Forage group · baitfish and open-water food. Shad, alewives, smelt, silversides, cisco, juvenile sunfish, the unnamed silver flash along a weed edge. If the fish you want eats fish, matching a mayfly is often the wrong homework.
Match the hatch still applies. The hatch is just swimming.
Look for the school, not the brand
Birds working. Dimples that move. A graph painting a bait ball. Wash against a wind-blown bank. A tide dumping bait out of a marsh. Juvenile bluegill along a pond edge that a largemouth is actually hunting. You do not need the species name to start. You need to know whether bait is here, and at what depth.
Hybrid stripers follow shad, not the shoreline you like. Lake trout follow cisco and smelt into rooms that look empty from the picnic table. Inshore trout and redfish follow whatever the tide is moving. Same job, different furniture.
Size, depth, speed, usually in that order
| Variable | Why it is first | How you would be wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Size | A 6-inch swimbait in 2-inch fry is a parade float | You guessed size from the tackle box, not from a fish you saw or a net dip |
| Depth | The school is often not where the bank is pretty | You never found the school and kept casting at scenery |
| Speed | Some bait is fleeing. Some is hovering. The predator’s retrieve should admit which. | You changed colors before the lure ever stayed with the school |
Related species rooms: wiper / hybrid striper · cisco · smelt · inshore on-ramp.
Unknown: if you cannot find bait, you do not have a baitfish match. Fish the habitat sequence instead of inventing a secret color.