The "Fish Dinner   System" & Just What is a Fish Dinner Lure

Let me be honest, with exception of the Glitter   Spinner there is really nothing unique about the lures that we make.   Many are know by various other names*. The only real difference is that the colors, shown in my collection   with the single exception of white, are not available in stores. So why buy   from me? I am selling lures that fit into a lure system that myself, my guide   customers, and my many clients, have proven over and again will catch a lot   of fish and save you lots of money over time. More will be explained about   this later on in the "Fish Dinner System" part of   this article.

Now to the   question "What is a Fish Dinner Lure, and why is it   special?" It is a lure that fits into the "Fish   Dinner System" and will work under any situation you find your   self in while on the water. One can cast it, jig it or troll it. It will take   fish on the surface and all depth zones the fish will congregate in. The lure   is simple, having only one set of treble hooks. It is made out of Lead or a   combination of Brass and Lead and the colors are also simple. If you were to   ask Guides, who key in on the Hybrid Stripers, Walleyes, White Bass and the   Black Bass families, what color would they choose if they could have only one   color in their tackle box, the answer would most likely be WHITE. Most of us   have to make that choice or a similar choice based on our wallet size. So I   have narrowed my color schemes down to 5 variations of white and chrome. Each   variation has a purpose. There is plain white which to this day comprises   about 30% of my sales and harvests about 60% of the fish I catch. Then comes   white with a dark blue back. this color combo has the purpose of slimming the   lure shape a bit along with a color similar to the bait fish. Then I add a   Holographic tape with either a Scale pattern or a Prism pattern. The purpose   of this variation is for the flash the tape gives off on bright days. The   flash catches the eye of the fish when they are feeding heavily and seems to   wake up those that appear to be sleepy and slow to bite. Also it has the   effect of reflecting the ambient light available when fished deep giving it a   more subtle appearance in deep water. I believe this triggers those finicky   fish into biting.

All lures will work on   one rod if that is all you have but if you can afford 4 rods here is what I   would have. (All of the following can be purchased at most sporting goods   stores, or in the sporting section of your local department stores.) None of   these have to be specialty styles just standard stuff.  A 6'6"   Spinning Rod in Medium Heavy Action, a good Spinning Reel with a high   retrieve ratio of 5.3:1 or higher and spooled with a good 12 lb line (I   prefer Berkley Big Game). Rig this rod with the Glitter Spinner.   3 good casting rods all 6'6'' long have 2 in Medium Heavy action and 1   in medium action. all spooled with 12 or 15 lb of your favorite brand. Rig   each rod with a Spoon of different size and shape. Buying rod and reel combos   will save you money in all rod selections. Or just use what you have. Most   importantly make sure your line is good and keep the reel full.

A bit about the   "Fish Dinner System". I'll try to make this simple. The 2 main basic issues in a   fish's life are good clean water and plenty of food. Seeing as we have little   power over the living conditions let's move to the food. The forage that the   fish have to live on varies from lake to lake. It is our duty as an avid   angler to answer the time old question "What are they biting on?"   Most reservoirs or impoundments and some natural lakes maintain a huge   Threadfin or Gizzard Shad population. In these clear waters it pays to MATCH   the HATCH. Izaak Walton made this point back in 1653 in his book The   Complete Angler. Today that truth is still very important. The forage   comes in all sizes and a host of colors. The most important item is size,   then shape or profile then color.

No matter what body of   water, or whether you are fishing fresh or salt water Shad are an important   forage, and they are consumed in all sizes from 1/2 inch up to and   approaching 5" in length. Examples of other bait fish throughout the country   include Alewife, American Shad and Blue Back Herring and are primary forage   for our favorite predators. To imitate these forage fish I like to key in on   lures that range from 1 3/8" long all the way up to 3 1/2" long.   The shapes I like to have are Long and Skinny to Short and Plump and on to   Shad Shaped. Then of course there is the Glitter Spinner that has sound,   shape and color. To see shapes and colors, please visit the pages found by   clicking the appropriate buttons in the navigation bar. All of these lures   can be fished in all feeding zones for surface all the way to the bottom.

