March 29, 2004

Team Strike King to make a huge showing at the B.A.S.S. Elite 50 and 2004 Bass Master Classic!

Memphis, TN - The 2004 Citgo Bass Master tour has proved to be a huge success for Team Strike King. With 3 wins, 5 top 6 finishes and 9 top 12 finishes, Team Strike King has every right to be excited about the upcoming Bass Master Elite 50 series.
Qualifying for the Elite 50's from Team Strike King through one of the 20 all-time money leaders are:

• Denny Brauer - 1st overall in all-time money earned with $1,826,239.21
• Shaw Grigsby - 5th overall in all-time money with $1,229,380.23
• Kevin VanDam - 6th overall in all-time money with $1,207,683.33
• George Cochran - 10th overall in all-time money with $977,501.45
• Mark Davis - 11th overall in all-time money with $957,071.30

Other ways to qualify for the Elite 50's are through averaged points over the last three years. The Team Strike King Members to do so are:

• Mike Wurm qualifying in the 11th spot
• Chad Brauer qualifying in the 18th spot.

The Elite 50 Schedule will consist of 4 no-entry fee events with the top10 in overall points after 4 events qualifying for the Bass Master Classic in Charlotte in August. See www.Bassmaster.com or www.Bassfan.com for complete schedules.

Team Strike King Members who are already qualified for the 2004 Bass Master Classic are:

• Chad Brauer - Qualifying for his second Bass Master Classic
• Mark Davis - Former Classic Champ and 3 Time Angler of the Year
• Kevin VanDam - Also a Former Classic Champ and Angler of the Year
• Denny Brauer - The last guy to win a Classic in North Carolina.

Way to go guys, good luck in the E-50's and can't wait to see you all in Charlotte!!!!!

March 28, 2004

Team Strike King Finishes strong in last regular season tour event of 2004

Santee Cooper Lakes, Manning SC. - Coming off a third straight win, the Team Strike King guys headed to Santee Cooper to try and do the impossible, win a fourth in a row, unfortunately they came up a bit short. After day one, Team Strike Kings 2004 shining star, Chad Brauer was sitting in 11th place and was poised to make a run at his 3rd top 12 appearance of the year. This however would not be the case as day two of the event proved too much for all of our guys with the exception of Shaw Grigsby. Shaw made a big jump on day two and made his first cut of 2004. Shaw finished the event in 7th place making another great showing for Team Strike King. Denny Brauer had the day two Puralotor Big Bass of the day award with a monstrous 9-07 largemouth.

The Santee Cooper event was the last regular season B.A.S.S. tour event of 2004. The top 27 in points along with the top 20 money leaders as well as the 2003 Angler of the year, 2003 Classic champ and the 2004 Angler of the year will begin a four tournament mini-season called the Elite 50 series, making up the top 50 anglers in the world in B.A.S.S.

• Check back later for more info and complete list of the Team Strike King guys fishing the Elite 50’s and the 2004 Classic.
• Check www.bassfan.com for more info patterns and techniques used in the Santee cooper event.

March 22, 2004

3 in a Row!!!

Eufaula, AL - Denny Brauer becomes the third Team Strike King member in as many tournaments to pull out a B.A.S.S. tour victory. The all time leading money winner inched ever so closer to the 2 million dollar mark with his $101,500 victory this past week at a constantly fluctuating Lake Eufaula.

Catching the majority of his fish throughout the week using a black and blue Denny Brauer Pro-Model Jig tipped with his own 3X Chunk in Black and Blue as usual. Denny caught a limit of fish each day to finish out with a total of 76.14 pounds to finish ahead of Rookie Bink Desaro by a mere 3 ounces.

Other Team Strike King members to mention include:

• Mark Davis who finished 10th after coming off his first ever tour victory two weeks ago at Table Rock Lake
• Shaw Grigsby earned some valuable Angler of the Year points with a strong 18th place finish
• Kevin VanDam rounded out the 20th spot for Team Strike King!

This week look for Team Strike King as they prepare for Lake Santee Cooper in South Carolina as the final event on the B.A.S.S. tour for the 2004 season. The top 25 in points after this tournament will earn a birth in the prestigious Bass Masters Classic in August on Lake Wylie in Charlotte.

"Don't just follow the leader, be a Leader, Fish Strike King!"

March 8, 2004

Team Strike King Does it again!!!

Kimberling City, MO – A week ago, 3 members of Team Strike King left Guntersville Alabama on cloud nine, with George Cochran posting victory and Kevin VanDam and Chad Brauer placing third and fourth respectively, across the Mississippi river they went to attack Table Rock Lake, and attack they did. Chad and George qualified for their second top 12 cut in a row and long time Team Strike King Member Mark Davis was hammering on the door with a second place seat heading into the final day, just 2 pounds shy of first.

The final day proved to be too easy for Mark as he had a limit by 8:45 and was culling by 9:00am to overtake Roland Martin and win his first ever tour event on the Citgo Bass master Tour. The 1995 Bass Master Classic Champ achieved victory by throwing a Strike King series 3 Crank bait and also a Strike King Jig.

Details of Marks winning pattern will be up on Bassfan.com later on this week.

Congratulations Mark!!!!! And to the rest of Team Strike King for another good showing!

March 1, 2004

Gentleman George Wins BASS Tour event on Lake Guntersville!

Guntersville, Alabama – Gentleman George Cochran wins his first tour event of 2004 with an impressive catch of 99 pounds and 10 ounces over four days. George’s main pattern was keying on grass beds within 4 miles of the official launch site using a jerk bait. Twitching the jerk bait down three or four times and then letting the bait sit for about 5 seconds was key to George’s pattern. “If I fished the bait too fast, the fish were not interested, but the whole key was the pause of the bait, letting the jerk bait sit still for about 5 seconds, those big fish couldn’t stand it and would just jump all over it.” His main bait was Watermelon Shad jerk bait along with Strike King series 3 crank bait in a crawfish pattern.

Team Strike King also scores big with Kevin VanDam finishing 3rd using a Strike King Diamond Shad in a golden crawfish pattern as well as a clown colored jerk bait, which in fact he helped design. Chad Brauer also made a strong move to the front posting back-to-back 20 plus pound bags on days 1 & 2 to end up finishing fourth. Chad also used a jerk bait targeting boat docks and Marinas where fish were suspended just under the docks or boats. Chad made a big jump in the Angler of the Year points race with his fourth place finish he moves into the lead going into next weeks event on one of his home lakes in Missouri on Table Rock Lake. This is the first time in Chad’s 8-year career that he has led the Angler of the Year race.

Good Luck at Table Rock guys were all pulling for you.

Old news...

April, 2005
March, 2005
Janurary, 2005
December, 2004
November, 2004
October, 2004
August, 2004
June, 2004
May, 2004
April, 2004
March, 2004