Entry 270-1
Fishing the New 2009 Strike King Lures with Denny Brauer
Editor’s Note: Lure manufacturers like Strike King continually bring new lure products, colors and designs to the market every year. Fisheries research indicates that a bass isn’t nearly as likely to strike a lure the third time it sees the lure as the bass is the first time it sees the lure. The more often the bass sees the same lure, the less likely it is to strike that lure. To continue to produce new lures that tantalize the bass’ taste buds, Strike King relies heavily on pro fishermen like Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri. Brauer has fished most of Strike King’s new 2009 products for more than a year on the BASS Elite Series. This week, he’ll tell us which lures he’s fished, and how and why to fish them to catch big bass.
Part 1: The Rodent – It’s Small, Compact and Packs a Big Punch
Question: Denny, we know you’re heavily involved in the designs for Strike King’s new soft-plastic lures. What were your initial thoughts when you suggested these new baits for Strike King this year?
Brauer: Because the Strike King pros fish a number of highly-pressured lakes where the bass see thousands of lures each year, we knew we had to design more different-looking baits than the baits currently on the market with a variety of actions and colors to trigger more strikes and catch more bass in the upcoming year. Sometimes you simply can change the color of a lure and trigger more strikes.
But often you need a completely-new bait with a look and an action the bass aren’t accustomed to seeing. When flipping and pitching first started, for many years, we only had two options – the jig with a trailer or the tube bait. Now, with all the Strike King new lures, we have a bigger arsenal of lures from which to choose that will better match the type of cover we’re fishing and the mood of the bass.
Question: Let’s talk about the Rodent. What makes it different and more productive than other creature baits?
Brauer: For a lure to be especially effective, you have to select the right color pattern. If you choose the Rodent in a shad pattern, and you flip or pitch it into thick cover, letting it fall fast, it will resemble a baitfish diving through cover. However, the basic design of the Rodent is similar to a crawfish. It’s a compact bait and a size most bass will eat. Because of the bait’s compact size, it’s a great bait to wiggle down through heavy cover to attract all sizes of bass. Although most fishermen want to catch really-big bass, on some days, catching a limit of bass is far-more important than getting that one big kicker bass. The Rodent will help you catch your limit, and it will produce big bass and limit-sized bass. The Rodent is a finesse-fishing creature bait, and it’s smaller and more compact.
Question: How and where do you feel the new Rodent will be most effective?
Brauer: I’m not afraid to fish the Rodent anywhere I expect to find bass. However, it’s most effective when you fish it around a specific target like brush, treetops, grass, boat docks or other ambush points where bass may be holding. 
To catch numbers of bass, Carolina rig the Rodent. By putting the Rodent on a Carolina rig, you can cover a lot of water quickly and present the bass with a unique bait they’ve never seen before on a Carolina rig. My strength, however, is flipping and pitching. So, I’ll be using the Rodent mainly in heavy cover, whether it’s matted grass or isolated cover. I don’t look at any of the new Strike King soft-plastic lures as designed to be fished on one specific type of cover or in a particular fishing situation. Strike King has attempted to make these new lures versatile enough to be fished in many-different ways.
For instance, bass holding on rocky cover probably have seen every crawfish-type lure ever manufactured. But more than likely, they haven’t seen a Rodent, a Space Monkey or any of the other new lures Strike King has released on the market this year. So, these new lures give fishermen an opportunity to fish a lure the bass have never seen previously.
Once I determine the mood of the bass and the type of action and color the bass prefers, I can combine these ingredients into a new lure like the Rodent and be able to catch more bass than I will with a lure I use regularly. 
Anytime you can make a more-functional bait that looks more unique, especially on highly-pressured lakes, you’ll get more bites and catch more fish than you will on an old standby lure everyone uses.
Too, the Rodent can be fished in tandem with other lures. I’ll fish it with a jig trailer to make the jig look different from other jigs fished with the standard single or the double-tail trailer. Although you can fish the Rodent on a Carolina rig in very-deep water, I spend most of my time fishing the Rodent in shallow to medium-water depths. There are other new baits more productive when you move out into deeper water.
