Meat and Potatoes Tackle Company

Diving Crankbaits -

We currently have a floating/diving hard-plastic crankbait, the HotBack™. Charter member of our "No Fear Crankbaiting" series. A lure that is the most snagless on the market today due to its top-mounted, single wide-gap hook (instead of the standard snagging devices hanging on the belly and known as treble hooks). Comes with a "V" wire snag-guard to further brush aside wood, weed and rock.  First tournament we used it was in 1982. We won theBig Fish Award with it and placed 2nd overall. So many more fish since then -  more money in the bank by being able to fish thick cover fearlessly.  No holding your breath during each cast for fear it's going to hang up.  Life is good with this lure. Big bass and musky are especially partial to this lure, although while fishing a thick wood snag in a river last fall, we got a 24lb catfish on it!

This "meat and potatoes" look is what big fish are always looking for: a chase that will provide the highest calorie content possible with the least amount of effort expended. Big fish are not lazy, they are just expert at effort management. Throw this tool into the scariest looking places you can find. Work it thru the cover nice and easy, letting it bump into, over, and through the cover. A big fish that calls that cover "home" is watching so get ready.

Lipless Crankbaits -

Our Termite™ is so named because it, like its big brother the HotBack, really likes the wood environment. Another "No Fear Crankbaiting" series tool! We don't like losing lures! Just like its big brother, it is extremely snagless because of the same hook and weedguard configuration found on the HotBack. There is no tactic more able to cause a fish to attack without delay than to have prey (or a lure) come into contact with something solid (weed, rock, wood, old shoe - whatever is down there). Why? Because things that are healthy do not do such things down there. Further, things that are not healthy are the things that predators not only look for first when they're hungry - easy pickins, but crankbaits banging off things triggers a response that predators just don't have a lot of control over. Mother nature has programmed predators to attack when something looks injured or is otherwise "not right". Again, bass and musky like jumping on this lure.

First tournament we used this was in 1991. Caught enough fish out of the wood structures to win money. It has done nothing but keep producing fish around wood when nothing else prompts them to bite. So don't just chunk this lure out and wind it in like with other lipless crankbaits. Find laydowns, brushpiles, and any other nasty cover and wind the Termite back through it trying your best to snag it up all the while. What will happen is the Termite will bang into and over everything down there until the resident fish will have no more of it. Fish on!

Spinnerbaits -

The Meat 'n Spud™ Long Arm Spinnerbait is the lure that started it all for our company. The year was 1972. We began to believe that the bigger fish in our local lakes were deep at all times. So we made a heavy (for its day) spinnerbait to get down there with them. The result was a 7/8 ounce, single Colorado blade, "bigger than anything else on the market" tool. It also had a longer blade arm than anything else on the market. It also had thinner wire than was being used on any other spinnerbaits of the day. Shucks, I guess we're just different kind of folk at Meat and Potatoes. But thinking out of the box is what makes every lure we make something really special. Our new blade bait promptly started catching big fish deep. Big largemouth 7- 10 pounds came to the boat with regularity. Our kind of fishin'. From that point on, we pretty much didn't bother using plastic worms and jig 'n pigs deep - the lures we were told worked best in deep water. They have their place, but not when you're just after big fish deep. Big bass and even bigger musky are partial to this tool. That's just fine with us.

One important note:  Marabou, like most other natural feathers, has a waxy finish to it that causes raindrops to bead off a bird - keeping it dry and warm.  The first time you throw a quality spinnerbait with a lot of marabou built into it (i.e. Meat and Potatoes models), you'll need to prep the feathers in order for it to run straight and true on the first cast.  Repeat:  This is something you should do only on the first time you throw it - once done, you will not need to repeat this process.  So, here's what you need to do.  Slosh the lure on the surface for 15-20 seconds to thoroughly soak all feathers.  I actually prefer this method:  Dip the lure into the water and squeeze the feather mass with your hand like it was a sponge.  Repeat this dip-squeeze process about 3 times.  Now you and your premium lure are ready to go!  Set the drag for big fish because it just may happen on the first cast...

