JOSH BERTRAND ’ S LITTLE BUDDIES
BERKLEY SPY 70 “ The 70 mm Spy is one of the smaller spybaits on the market , but it is heavily weighted and it casts well on spinning tackle ,” says Bertrand . “ No bait has a more natural-looking shimmy . It ’ s another small bait that works when others won ’ t .”
BERKLEY FRITTSIDE 5 JR . This 2-inch , 1 / 4-ounce , flatsided crankbait , delivered with BFS tackle , is a Bertrand favorite when bass are keying on young-of -the-year baitfish . The bait has balsa-like action and reaches depths of 2-5 feet .
COLOR : KENTUCKY BLUE
BERKLEY POWERBAIT MAXSCENT LIL ’ GENERAL This 2.75-inch half-worm bait has the added advantage of potent MaxScent attractant . Fish it Ned style or on a drop-shot .
COLOR : BABY BASS
COLOR : PINK PEARL
COLOR : STEALTH PERCH
BERKLEY FINISHER This FFS-optimized sinking jerkbait is available in three sizes (# 5 , # 7 , # 9 ). “ I can get it to sink down to the fish ’ s suspended depth , but I can also fish it just sub-surface ,” says Bertrand . “ The # 7 is my go-to when bass are relatively active . But the # 5 is a little killer when fish are on really small baitfish .”
PHOTO BY BRANDON ROWAN
“ So many seasons , I catch my biggest bass on marabou jigs and panfish baits .”
“ I ’ d say 90 % of the fish key on smaller forage simply because it ’ s easy to find and feed on ,” says Tristan McCormick , an MLF pro from Burns , Tennessee . “ A lot of the time , I ’ m matching the baitfish they ’ re feeding on .”
Bass like the little stuff , too . Bass Pro Tour veteran Luke Clausen believes small forage comprise a big portion of bass ’ diet . It ’ s easy for them to find and easier to eat . He recalls feeding aquarium bass at a tackle store . Those fish often ignored crawfish , but they scarfed up maggots immediately .
“ For bass , all that small forage is like having bowls of M & Ms out there ,” says fellow Bass Pro Tour pro Matt Stefan . “ I may not make a meal of them , but I ’ ll grab a few if they ’ re right there .”
To buttress his claim , Stefan points to his 10th-place finish on Lake of the Ozarks in 2023 , where he threw little trout-sized worms fished wacky style at beds and cruising fish .
Cory Schmidt , who brings a biologist ’ s background to his Z-Man marketing role , believes bass anglers are largely unaware of how often bass feed on tiny forage in the 1 1 / 4-inch to 2- inch range .
“ Insects , larvae , leeches , baby everything , even cannibalizing their own fry : All are part of a centrarchid ( bass / sunfish family ) diet ,” Schmidt says . “ So many seasons , I catch my biggest bass on marabou jigs and panfish baits .”
matching the hatch ( literally )
Small baits excel year-round , but small forage is most abundant in the postspawn period , when clouds of fry from multiple species offer bass easy pickings . Most freshwater fish species
spawn in spring . Some , like bluegill , spread their spawn throughout the summer season .
“ Most of our fish spawn in the spring , and lots of young of the year are swarming the water ,” Stefan says . “ But you also have bass fry , and bass are chasing off anything trying to eat them for a period , so bass are paying more attention to smaller prey .”
Though he regards prespawn , winter and fall as the times when small profile baits make their biggest impact , Jacob Wheeler likes a Ned rig with his newly designed Rapala CrushCity Ned BLT during the period of postspawn abundance .
“ Bass don ’ t always need a big meal ,” Wheeler says . “ I ’ ve caught a lot of bass on small Ned baits during the postspawn , especially smallmouth and spots .”
Josh Bertrand points to fall as prime time for small baits when small shad hatched in spring reach inch to inchplus length .
“ That ’ s when I pull out the Berkley Frittside , Jr . crankbait ,” says the Bass Pro Tour pro from Queen Creek ,
48 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | APRIL-MAY 2024