Do others see inconsistent action with Some Strike King Crankbaits

[Cgolf]

I am curious if others see inconsistencies with some of the Strike King crankbait models. I own a lot of them, and while I love the RES, 1.0 SB, and the mini 3 I have had hit or miss luck with the others.

I had one of the new shallow SB that was a star performer last year out fishing pretty much everything else I had. Unfortunately I donated it to the river gods within a week of the opener. Its replacement unfortunately has not caught a fish for me all year. Have seen similar things with the standard KVD 1.5 SB and series 1. Of the many I have tried I only caught fish on one of them.

With other baits such as the Bandit 100, I have seen them all catch fish, the only differences that I have noticed is that some snag up less on rocks than others. The fish catching ability stays pretty steady, we will see what happens now that Pradco owns them and those baits hit the shelves.

Do others see this?

[A-Jay]

While there will always be a few "Lemons" mixed into the mass produced baits of most any manufacture, I have Not found anything more than that within the rather extensive arsenal of SK RES, Squarebills, Mid & Deep Diving Crankbaits, Top Waters & Jerk baits that fill the boxes I select for every trip out.

Unless a bait is not "running true", the fact that it gets hung up or doesn't produce for me - is Never viewed as the baits fault.

A-Jay

[Team9nine]

46 minutes ago, cgolf said:

Do others see this?

Yep, but they get away with some poor design or QC by marketing their baits as, "...the right erratic action with the wandering and searching motions...", something I would simply refer to as, "doesn't run right."

-T9

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

While there will always be a few "Lemons" mixed into the mass produced baits of most any manufacture, I have Not found anything more than that within the rather extensive arsenal of SK RES, Squarebills, Mid & Deep Diving Crankbaits, Top Waters & Jerk baits that fill the boxes I select for every trip out.

Unless a bait is not "running true", the fact that it gets hung up or doesn't produce for me - is Never viewed as the baits fault.

A-Jay

I am not being a hater, as I have a lot of SK baits, I just tend to find more lemons as you say with some of their cranks vs other brands in the same price range. I do know that different brands have different levels of QC checks vs others, one reason many like LC cranks. I know early on when the RES first came out I got 2 or 3 that had the rattles stuck, would other brands have caught this? I will say that there customer service handled that situation very well and I continue to buy their products, but don't buy in bulk like I used to. 

But yes if I catch a lot of fish on one SK SB and tie on a 2nd identical lure, I expect similar performance, knowing some baits do just catch more fish, I don't expect to get blanked though. With other brands I see this and with some SK baits, just not all. 

[ww2farmer]

Any time I get a lemon from SK,which is rare in relation to how many baits I buy............an email to them takes care of it. They usually ask you to send the baits back, and then they replace them............usually with 2 of the same bait for your troubles and some extra "goodies"....

[Bluebasser86]

Haven't had one yet but it's bound to happen as many as I buy.

[scaleface]

Other than the red Eye Shad I dont own a lot of them and the couple of deep divers I own  have performed splendidly . I have a 6 xd which is the first crankbait I ever owned that I feel confident fishing 15 to 17 foot with .It has  been a steady producer   all summer . The  square bills ,  I havent caught much with but thats probably due to the fact that I have other favorites that get a lot more  paying time .

[j bab]

22 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Unless a bait is not "running true", the fact that it gets hung up or doesn't produce for me - is Never viewed as the baits fault.

A-Jay nailed it. If it's running true then it's not the bait's fault. 

Are your baits not running correctly are are they just not catching fish? That's an important thing to distinguish. 

[Cgolf]

13 minutes ago, j bab said:

A-Jay nailed it. If it's running true then it's not the bait's fault. 

Are your baits not running correctly are are they just not catching fish? That's an important thing to distinguish. 

Some are not catching fish, it is really strange. I tried out the 8.0 SB this year and caught 3 northern WI bass on it in probably 20 minutes of use. Using its smaller counterparts, excluding the 1.0, I have caught around 5 fish in probably 24 hours of use. Interestingly most of those were caught on a bait I bought later, the ones that haven't produced well were from when they first came out  They seem to run true. I had a similar issue with the 1 series that saw 1 catch fish and 3 blank with all tuned properly.

That trip I caught a ton of fish on one RES including 6 different species and tied on another and kept catching fish at the same rate. Same with the mini 3 and the 1.0 SB, everyone I have tied on caught fish. Who knows, maybe those other baits don't fit my fishing style, but other SBs have produced for me from bandit, xcite, xcalibur, etc. 

I won't give up on them yet, perhaps I will change the hooks on some or add weight. The original shallow SB would get crushed when I paused it, perhaps the new one is more buoyant and floats up too quickly?

[A-Jay]

3 minutes ago, cgolf said:

Some are not catching fish, it is really strange. I tried out the 8.0 SB this year and caught 3 northern WI bass on it in probably 20 minutes of use. Using its smaller counterparts, excluding the 1.0, I have caught around 5 fish in probably 24 hours of use. Interestingly most of those were caught on a bait I bought later, the ones that haven't produced well were from when they first came out  They seem to run true. I had a similar issue with the 1 series that saw 1 catch fish and 3 blank with all tuned properly.

That trip I caught a ton of fish on one RES including 6 different species and tied on another and kept catching fish at the same rate. Same with the mini 3 and the 1.0 SB, everyone I have tied on caught fish. Who knows, maybe those other baits don't fit my fishing style, but other SBs have produced for me from bandit, xcite, xcalibur, etc. 

I won't give up on them yet, perhaps I will change the hooks on some or add weight. The original shallow SB would get crushed when I paused it, perhaps the new one is more buoyant and floats up too quickly?