Inline Spinners -

Some of our first lures we bought when we were kids were little little inline spinners.  We caught the heck out of all kinds of fish on these little things! Now decades later the reason they were so effective seems obvious. These lures are the shape of baitfish - almost always the prey you'd find in any fish's gut. We caught a few good fish on these little things, but the lure usually provided quantity versus quality. When you're a kid, quantity is what you want. Now decades later we are needing fish that pull back hard.

What to do? Hmmmm. Build out a bigger inline! And make some with weedless treble hooks on them so we can put them around cover without holding our breath and praying they don't get hung up. Pull the resulting Inline Special™ over laydowns and thru stumps and around dock pilings and weeds snaglessly and with reckless abandon! Catch big fish! Big musky and flat out monster bass are swallowing our Inline Special!

We are always expanding our product line because we find new ways to catch fish and then work to build a tool that optimizes this new-found approach. When it has been proven to be a "go to" lure in its specific use, then we'll put it in production.

Lures that are poised for production in 2007 include:

The Bullhead Roast™. A swimbait made for "keeper" fish. Bass/striper and musky/pike sizes. Hook configuration allows this swimbait to swim thru weeds and cover without hanging up.

The Dirty Rat™. A topwater "rat" type lure for fishing over weeds. But with a twist. Bass/striper and musky/pike sizes.

We call our lures "tools" because that is what a fishing lure really is - or at least what it should be. For maximum effectiveness and success, every lure should be seen as a specific tool that is used in a specific circumstance. Example: You determine the spinnerbait is the right tool given the pattern you have developed on the water today. Now is a 1 ounce spinnerbait the best tool, or is a lighter ½ ounce size the better tool for the given situation? It's up to you to define the pattern and then put the best tool into use to take advantage of the pattern you have found. If the pattern is fish in less than 3' of water, the ½ ounce size seems the likely best tool for this occasion over the 1 ounce.

Edge - Predators look at the edges of prey rather than the whole body. Because it is the edge that identifies the prey in the predator's brain. Another term for edge would be silhouette, but edge is more meaningful for our purposes. Because it is in the edge that vulnerability can be detected by the predator - and we have the ability to make an enticing, life-like edge. The HotBack's pectoral fins show a natural edge. Marabou feathers show an astoundingly life-like edge. Each feather is pulsating independently around the body. It is this undulation around the body that differs from just a plastic skirt. The skirts tentacles move, but there is no body that shows the predator the bulk that it is wanting. Can you catch fish using plastic skirts? Absolutely. But you will catch many more with marabou. And the average weight using marabou will be heavier. Period. Take that to the bank.

Pattern - Pattern fishing is the key to consistently being successful at fishing. Pro fishermen put on their pants just like anybody else. The difference, and what sets them clearly apart from most fishermen, is that they have learned to think "pattern" every day they go fishing and they think about it all day.

Fish, especially those that school, can be "patterned". Bass, crappie, walleye, pike, musky, etc. school. Sometimes tightly, sometimes loosely. But generally, a pattern means that, for example, if you find a school of fish at 10' at the base of a weedbed, you can find many more schools of the same specie all over the lake if you can find 10' of water at the base of a weedbed. As you continue to refine this pattern during the day, you find that the weeds must be Coontail because the pattern does not hold true if the weeds are a cabbage or a lily pad or an emergent weed. Or, you determine that the 10' has to be a hard bottom (rock or sand) because the pattern does not hold true if the bottom is just muck. The reason you have to continue working the pattern through the day is not only because it makes finding and catching fish easier (find everywhere on the lake that has 10' at the base of Coontail and you catch fish), but as the day goes by, the pattern may start failing. The fish may go deeper, shallower, or even abandon the area completely and you finally find them again, but now in 15' on the steep sides of points that dump into 24' or more of water. It's like work, pattern fishing, but then again, catching fish all day long according to a pattern you develop is like no job I've ever had!