Entry 271-5
Mark Rose and His Second-Best Year of Fishing with Strike King’s New Lures
Editor’s Note: Mark Rose of Marianna, Arkansas, an up-and-coming pro on the FLW circuit, has committed himself to the sport of tournament bass fishing. This week, Rose will tell us about his second-best year ever of fishing with the new lures from Strike King.
Part 5: Better Spinner Baits - the Burner, the Bottom Dweller and the Sexy Shad Skirt
Question: Mark, what do you think of the new spinner baits Strike King released this year?
Rose: Strike King produced the new Burner and the new Bottom Dweller spinner baits, and they added a Sexy Shad skirt and a chartreuse skirt to our spinner bait line of skirts. These two skirts are totally different from each other. So, some exciting things are happening with Strike King’s spinner baits. Strike King always has led the way on spinner baits, and they company has managed to still find a way to improve them.
Question: What makes the Bottom Dweller different from other spinner baits?
Rose: It’s got a new head design and a really-big sharp hook on it. The new blade design will help the bait get down quicker and stay down as you retrieve it. The new blade also will help the Burner and the Bottom Dweller become more-versatile than other spinner baits in the past. 
The blades are actually lighter than conventional spinner-bait blades, which helps the Bottom Dweller fall faster and stay closer to the bottom with less effort than previous spinner baits. The Burner and the Bottom Dweller have the same profile as Strike King’s other spinner baits, but they’re much lighter. Now, if you’re really burning the spinner bait close to the surface of the water, you can reel these baits much faster than you can other spinner baits.
With Strike King’s new spinner bait colors and new hooks, there are two new spinner baits that solve more problems for bass fishermen better than our selections in the past. The head design on the Burner spinner bait cuts the water better and more efficiently than other head designs, allowing you to fish faster in shallow water than ever previously. The Bottom Dweller spinner bait is a welcome addition to the offshore fisherman’s arsenal. Both bait designs give fishermen advantages they’ve never had. Strike King has again listened to pro fishermen and heard the problems they have been experiencing. Strike King has developed these new lures to solve the problems of every day and tournament fishermen.
To get the bass to bite, put the bait in the bass’ environment, whether it’s extremely shallow or extremely deep. Then leave the bait in the strike zone for the length of time required to get the bass to bite. 
When you have to fly the bait past the bass, the Burner spinner bait is the most-productive bait. When you want the bait to barely crawl in front of the bass, use the Football Jig. We’re learning more about offshore and deep-water bass fishing, so we need baits that will reach those depths like the Bottom Dweller.
When speed is what you need, try a spinner bait that will fly through the water like the Burner. As the Strike King pro fishermen learn more about the bass’ environment and how to catch the bass, Strike King will continue to make better baits to fit more niches and catch more bass. There isn’t one bait in Strike King’s new 2009 line of baits that I haven’t used on the tournament trail this year, and I plan to use all of them next year, too.
