I keep getting 3-5. Pounders on skined 2-3 in Shad
so If I start useing 4-6 in Shad with 8/0 hooks would the keep the small blues away? I know I wouldn't catch as many fish but they would be bigger right?

Not necessarily, big bait = big fish, yes but it will not keep the smaller fish away.

Even a six inch Shad ?

A 2 lb cat can still swallow a 6 inch shad

I've caught a 3 pound blue on a shad head that came from 10 inch body.

I used nothing but 6-10 inch shad last night and still caught dinks

Lol man Ima have to use 5 pound carp then lol or maby 15 pound

Caught my largest Rod&Reel Blue Cat on cut 2"-3" Threadfin. When I go to the coast BIG Bait BIG Fish......... Freshwater not so much. I've caught 1 pound LargeMouth on 14" Plastics too lol

I have caught my biggest cat on a minnow. I do think that a bigger bait will increase your chances on enticing a big fish. But if they are hungry they will eat the closest thing to them and do that until they are done

When I was fishing with Ton on his Cat Yacht we caught one that was no more than 2 lbs and we couldn't find the hook. We were perplexed because we were quite sure thmat this small cat could not have swallowed an 8/0 circle hook. Eventually we discovered that the hook had gone through its mouth....but in general this crew doesn't know what a dink is....I haven't caught a 5 inch channel on an 8/0 hook....so I would say big bait and big hook will at least keep you above the 12" min.

Or a bluegill. I still don't know how that dinky channel managed to swallow the whole thing, but he did.

if your'e catching dinks, then there probably arent any big ones around. I dont think size of bait matters as much as right area.

This is a 12" channel cat caught on a 12" shad head with an 8'0 circle hook, it wasn't exactly what I was fishing for at the time!!!

them channels always have big eyes!!!

Wow that fish was really hungry. I bet you had a pretty good day if they were biting that aggressively.