Entry 315-4
What’s New From Strike King and How to Use These Products with Denny Brauer
Editor’s Note: Strike King Pro Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, professional angler for 29 years, has career earnings of over $2.5 million and has brought home first place in the Bassmaster Classic 1998. For many years, he’s been involved in the research and development of Strike King lures. Like the other Strike King Pros, Brauer field tests each new lure before it’s released to the market. This week, Brauer will tell us what he’s learned from his research and testing of Strike King’s fall 2009 and 2010 lures.
Part 4: The Rage Eeliminator
Question: Denny, the new Rage Eeliminator resembles a weasel, a frog or a rat. What is it, and how do you fish it?
Brauer: When Strike King first sent me this lure to test it, I thought I wouldn’t use this bait very often because like you said, most tackle companies have a frog, a rat or some other kind of creature that’s fished through grass and lily pads. I thought the Rage Eeliminator was one of those niche-type baits, like the floating worm or the frog, designed for one fishing application. So, I took the bait down to my test pond and started flipping it because I’d been told it was a good drop bait. I fished with it for a while and really didn’t get any bites, even though it looked good in the water.
Next I rigged the bait weedless, put a No. 4/0 Mustad hook in it, fished it on 20-pound-test line and made long casts. I’d start reeling it back just underneath the surface and then jerk it back up to the surface and let it break the surface. I couldn’t believe how much the bait looked like a little snake. The bass jumped all over it. I had my wife in the boat with me, and she got mad because I only had two or three of the Rage Eeliminators, and I hadn’t rigged one for her. 
Finally, I gave her one of the baits, and immediately she started catching bass.
The bass in my pond went nuts over the Rage Eeliminator. The bass were so aggressive because they’d never seen a bait like this before or ever seen the swimming action of this bait. Like all the other new soft plastics from Strike King, the Rage Eeliminator will be extremely versatile. It will be excellent for a Carolina-rigged bait, because you barely move the bait, and it swims. This bait is unique because the head of the bait swims back and forth like the tail of the bait. The Rage Eeliminator swims from its nose to its tail. I like it on a Carolina rig or just rigged weedless, which allows the bait to have more of a swimming action.
Question: Denny, unlike many frogs, rats or other grass baits, the Rage Eeliminator has a solid head. What advantages does this give fishermen?
Brauer: The head on this bait doesn’t tear-up like the heads on other lures of this type of design, and it’s built to carry a bigger hook. The No. 4/0 hook is perfect for the Rage Eeliminator. When you rig the Rage Eeliminator, so the tail swims as freely as it can, you’ll look at that bait and say, “Yep, this bait will catch a lot of bass.” You can reel it really slow and still get a lot of action. You have to reel this style of lure fairly fast to get any action out of it, but with the Rage Eeliminator, you can swim it really slowly, right through the strike zone of the bass, and get some really-neat actions out of the bait. The Rage Eeliminator has a totally-different action and allows the fishermen to fish in places and zones of the water where no other lure of this type has ever swum previously.
Contents:
- Part 1: The Rage Thumper Worm
- Part 2: The Rage Tail Smokin' Rooster
- Part 3: Hawging Up the Bass
- Part 4: The Rage Eeliminator
- Part 5: The King Shad's Baby Brother
