Entry 276-1

Why Strike King’s Lures Are the Way They Are with Shaw Grigsby

Part 1: This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Spinner Bait

Question: The Strike King Company has been successful because its Pro Staff team has direct input on the colors, the designs and the features for each lure the company creates. Shaw, what are the Strike King lures most influenced by you?

Grigsby: I’ve been working with Strike King for a long time, and my favorite aspect of being a member of the Strike King team is having input on the baits Strike King produces. For instance the lure designers can say, “Shaw liked this, but Kevin VanDam wanted to make this change, and Greg Hackney thought we should add this…” So when you use a Strike King lure, you know that many members of the Pro Staff have made choices on the lure’s design and features.

There are a couple of features I’ve heavily advocated for Strike King spinner baits that I think have made a real difference. Looking at a Strike King Premier Pro Model spinner bait, you’ll notice this lure doesn’t have a long arm between the head of the bait and the line tie like most other spinner baits, which makes the spinner bait appear bigger and longer than it is in reality. In some situations, this bigger appearance is an advantage but in others, it’s not. The shorter arm allows a bass to see the blades as they turn closer to the bait, making the bait look more compact than it really is. This feature not only solicits more strikes but also increases the number of hook-ups you’ll get while fishing this spinner bait.

As hook technology increases, the hooks in the Strike King spinner baits have evolved. Many fishermen may not have noticed that Strike King’s spinner baits have stronger hooks with sharper points than we’re had in the past because Strike King’s hook-making knowledge has significantly improved over the years. As Strike King pros, we’re all very conscious of new, better and stronger component parts, and we’ll always add new, improved components to our products. The sharper, stronger and better hooks are a classic example of how we’re constantly improving our spinner baits.

This year you’ll note the new Raz-R-Blades on our spinner baits. As we find better component parts, we constantly improve the spinner baits. The head design on the new spinner baits looks more like a fish. We also have super ball-bearing swivels and clevises, which are the small details each Strike King pro examines and attempts to improve that the average fisherman may not see when he buys a new Strike King lure or spinner bait.

Another improvement we’ve made on the spinner bait is the new improved skirt. With the new Premier Plus Perfect Skirts, Strike King has developed a skirt technology that enables each strand on the skirt to stay where it should. Too, the colors in the skirt come together for a successful presentation. Our old skirt technology had all the colors mixed together, but now the top may be one color such as white, and the sides be another color such as chartreuse, while perhaps the bottom strands are orange or white. As this skirt comes through the water, the skirt looks like the natural color changes of a real fish.

We put colors in the top, the middle and the bottom portion of the skirt, so you can better match the skirt color to the head of the spinner bait for one continuous flow of color, rather than a mixture of colors. This causes the spinner bait to have a more-realistic look and results in more bites and hook-ups. Strike King has taken its skirt technology one step further by molding the skirt to ehe head of the spinner bait for more flair than ever previously.

Another big change you may not have noticed on the Premier Plus spinner baits is the Saber Point trailer hook attached to the bait. When Strike King added the trailer hook, the company built a longer skirt that actually covers the trailer hook and gives the skirt extra-added action because it’s longer. Since the skirt covers your trailer hook, the bass don’t see it. All these subtle changes make a big different in the Strike King skirt’s performance. These are the types of nitty-gritty details the Strike King pros get involved in to create new products and improve existing products. Strike King has a long history of making great spinner baits, and most fishermen don’t know that the Strike King spinner baits you’ll buy this year are much-better spinner baits than the ones you’ve bought 5- or 6-years ago, simply because of improvements in technology component parts and the bait’s action, which we’ve worked hard to perfect.

Question: Shaw, what’s your favorite-colored spinner bait?

Grigsby: The chartreuse-and-white color is hard to beat, but Strike King has come out with a new gold-and-white spinner bait that also has garnered my attention. It looks a lot like a shad, and I’m catching a number of bass on it. The next time you go in a tackle shop, take a hard look at Strike King spinner baits - especially the skirts. You’ll notice a tremendous difference in the skirts produced by Strike King and other spinner-bait skirts currently on the market.

Next: The Little Spinner Bait with Lots of Weight

Contents:

• Part 1: This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Spinner Bait
• Part 2: The Little Spinner Bait with Lots of Weight
• Part 3: Don’t Forget the Zulu
• Part 4: Take the Glass Minnow to Salt Water
• Part 5: The Big Brother of the Red Eye Shad