In my last issue of In-Fisherman, there was a magazine that was an advertisement for Pure Fishing called Live to Fish. It definitely had a bias towards Pure Fishing brands, but there was some good info in it.

There was a graph showing most common size of prey fish consumed by bass of different lengths. It shows that the median size prey fish for 18" bass is 7" The median size for 22" bass is 9 inches. It goes off of the graph for 12" baits, but the trend as it goes off the graph infers that the median size prey for fish over 22" remains at about 9".

The chart indicates that 9" is probably best. Big bass hit big baits, but 12" is a larger than average meal even to a real hog.

Another way of looking at the graph indicates that bass most often prey on bait that is 40% of their body length.

I'm a statistician by trade, so I eat this junk up. If anybody out there disagrees, and swears by the 12", I won't argue. I'll never argue with real world experience!
NoTrollMotor