eight inch baits with me but would start with a five or six inch bait. I would most likely start with either a Mattlures Perch or a Mattlures bluegill (www.mattlures.com) depending on which forage I felt the fish were most likely to be feeding on. From time to time during the day I would also mix in the eight inch bait that matches the larger forage in the lake when I was confident that I was in a big fish area and the big ones were active or I wanted to catch a big musky or pike.

The reason I say these baits will work up there is because I know a guy in Wisconsin that uses these baits and catches bass weighing anywhere from two to six pounds on them as well as big musky and pike. He has some baits destroyed by the toothy fish but is willing to pay the price to catch the larger bass. For the eight inch bait he uses a BBZ and a Triple Trout with extra clearcoats added to the paint since they stand up pretty well to the musky and pike. If he gets into a bunch of musky or pike on the smaller Mattlures baits he switches to a 6 inch Storm Kickin' Minnow since it costs less. He has thrown ten and twelve inch swimbaits but says he doesn't seem to get  any bass on them but the Musky and Pike love them. A two pound bass has no problem eating a six inch bait if it wants it. He catches some big bass on musky glide baits as well.