Entry 278-5

Kevin VanDam and the Creation of the Sexy Shad, the Burner and KVD Perfect Plastics

Part 5: The Burner and the Bottom Dweller

Question: Kevin, this year, Strike King came out with the Burner spinner bait. I knew you were involved in designing this lure. What were you and the other Strike King pros trying to create to make the Burner spinner bait not just another spinner bait?

VanDam: The Burner spinner bait is a completely-revolutionary design in spinner baits. It’s not just another spinner bait. We looked at all the components of a spinner bait and asked, “What can we do to make the fastest spinner bait on the market?” We wanted the Burner spinner bait to be able to outrun all the other high-speed spinner baits on the market. Not only did we want the spinner bait to run fast, we wanted it to run straight. In most other spinner baits, running fast and straight are major problems. We started by using a lighter wire, which helped maintain the balance of the spinner bait, kept it running true and increased the action of the spinner bait. The wire was a new design because most wires of that size weren’t very durable. We wanted a lightweight wire with durability in it, and the ability to bend the wire if necessary.

Too, the Burner has smaller – and more importantly – thinner blades, which cause the blades to spin faster than most spinner-bait blades and allow the angler to have a faster retrieve and less lift. Lift causes the spinner bait to ride-up high in the water when you reel it extremely fast. So, we wanted to reduce the lift of the Burner spinner bait to enable it to stay underwater even at a high speed of retrieve. We created a head design that acts as keel on a boat. This head design keeps the spinner bait running straight, even though the lure’s being retrieved really fast. We’ve paired-up this design with the Perfect Skirt, which gives the bait a lot of body action, just like a fast-running shad.

Question: You also had some input in developing the Bottom Dweller, the new deep-diving spinner bait that Strike King released this year. What did you and the Strike King pros want in this lure?

VanDam: The Strike King Burner spinner bait and the Bottom Dweller were both built and designed to meet specific fishing needs that other spinner baits often didn’t fill. We used the same blades on the Bottom Dweller that we used on the Burner, which provided less lift to keep the bait deeper in the water at high speeds. But with the Bottom Dweller, we added more weight. The Bottom Dweller has the same wire, extra-long hook and Perfect Skirt as the Burner, so you get the same tremendous action out of the Bottom Dweller that you do out of the Burner, even if you’re reeling it very slowly in deep water.

The Bottom Dweller is another example of how the Strike King pros modify existing baits to make them fit more-specific needs. Strike King has always had a great spinner bait, and our Pro Model spinner baits all will fit these same applications. However, the new Burner spinner bait is a new design to give the fisherman a better spinner bait for shallow-water speed cranking. The Bottom Dweller has been designed to give the fishermen a better deep-water spinner bait, while still increasing the action of the lure, even though it’s being fished in deep water. As our professional fishing team fine-tunes our lures to make them more situation-oriented and therefore more effective, we work with Strike King to give us the very-best lures we can have in each fishing situation we encounter.

Contents:

• Part 1: How the Strike King Pros Help Develop Strike King Lures
• Part 2: What Puts the Sex in Sexy Shad
• Part 3: Take the Red Eye
• Part 4: Perfect Plastic for Perfect Baits
• Part 5: The Burner and the Bottom Dweller