Why do smallmouth attack lures far bigger than what they eat?
Because not every strike is a meal. Outside pure feeding, smallmouth run a territorial/agonistic circuit: a big intruding profile near a nest, a feeding station, or a holding rock gets driven off with a charge and a bite — the mouth is the only tool a fish has for eviction. This is most extreme in bed-guarding males but persists at lower intensity around prime structure all year, which is why an oversized swimbait or glide bait occasionally draws a violent response from a fish that "shouldn't" want it. Feeding logic sizes your bait to forage; territory logic occasionally rewards breaking that rule.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Territory & aggression
Same topic, other species
- Do male crappie actually defend their nests? — Crappie
- Why do repeated casts to the same spot finally draw a strike? — Largemouth Bass
- Can muskie and pike coexist in the same lake? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- Why do perch schools sort themselves by size? — Yellow Perch
- How much do pike really eat other pike? — Northern Pike
- Do trout defend their spawning areas? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Why does hooking one walleye seem to switch the whole school on? — Walleye