Entry 164-2

Fishing Strike King’s Products with Mike Wurm

Part 2: The Mini 3

Editor's Note: Mike Wurm of Hot Springs, Arkansas, has been a professional angler for 11 years. He fishes both the FLW and Bassmasters tournament and has won two Bassmasters tournaments.

Question: What small crankbait do you use?

Wurm: We have had an age-old problem of trying to find a small crankbait to fish with when bass are chasing small bait. Strike King's new Mini 3 is just what we’ve needed. In the past, we’ve had to fall back on and use crappie baits to get a lure that was small enough for the bass to eat. These were not bass crankbaits; they were crappie crankbaits. They had small hooks and were always a pain to adjust to make them run correctly. They had to be fished on extremely-light line to get them down 2- to 3-feet deep.

The Strike King pros began to work on the idea of developing a small crankbait with good hardware that could be fished 2- to 3-feet deep and designed to catch bass, not crappie. We wanted a crankbait with a tight wiggle and red hooks. We wanted the bait to run about 4-feet deep on 10- or 12-pound test line. We needed the heavier line to catch the bigger bass. We also wanted to be able to cast the lure on bait-casting tackle and not just spinning tackle.

One big misconception about little crankbaits is that only little bass like little crankbaits. Little bass do eat little crankbaits, but so do big bass. When the shad or the bluegill are small right after they first hatch, all the bait that the bass have to eat are small. Therefore, if a big bass is going to eat, he’ll have to eat a small bait. If you have to fish small crankbaits that have been designed for crappie on 4- and 6-pound-test spinning tackle line, you’ll have a difficult time landing those big bass. That’s the reason we designed a small crankbait that can be fished on 10- or 12-pound-test line, and bait-casting tackle that allow us to catch big bass and yet still have small bait to match the hatch.

When bass fishing is tough and getting a bite is difficult, the Mini 3 is the bait you want to fish. I like to fish this bait around cypress trees, stumps, grass lines, riprap and any place I can find where small baitfish congregate. Small coves, creeks and channel ditches are excellent places to find schools of small baitfish. These are the places you want to fish the Mini 3.

Next: The Perfect Skirt

Contents:

• Part 1: The King Kong
• Part 2: The Mini 3
• Part 3: The Perfect Skirt
• Part 4: The Iguana
• Part 5: The Deuce