I was watching the Elite event on Old Hicklory I believe and 1 of the guys said that most anglers automatically think to downsize on pressured lakes.  But he thinks the opposite, he trys to upsize to show them something they've never seen before.  The bait that came to mind was the Pencil Poppers they use on Clarks Hill, but I don't know if those are TOO big for Indiana.  What BIG baits have you guys used uo North, and have you in general had success with the concept of upsizing on pressured lakes?

Indy...I'm from Texas but there are plenty of high traffic lakes here as well and I am a big fan of upsizing in pressured waters. I have been very successful with that strategy especially early and late or deep water or on heavily stained to murky water.

Big O

www.ragetail.com

The new craze up here in New England is the big 7-12" MC Slammers and guys do great on pressured as well as unpressured bodies of water. I think it is just because the fish have never seen them.  :

I have been doing the same thing with some success,mostly with plastics,spinnerbaits,and topwaters. In my belief however I think that upsizing can have its limitations such as clear water or spooky fish. They may have a better chance to tell whether it is a fake or not. You need something that looks and acts natural.Enter the swimbait.

If this is of any help! I am in Wisconsin, and when the Bass are in there summer patterns I fish 10 to 12 in. worms  I like to fish them at night but, I fish them in the day in deep water. And they work great.

I'm in Michigan and I've thrown 10" powerworms, 8" Zoom lizards during the day with good results. Last year I picked up a couple of 7"- 9" Slammers and with limited usage caught a couple of 3-4 lb bass and had a miss on a 5 plus. This bait looks awesome in the water and I'm confident  it's going to catch some nice ones this year if the Musky don't get to it first. Though not a huge bait I've found the SK King Shad to be a productive bait in my area catchting a larger than average size bass.

I've found the SK King Shad to be a productive bait in my area catchting a larger than average size bass.

I totally agree, after using the King Shad for the past several years it does work and work well especially on pressured waters.

Hey, I'm here in Indy also and the upsizing works at times. Basically it is just showing a fish something different than what they are used to seeing. One of the places I've seen this work really well at is the Ohio River. Everybody thinks high pressure, 12" bass = finesse. I've known guys who do really well upsizing baits, like using #1 jumbo frogs on their jigs as trailers, or throwing 5/8-oz spinnerbaits with big willows. Never hurts to try something different on our waters.

-T9