Unless the fish are extremely small you shouldn't have to downsize the grub. Use a #6 or #8 Mosquito hook (or Octopus hook if you can't find the mosquito) and nose hook it - that is the trick! Don't think in terms of that the hook point is further up the bait and you'll get short struck more. What actually happens is nose hooking "shrinks" the overall size of the bait around or looking at it from the front or the back. I'm pretty sure that a lot of short strikes on threaded grubs from fish with smaller mouths happen because the fish goes to suck the grub in and the hook bend hits the fish's lip. That won't happen with nose hooking.