+1

My experiences are mostly the same.  My big pike as seen in my avatar came on a 6" swim bait.  My thought is that fish prefer to feed as efficiently as possible which means they'll prefer larger forage when they can find it.

i dont think that i really agree with much of what you are saying about size. i know thats a pretty common thought among the fishing community but from my experience size plays a much smaller role than other variables.  i stick with pretty much the same size all year round. in the spring my lures are a little larger than the spawn so they stick out, an easier meal. in the fall they are smaller than the young of the year, so they stick out, smaller generally means weaker. in the spring i retrieve more slowly. cold water means fish dont move as well, so an easier big meal is better than a smaller faster one. fall i use a more erratic retrieve.

with that said, again i prefer shad shaped lures over minnow lures of the same length. i like the larger profile, more flash, more vibration. if that means larger?

Preacher wrote on May 8^th, 2012 at 5:19pm:

I agree. Some of the best large walleye and pike fishing I've found occurs in areas that also contain lots of hand sized small mouth bass. At times it's impossible to keep them off of a smaller trolled bait. Sizing up prevents them from getting hooked but they still try and you can feel them nip at the larger lures.

i found this in an article on another side, i thought it was pretty interesting...

"Anglers often experiment between stick baits and shad profiled baits and both lure profiles have their place in walleye fishing.  The biggest lesson I have learned from my years trolling is to keep forcing yourself to try and retry different things.  Don’t live by the fishing rules so many anglers are quick to throw at you.  Matching the hatch for example is a joke with walleye fishing.  Many walleyes for example have never seen a night crawler or fire tiger minnow.  Force yourself to switch between shad profiles and minnow profiles and let the fish tell you. 

Some fisheries seem to show certain preferences towards a specific size, color or profile but be careful not to get so hung up on something that you have no confidence doing anything else.  I have worked with Salmo for quite a few years and have caught a tremendous amount of walleyes on the Salmo Suspending Stings but the size 4 and size 5 Salmo Hornets can be deadly as well.  Other great shallow water trolling lures for walleyes include the classic floating Rapala and Husky Jerks.  Smithwick Rattling Rogues can also be great but are not tuned as well.  Size 5 Rapala Shad Raps in both deep diver and shallow runner are great lures.  The Berkley Flicker Shad is a solid lure.  There are many lures that work well and in the real world outside of promotional fishing, an angler is going to have several different lures in the box and good anglers are going to have four or five go to lures that they know will catch fish. 

I am not a big color fanatic but there are a handful of color schemes I like to experiment with.  I like to test gold versus silver and I also like to experiment with basic white/ dark back lures along with chartreuse or fire tiger patterns.  The rest however is a confidence game.  There are specific funky color patterns that just seem to have an aura on a specific fishery and most people are going to fish better with more confidence if they run some of these lures.  Often, color of lure confidence prophesizes success because anglers catch the most fish on what they have in the water the most and that often boils down to confidence."
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that last line is really interesting.

with that though, i think color matters a lot more than this guy does with shape being a close second. shape though tends to have a close correlation with color though (more/less color on the profile of the lure) and i suppose size could be tossed in there as well.

what i do know, is that the shad x rap in the larger body size (08) has caught walleyes as small as 10" and as large as 26" for me personally. it comes in a shallow and deep model to get to where the fish are.

same goes for the tail dancer. it comes in taildancer and deep tail dancer. same minnow body size goes to different depths. a company that specializes in the creation of fishing lures (although admittedly they target fishermen's wallets as much as fish) sees the importance of putting a certain size at all depths in the water column

When it comes to fishing for Walleye in places like Wabakimi and I'm guessing Woodland Caribou (I'll find out this summer) I'm pretty sure I could catch my limit using a shoe lace and a safety pin.  These place are so non-pressured that fish will go after just about anything.  For those targeting trophy wallys, well that takes more skill, obviously, and shape, color and size of lure, presentation, retrieve, time of day, time of year and habitat are all going to matter.  When it comes to Walleye, I have two favorite lures for late summer fishing - Rapala Taildancers that run 15, 20 and 30 feet as well as deep diving L.C. Pointers which run about 12 to 15 feet.  In stained waters I like chartreuse and yellow and I always seem to have luck with firetiger. This summer I'm going to try a few Husky Jerks as well, I'm told blue is good.  God, I can't wait to get out there!