One thing to note is that really big fish will “ALWAYS” consider striking at a small bait, this is something most people don’t think would ever happen. Just recently my friend caught a pre-season musky that struck a cotton cordell black/silver shallow runner seconds after we started trolling.
The fish was around 8 to 10 pounds and put up quite the fight(will post a pick of this catch), also ended up leaving some teeth marks on the bait as well as bending the back treble hook in a way that is needed replacing.
Throughout my years fishing I have encountered this several times, big fish will at times not pass up just snatching up a small bait, one reason being it is an very easy meal and if it is running very close to that big fish that really does not need to exert much energy to grab it, well the rest is history hang on for the fight !
The AMFisH guy…