Where does one start? I select the Glitter spinner as my key   search tool when the fish are not showing themselves. It has noise, color and   shape. It is the most productive lure in the collection for surface and just   under the surface feeding fish. The Glitter Spinner is also a sleeper lure   when fished in the deeper zones, even all the way to vertical jigging near   the bottom. The Flutter Spoons come in a close second.  I keep all 6   lures in my collection available and on 3 or 4 rods. Once I find fish I cast   the spinner until it is no longer productive. When the fish descend, and they   usually do, I cast and count down and try different depths until I find the   fish. If this does not work I move around the area studying the graph until I   find the fish, then I drop a 1 oz. Flutter Spoon into the fish. If   they bite, I will keep using that lure. If not I change lengths and   shapes until I find their preference. Sometimes there is no preference they   will bite anything presented.

Color is another issue. My personal favorite color and also the   favorite of many of my fellow fishermen is white. The use of the other colors   are used primarily to vary what the fish see down there. A white lure is the   most visible color down to 50' or so. Next comes the White with a Blue   colored back which reduces the profile as those colors are less visible than   white. Adding the Holographic scales to the white body make the lure a little   less visible as the Scales reflect back the environment they are in, usually   much darker than we realize and reflecting a much diminished amount of white.   Next comes the prism color as it reflects just what the environment is,   mostly dark, with only a border of White and Blue around the prism.

Let's discuss the   System.  Most usually   the fish hide in or near some form of structure, weeds or trees or whatever   and at various depths. In addition to the Rod and reels Described above the   successful fisherman must have a reasonably priced and decent fish finder. It   doesn’t have to be fancy. Learn to use it and always have it turned on when   fishing.

Why a graph? The photo at the right shows why one is   so necessary. The Graph shown is My older Humminbird 717 fishing system. In   the picture you can see many lines that run sort of horizontal but not   straight lines. These lines are a group of Hybrid Stripped Bass that I was on   in mid October of 09. Had it not been for the graph I would not have found   these fish. I would have gone right on by. As it was these, and other groups   discovered that day, offered up over 30 fish into my boat. Note the depth the   fish are at. Using a 1oz. Shad Spoon or Flutter Spoon in both 1oz. and 3/4oz.   were all productive on these fish. Note the straight line coming from upper   middle to lower right. This is my Flutter Spoon descending into the school of   fish. The depth to the bottom is 60.1 feet. Most fish hit the lure before reaching   the bottom.

The system I use is simply this. For instance, if you happen on a   school of fish feeding on top and you start tossing your lure into them and   nothing happens, you may have the wrong size lure on. If you are using a 1   oz. spoon, try tying on a 1/2 or 3/4 oz. spoon. I know most of you are saying   "Why throw a spoon at them?", use a top-water bait. Well here is   why, Most top waters are fairly large and they may work but so will the   spoon. The question boils down to this; if the top-water is to big it is hard   to down size because most don't have smaller versions. Those that do, the   weight is so light they are hard to cast, especially on windy days. Another   reason to use the spoon is that you can stay farther away from the school of   fish without causing the school to go down because of your boat. But you say   a spoon does not have the top-water features, oh but it does, if fished   correctly. Just cast your spoon into the fish and start your retrieve just   before or as soon as it hits the water. Reel it in quickly and you will be   surprised how many fish you take it. Far more than you expect. If your reel   has a high enough retrieve ratio 5.3 to 1 or higher you can even make the   spoon swim across the water and it will look like a bait fish trying to   escape. Just hang on and enjoy a perfect day on the water.

Now that the fish have   stopped what next? Look at your   graph and see if it shows fish. (See photo at the right.) Most likely it   will, so drop that successful spoon down on them. Chances are very good that   you will start catching more fish. Now if you had that top water lure on, you   would have to take it off and go to the tackle box and hunt up a lure to use   if you had one. That takes time and by the time you are back in business the   fish may well have moved on. In the photo at the right you can see why the   fish went down, all the way to 67.5 Feet deep. Note the big black area on the   screen. That is a school of Gizzard Shad that the Hybrids were feeding on.   Note the fish, horizontal lines below the school of shad, Note my lure   dropping in on the shad from the left side of the screen under the   "62" crossing the 42.5 foot mark in the graph. (I apologize for the   picture quality but if you look carefully at the bottom under the shad you   can see the faint lines of my lure  moving up and down like saw teeth.)

Just after this   picture was taken the fish pushed the group of Shad to the surface and held   them there for about 15 minutes of chaos and fun then back down they went. I   caught at least 3 times as many fish deep as I did at the top that day. I   never changed lures I used the same 1oz. Flutter spoon (white with blue back)   all day long.

