Entry 278-4

Kevin VanDam and the Creation of the Sexy Shad, the Burner and KVD Perfect Plastics

Part 4: Perfect Plastic for Perfect Baits

Question: Kevin, what’s another product in which you’ve had a lot of input in the Strike King line of lures?

VanDam: The KVD Perfect Plastic is a product I’ve been requesting for years and have been working to try to develop. This is a new line of soft plastics that’s unique. Too, the plastic we use was developed to improve the action of each lure we manufacture with the Perfect Plastic. Strike King has a special formulation of plastic we’ve developed ourselves that’s super soft, yet is still elastic. This new plastic has given the appendages on our baits much-more movement and flexibility than they’ve had in the past. We wanted our soft-plastic lures to not only have more action than any other lures on the market, but we didn’t want to give up durability. We also were concerned about the sink rates (how fast the bait would fall) with these lures.

To stiffen the baits, make them a little stronger and get the desired sink rate, we added more salt to our plastics than we’d used in the past. Salt is the main component in the bait that the bass eats. Therefore, when a bass bit a soft-plastic bait made out of the KVD Perfect Plastic, we wanted the bass to experience that salty taste it was accustomed to tasting when it bit a crawfish or a baitfish. So, now Strike King has a plastic bait that looks more lifelike than the plastics of the past to entice the bass to bite the bait. Too, when the bass gets the bait in its mouth, the bait has a strong, salty taste. The bass’s taste buds can confirm what its eyes have told it is a natural bait for it to eat, causing the bass to hold onto the bait longer and giving the fisherman more time to set the hook.

For instance, let’s take the new Ocho we’ve introduced this year. With the additional salt in the Perfect Plastic, we’ve got an ideal horizontal sink rate with the quivering action that makes the Ocho look lifelike. The additional salt gives the Ocho more action and wiggle than any other cigar-shaped worm on the market today.

The Rodent is really soft and has a lot of salt in it. It has a more-lively action than any other creature-style bait on the market.

The Caffeine Shad, a soft-plastic jerkbait, has a rattlesnake-shaped tail, which increases the side-to-side action of this bait, especially when you’re twitching it. Then, we’ve added more salt to the lure to give the bait a more-horizontal fall, just like a dying shad.

The new Game Hawg is another example of a creature bait we’ve improved. To get more action out of the legs and the appendages, we’ve made these parts of the bait thinner, which gives the bait tremendous action, even at super-slow speeds. We’ve put a big body on the Game Hawg, so it will accept a big, wide-gap flipping hook. It’s designed to be fished on heavy line with a big hook.

Once we had the lures we wanted to introduce built from the material that would enhance their performance and give the baits more action and better fall rates, we went back and started looking at colors. We developed colors of these lures to suit different degrees of water clarity. We used our premium fish-catching colors in those different water-clarity types. So, much-more thought and work goes into a new Strike King lure than many people may realize, and these are the types of technical things I work on along with the other members of the Strike King professional fishing team. Even the smallest detail can make a big difference when you’re tournament fishing. Many of the tournaments in which we compete are decided by ounces. Therefore, the better we can make our lures, the better our chances for winning tournaments.

Next: The Burner and the Bottom Dweller

Contents:

• Part 1: How the Strike King Pros Help Develop Strike King Lures
• Part 2: What Puts the Sex in Sexy Shad
• Part 3: Take the Red Eye
• Part 4: Perfect Plastic for Perfect Baits
• Part 5: The Burner and the Bottom Dweller