Versatility is one of the great benefits of a YUM Dinger. Here’s a sampling of rigs and techniques that will produce fish for you.

YUM Dingers stormed onto the bass scene a few years ago when Alton Jones won a BASSMASTER Tour event at California’s Clear Lake using the then-brand-new Dingers. It wasn’t long before the broader fishing community discovered YUM Dingers and anglers began using them to catch virtually everything that swims.

Dingers now come in five different sizes, ranging from 3 inches to 7 inches, and they can be rigged and worked in a seemingly endless variety of ways. Let’s examine some of the best.

-DEAD-STICK – The classic use of YUM Dinger, dead-sticking, is usually done with a 4- or 5-inch Dinger and is best suited for fish that are known to be in a location but are fussy about other baits. Simply rig a weightless Texas rig, using an XCalibur Tx3 Point Wide Gap Worm Hook, cast the Dinger to a spot and let your lure do the rest.

-WEIGHTLESS JERKBAIT – Same rigging, different technique. Whether it’s stripers, largemouths, redfish or some other gamefish, when fish are feeding high in the water column but not quite locking in on topwater baits, try jerking and pausing a Dinger among them.

-DROP SHOT – If you’re over good open-water structure for smallmouth or spotted bass, try putting a 3-inch YUM Dinger on a drop-shot rig and jiggling it among them. Chances are good it won’t stay there long. Anchor the offering with an XCalibur Tg Drop Shot Weight.

-DOUBLE TROUBLE – If you’re dragging tubes for big smallmouths, whether in Lake Erie or the Tennessee River, try adding a Dinger up the line to increase your odds. Just tie a drop-shot hook a couple feet up the line with a polymer knot and nose hook a 3- or 4-inch Dinger.

-TEXAS RIG – YUM Dingers can be Texas rigged anywhere an angler might fish a worm for the purpose of achieving a different action and profile. However, where Dingers really shine is in flippin’ situations where anglers need to penetrate thick stuff. The sleek narrow shape of a YUM Dinger allows it to slide easily through virtually anything.

-LEADHEAD – For swimming a 3-inch Dinger in a trout stream, bouncing a 4-inch version over a reef on smallmouth lake or working a Dinger of any size down a rocky point, it’s tough to beat stringing the bait on a leadhead, just like you would a grub.

-WHACKY – Returning to square one, the whacky rig goes hand in hand with the dead-stick. To present it, just cast it out and let it fall. However, when you hook a YUM Dinger in the middle, it falls slowly and with an action that truly qualifies as whacky. Try it when the fish aren’t taking the traditional dead-stick as well as you think they should, and be prepared to set the hook when the line takes off running!