Entry 182-4

Why We Do What We Do

Part 4: The Sand Blaster

Editor’s Note: Have you ever wondered why Strike King has some of the nation’s best professional fishermen on their pro staff? Does the company have pros only to make public appearances and represent their lures? Does Strike King use the nation’s top pros because they win the most tournaments? Does the company have top pros to use their pictures and images in advertising? We asked Mark Davis what’s the most-important role Strike King pros play for Strike King. “Our main jobs include helping develop new products, finding niches in the fishing lures on the market that no company’s selling, and looking for those subtle, overlooked aspects of fishing that we can incorporate in our baits to give our customers the best, the newest and the most-unique lures in the fishing tackle market today,” Davis says. This week, Davis will take a look at some of the new lures Strike King will introduce in 2007 and tell us what makes these lures special.

The Sand Blaster is available in two different sizes. It’s much like the old Mann’s bait, the Little George that was hot 20- or 30-years-ago. Like the Little George, it’s a lead-headed tail spinner. It has a French blade with a hole in the middle of it and a wire frame coming out the back of it. Old lures were built on a clevis. The Sand Blaster has a very-unique and a wider rotation than the Little George because of the configuration of the blade. It will be unlike any other lead-headed tail-spinning lure on the market. The 1/2-ounce one will fall slower than the 3/4-ounce. If you want a faster fall or to fish the lure in deeper water, you’ll want to fish the 3/4-ounce. Any time bass are feeding on shad, this lure will get plenty of attention.

We call the bait a Sand Blaster, making many fishermen think we’ll only be fishing it on sandy bottoms. This assumption isn’t true. I’ll be fishing this lure on the edge of grass, around rocks, along creek channels and through schools of shad and open water to catch suspended bass. Any time and any place I think bass will be feeding on shad, I’ll be fishing the Sand Blaster. Fishing this bait is like fishing a jigging spoon. Most of the time, the bass will take the bait on the fall. You’ll catch a few bass winding it, but the primary strikes and the strike zone will be in the fall.

As I mentioned last week, when I was talking about fishing in December, the Sand Blaster is a multi-species lure. If you want to fish and catch any kind of fish and lots of fish, then fish with the Sand Blaster. Very few fish won’t eat a dying shad, falling from the surface to the bottom, before they’ll eat a live swimming shad. That’s the reason this lure is so deadly on so many types of fish. But I fish the Sand Blaster primarily for largemouth and spotted bass.

Even if you’re pumping the Sand Blaster, the bass will take the bait on the fall. If you let the Sand Blaster fall all the way to the bottom and jerk it up off the bottom and a fish hits the lure as you’re jerking it up from the bottom, more than likely, that fish won’t be a bass, unless it’s a smallmouth. Smallmouth will bite this bass as it comes up from the bottom, but largemouth and spotted bass usually take the bait as it falls to the bottom. White bass, walleye, hybrid bass, striped bass and other fish are what I expect to catch if a fish takes the Sand Blaster as it hops up off the bottom. If the bait falls to the bottom, and I get the strike, most of the time, I assume I’ve either caught a spotted bass or a largemouth.

However, remember, there are no absolutes in fishing. I know just as soon as I say that largemouth and spotted bass will be the bass to take the bait on the fall, somebody will catch a 5- to 10-pound largemouth jerking this bait up from the bottom. Then he’ll go on the Strike King Forums and explain to everyone why I was wrong. So, remember, I said MOST of the time, the spotted bass and largemouth will take the bait on the fall. I didn’t say largemouth and smallmouth will only take the Sand Blaster on the fall.

Next: The Red Eye Shad

Contents:

• Part 1: Why the Flat Shad
• Part 2: The King Shad
• Part 3: The Sand Blaster
• Part 4: The Red Eye Shad