Entry 351-1
The Two New Faces of Strike King – Rage Tail Designer Steve Parks and Fisherman Will Bennett, Who’s Just Returned from Iraq
Editor's Note: Steve Parks, a lure designer, has designed the Rage Tail baits together with Strike King.
Editor's Note: Will Bennett of Raleigh, North Carolina, who works for the National Guard and just returned from Iraq, recently became one of the newest members of the Strike King Regional Pro Staff.
Part 1: Steve Parks – Strike King’s Rage Tail
Question: Steve, how did you come up with the idea of Rage Tail soft plastics?
Parks: I used to guide at night on Lake Fork in Texas. We fished a lot of buzzbaits, but because my clients couldn’t really see the grass or the moss lines, they were always casting their buzzbaits up into the grass. Grass and buzzbaits don’t get along. If my clients weren’t casting in the grass, they were casting into sticks or the tops of trees. So, I saw the need for a soft-plastic buzzbait that you could run through grass, sticks and trees, and regardless of where you threw it, you wouldn’t get hung-up. The first Rage Tail lure was the Rage Tail Shad.
Question: How did you fish it initially?
Parks: I prefer to fish it on braided line and use a No. 4/0 to 5/0 EWG Superline hook. The Rage Tail Shad makes a lot of noise and moves a tremendous amount of water, yet it can be fished in all types of cover and grass. Noisy top-water lures, jigs and big worms are my favorite lures at night. I do most all my fishing at night.
Question: Why do you have to fish at night?
Parks: I have skin cancer, so I have to avoid the sunlight, if at all possible. But thanks to sun block and other protective skin creams and ointments, I can get out a little bit more in the daytime. So, I originally designed the Rage Tail Shad to be fished at night.
Question: After seeing the success of the Rage Tail Shad, what lure did you design next?
Parks: The Rage Craw, the Rage Toad and the Rage Chunk jig trailer. Since Lake Fork homes numbers of really-big bass, I also wanted a big worm that moved a lot of water. I designed the Anaconda and the Thumper Worm. Then these were followed by my favorite design to date which is Rage Eeliminator. I could hand-make the Eeliminator for my own personal use, but we never could get a mold that would produce enough Eeliminators to bring it to the bass-fishing market until this year.
Contents:
- Part 1: Steve Parks - Strike King's Rage Tail
- Part 2: The Development of Strike King's Rage Eeliminator, Anaconda and Thumper
- Part 3: You Can Bet on Strike King's Rage Tail Lures - the Anaconda and the Rage Thumper Worm
- Part 4: How Steve Parks and Strike King Create the Perfect Rage Tail Lure
- Part 5: Back from Iraq with Fishing and Strike King on Will Bennett's Mind