How Long a bait is fishes is rarely an accurate indicator as to it's effectiveness.

Where, When & How it's presented will often tell a much better story. 

And if I'm seeing the results I'm looking for with one brand of bait, I don't really have any interest in switching to something else regardless of what the rest of the planet is throwing. 

A-Jay

[Cgolf]

28 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

How Long a bait is fishes is rarely an accurate indicator as to it's effectiveness.

Where, When & How it's presented will often tell a much better story. 

And if I'm seeing the results I'm looking for with one brand of bait, I don't really have any interest in switching to something else regardless of what the rest of the planet is throwing. 

A-Jay

But their is this thing called the bait monkey that tells us that the KVD SB is similar to my bandit in depth and cover it should be fished, therefore I must buy it;) To be fair after my original order of said SBs and buying multiple pairs of SK sunglasses on clearance that included 1 of each size SB I haven't bought any more. What I am trying to figure out is the when and the how with these baits, I definitely have learned where they don't produce. 

Since I am at the point of not caring too much if I snag and lose them I may try them around docks.

For the SB at least I was hoping for another great river option to compliment the bandit, so they saw something different once in a while. I fish an area quite a bit, so changing up is a good idea.

The lesson I learned from this is to not buy a lot of a bait before you know what you are getting. It doesn't matter how good of a deal their kit of 12 baits is if they don't catch fish for ya.

[A-Jay]

6 minutes ago, cgolf said:

But their is this thing called the bait monkey that tells us that the KVD SB is similar to my bandit in depth and cover it should be fished, therefore I must buy it;) To be fair after my original order of said SBs and buying multiple pairs of SK sunglasses on clearance that included 1 of each size SB I haven't bought any more. What I am trying to figure out is the when and the how with these baits, I definitely have learned where they don't produce. 

Since I am at the point of not caring too much if I snag and lose them I may try them around docks.

For the SB at least I was hoping for another great river option to compliment the bandit, so they saw something different once in a while. I fish an area quite a bit, so changing up is a good idea.

The lesson I learned from this is to not buy a lot of a bait before you know what you are getting. It doesn't matter how good of a deal their kit of 12 baits is if they don't catch fish for ya.

Fair enough ~ 

I guess it should be noted here & now that my personal collection of SK SB's can only be described as Obscene.

The 1.5, 2.5 and more recently the 1.5 shallow (both silent & where available Rattling) have caught me a ton of bass.

I'll offer Two Words of advice to you,  Burn It.

That is all.

A-Jay

 

[Cgolf]

11 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Fair enough ~ 

I guess it should be noted here & now that my personal collection of SK SB's can only be described as Obscene.

The 1.5, 2.5 and more recently the 1.5 shallow (both silent & where available Rattling) have caught me a ton of bass.

I'll offer Two Words of advice to you,  Burn It.

That is all.

A-Jay

 

There is a rattling 1.5 shallow? Who carries those? 

I will try burning them and see how it goes, that is the one retrieve I don't do a lot. 

[A-Jay]

Just now, cgolf said:

There is a rattling 1.5 shallow? Who carries those? 

I will try burning them and see how it goes, that is the one retrieve I don't do a lot. 

See - there I go - Giving up the ship again.

BPS - that's secret code for Bass Pro Shops.

A-Jay

[bigbill]

I notice a difference between the Manns Crankbaits. One out of four caught bass. I had to tune the other three. So far all the bomber model A's catch fish. Now I check all of my cranks for running true.

[S. Sass]

I don't fish a lot of crankbaits compared to some but I fish quite a bit of the Mann's 1 Minus series as they work great in a lot of the places I go where you cant get too deep of you will have a mess. I have nothing but great results with them. They are one of my favorite crankbaits.

I don't have a lot of SB in general so I have even less SB that are SK so I cant comment on my experience with them as I have next to none.

I do have several Bandits and SK that run 10+ deep and they seem to do OK. Haven't really noticed any difference between the lures, more a user issue on my part as I don't have a lot of experience with deep divers.  

[SWVABass]

I love to fish the 1.0 and 1.5 in the spring. The silent and rattle version both produce. The only time I see a drop in catch rates has to do with color selection am where I'm throwingoing it. I agree with AJ try some more and spend more time throwing it but throw it during times of the year it will produce and under conditions it will produce. I've had previously frontal days where I couldn't keep them off of it post front couldn't get a bite.

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, Swbass15 said:

I love to fish the 1.0 and 1.5 in the spring. The silent and rattle version both produce. The only time I see a drop in catch rates has to do with color selection am where I'm throwingoing it. I agree with AJ try some more and spend more time throwing it but throw it during times of the year it will produce and under conditions it will produce. I've had previously frontal days where I couldn't keep them off of it post front couldn't get a bite.

This is what I have been trying to do, but perhaps it just doesn't fit one part of my fishing. One thing I learned is that the 1.0 is a great river crank, the 1.5 shallow was too, need to see if I can get the replacement bait up to snuff.

It could be that the 1.5 doesn't track as well in heavier current and that is why the fish stay off it. Unfortunately the near shore water is a little more slack so I never really see what it does in heavier current. Still you would think it would work well in the eddies but who knows. Next time I am out on the lake I will give the bait some more time and see what happens.

[SWVABass]

I've never fished them in current other than wind generated current. They seem to excel when you are crashing them into anything, rocks, stumps, pilings. I haven't noticed any difference between different baits of the same size. If your fishing clear water match the hatch for size and color. Reduced visibility chartreuse black back or chartreuse sexy shad have worked well for me. A bait I've started to throw instead of the square bill is the 1.5 flat and I've caught less number but better quality just and option to try as well. If I'm not hanging them up I'm not catching fish.