ProverbWisdomEnglish origin1747

Throw a sprat to catch a whale.

Meaning: Small initial sacrifices yield disproportionately larger gains when investments are strategically calculated.

Origin: A sprat is a small, cheap fish used as bait. The saying, more often heard as "a sprat to catch a mackerel," means risking a little to gain a lot, and goes back to the 18th century: a satire of 1747 has "a sprat to catch a salmon," and the whale version appears in print by the 1790s.

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