Entry 48-1
Mark Davis on Strike King Baits
The Magic of the Series 6 Crankbait
Editor's Note: Mark Davis, of Mount Ida, Arkansas, is ranked third by www.bassfan.com. He won the Angler-of-the-Year title in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and the 1995 BASS Masters Classic.
Question: When do you fish a Strike King Series 6 crankbait?
Davis: Any time I believe bass are holding in water depths 12- to 15-feet deep, I'll fish the Strike King Series 6 crankbait on 10-pound-test line. I also fish a Series 6 in water depths of 8 to 10 feet on 20-pound-test line when I think the bass will take a big-bodied crankbait in shallow water.
When I want to use the Series 6 in shallower water, I'll fish it on 10-pound-test line. Remember, when you fish deep-diving crankbaits, like the Series 6, the further you cast the lure, the deeper it will dive.
One misconception about deep-diving crankbaits is some anglers believe the faster you reel the lure, the deeper it dives, but this is not true.
A medium retrieve will get the lure deeper, faster and keep it deeper longer than a fast retrieve will. I fish deep-diving crankbaits to get the crankbait down to the bottom or to deep cover near the bottom. I try to cast past the cover or to the bottom where I believe the bass hold. Then, I use a medium retrieve to get the lure down to the depth I want to fish and try to make contact with the cover or the bottom.
To get the fish to bite, I use an erratic retrieve. Often, I'll stop, pause and/or pull the crankbait with my rod tip. Now you can catch bass using a steady retrieve with this crankbait, but when using a steady retrieve with a deep-diving crankbait, the lure will bump a rock, hit a stump, come in contact with the bottom or crash into a limb or a twig.
When the lure makes contact with any type of structure, you'll instinctively vary your retrieve. The strike will most-likely occur when you change your retrieve even slightly. The strike is triggered because the bait made an erratic motion or because it hit the cover and bounced off of it causing it to change speeds. So to get more strikes on crankbaits, even if your lure is not crashing into the cover, change up the retrieve using start, stop, speed-up and slow-down variations in the retrieve.
