Entry 293-2
Five of My Favorite Strike King Baits with Mark Davis
Editor’s Note: Strike King was really proud to have Kevin VanDam, Greg Hackney, Shaw Grigsby and Mark Davis in the 2009 Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport, Louisiana, last week. Every day that week, we posted reports on how these fishermen did in this year’s tournament. Mark Davis has been a part of Strike King’s professional fishing team for many years, and he’s had input on many of the lures Strike King has produced. This week we’ve asked Mark to tell us about some of the lures that he’s helped Strike King design and build.
Part 2: Strike King Crankbaits with Mark Davis
Question: Mark, you’ve always had a lot of input on Strike King’s crankbaits haven’t you?
Davis: Yes, I have, all the way from the Series 1 XS to the Series 6 crankbaits. What’s interesting about Strike King’s crankbaits is we broke them down into categories. We decided the many-different things we wanted a crankbait to do. Then instead of modifying existing crankbaits, Strike King built crankbaits for specific applications. Once we developed the job we wanted a crankbait to do, we began to develop different sizes and colors of crankbaits for specific needs. For instance, we wanted a crankbait to walk through cover, so we needed a wide-wobble crankbait to meet that need.
Then we decided we wanted a crankbait that would run and perform in deeper depths, so we developed a crankbait with a tighter wobble to allow the lures to get deeper. 
The first crankbait with the particular action was the Series 5 crankbait. Next, we wanted a larger crankbait with that same wobble action. Strike King came out with the Series 6 crankbait. Strike King Series 4 crankbait was specifically designed to allow the fisherman to fish through logs, limbs and cover. The Series 4 crankbait has a wide wobble, and a wide-wobble crankbait will deflect off cover better than a tight-wobble crankbait.
Next we wanted a crankbait with a big bill that would act as a bumper for a crankbait to keep it from getting hung. We knew that the more the bill moved from side to side, the less likely it would be to hang-up. The body of the Series 4 is slightly smaller than the body of the Series 5, and you’ll also notice the bill is slightly shorter on the Series 4, and it’s turned downward.
So what Strike King has tried to do, and we fishermen feel like we’ve helped the company do, is to design crankbaits for specific types of fishing situations, instead of the angler having to modify a crankbait to make it more versatile. I don’t think most people realize how much time and thought goes into the design, the function and the component parts of Strike King’s crankbaits, but there are probably thousands of hours of research and testing that happen before a Strike King crankbait comes to the market. I’ve been a part of those thousands of hours as have the other Strike King Pros.
