Entry 154-4
A Lure is Born with Denny Brauer
How to Fish the King Kong
Editor’s Note: Have you ever wondered why lure companies come out with new lures each year? Well, Strike King’s professional fishing staff are some of the best fishermen in the world, and one of their jobs is to identify new trends in the marketplace. These pros work to determine which lures will catch bass better, to define fishing problems that can be solved with better lures and to identify new colors and patterns that appear to make bass bite. Most of these anglers are on the water at least 200 days out of the year. Thanks to their research, Strike King brings its consumers the latest and greatest fishing lures and tactics. This week you’ll see the thought processes that take place before a new lure is put on the market and learn how and why Strike King has become the leader in the lure industry.
Question: Denny, what kind of retrieve do you give the King Kong? How do you actually fish it?
Brauer: One of the biggest mistakes that most fishermen make when using swim bait is that they fish it too slowly. I fish the swim bait on a medium retrieve. You want to make the King Kong look like a big shad swimming naturally. Cloudy days are best for fishing the swim bait. It works best when you drop it about 1 foot beneath the surface.
You can also fish it like twitch bait by stopping it, jerking it forward and restarting your retrieve. While watching your bait, you may notice a dark shadow coming along at the same speed. This is often a big bass following the bait. If you give the bait an erratic action, you can trigger a strike. If I see a fish following the King Kong, I give the bait a hard jerk, which causes it to give a dramatic reaction turn.
I think the bass that’s following the swim bait says to itself, “That big bait has just spotted me and is trying to get away. I better attack now.” If you see a fish behind your lure, you can stop the bait like a shad that has paused in the water because it got tired of swimming. As the bass moves up to the King Kong, twitch the bait with your rod tip and you’ll get a reaction strike out of that bass. You have to remember that when a bass is closing in on bait, it’s hard for the bass to stop. When the bait stops, the bass will continue to come forward and simply eat the bait, which is what you want to happen.
Question: You mentioned fishing the King Kong about 1 foot below the surface. Should it be fished any deeper than that?
Brauer: You don’t want to fish this bait any deeper than it’s designed to be fished. You can probably fish it deeper if you use lighter line. You have to remember what the bait is designed to do, which is catching big bass. You don’t want to catch an 8- or 10-pound bass on 6- to 8-pound-test line with a lure like the King Kong. I don’t recommend fishing this lure on anything less than 20-pound-test line. I usually fish the King Kong on 60- to 65-pound-test-braided line.
Contents:
- Part 1: The Big King Kong Swim Bait
- Part 2: The Marlin Bait
- Part 3: The Ability of the King Kong
- Part 4: How to Fish the King Kong
- Part 5: Where to Fish the King Kong