 Do You Get The Idea???

A quick   example is when you are casting your favorite top water bait into a   school of fish feeding on shad on top. The action slows to nothing, you go to   your tackle box and dig out a crank bait, but your fish finder graph says the   fish have descended to 30 feet, you don't have a bait that will get that deep   so what now? Most of you will set back and wait for the action to pick up or   move on to another spot. If you were throwing a 3/4 oz. Fish Dinner Flutter   Spoon into the schooling fish you could now drop it straight down to the 30   foot depth where your trusty fish finder indicated the fish were now located.   When the fish come back up on top, you are all ready for them. Just start   casting. The key, to the Fish Dinner System and Lures, is that you are always   ready for the next situation. All of the lures I have selected will work on   or near the top and anywhere in between the top and the bottom. JUST CHANGE   YOUR PRESENTATION OF THE LURE ON THE END OF YOUR LINE. Does this sound to   simple? It is not! Try it, you will like it. My customers and myself are   committed to this System, and have, for several years now, proven that simple   is divine. Large catches of Kentucky Spotted Bass and Hybrid Stripers,   sometimes as high as 60 catches per day are possible, but averages closer to   20 or more per fisherman per day are realistic. The 8 year old Boy and his father in the Gallery of Success caught nearly a dozen just like the one   he is holding from the same area and along with the guide caught more than 60 fish that day on a Glitter Spinner ,see it in the fish's mouth. Another bit   of advice is that small lures can catch Big Fish, take for instance the Man on the party Barge, a new customer and believer in   the Fish Dinner System caught this fish on a 5/8 oz.   1 3/8" long Wiggle Spoon in Blue Back with Holographic Scales   pattern, the lure being cast   into a group of surface feeding fish.

Remember this, The   only thing absolutely necessary to a successful fishing trip is to have the   right lures at the right time. Using the lures described on this site will   give you all you will ever need. There is SIZE, SHAPE and COLOR. Subtle   Changes in Shape, profile and color are the only changes that really matter   to fish. For instance look at the color chart and visualize what a difference each color might look like   to a fish below. Each color changes the profile of the lure shape. The white   is all visible but the dark backs make the lure look smaller and the tapes   reflect differently with the conditions down deep and at the surface. They   also subtly alter the profile of the lure to the fish.

So how can the Fish   Dinner System save you money? Look into your tackle box, how many   different lures do you have? If you have 4 empty trays in your box you can   place 1 ea. of my lure selections in each tray and you can cover nearly every   situation you will ever face on any lake that offers Hybrid Stripers, Wipers,   White Bass, Walleyes or any of the Bass family. I know I have done it and   more of my friends and fellow fishermen are doing it. You can throw away   those top water baits, that multitude of crank baits, the tangle of spinner   baits, pork baits, the endless supply of worms and other soft baits. Yes they   all work very well and you may enjoy the constant changing of lures until you   find the one that gets where the fish are at any given time. If you do not   have a tackle box full of lures or are just getting started with fishing then   you do not need to power buy all of the various lures available. For less   than $40 you can have every shape and size necessary in 7 basic lures from my   collection. That's right 5 all white spoons and 1 each of the Glitter Spinner   and Cindy K Spinner dressed in white will catch you more than 60% of the fish   you will probably ever catch no matter how many lures you have.

Now the recap. All you   need to be successful is the following. 1 to 3 or 4 rods with reels loaded   with Fresh line. 6 spoons of various sizes and spinners of 2 sizes.   Additional colors for variable conditions are a plus but not absolutely   necessary. Colors of white and variations thereof will suffice. And a good   graph and trolling motor on your boat finish the picture. When all else fails   Hire a Guide for a day with the idea that he teach you how to use and   understand your graph.

* The Flutter Spoon is   sometimes known as a Ghost Spoon, a Prism Spoon or a Minnow spoon. The Wiggle   Spoon is sometimes called a Wobble Spoon, Slab Spoon, or Keel Spoon, The Shad   Spoon is sometimes called a Shad Minnow Spoon or a Blade Spoon so please do   not be fooled by a name. The Glitter Spinner is similar to a Rooster Tail or   a Mepp's Spinner. The confusion is understandable but there is no mistaking   the fish taking power of the Fish Dinner Lures.