A big congrats to my favorite angler for winning his second Elite Series in a month 8-)  .  The man is a fishing machine!!  All fish came on a new shad finished CB he designed for Strike King.  Apparently, finishes will vary according to the part of the country it will be sold in so that it "matches the hatch" for the type of shad found there.  (Article on another site site).  Not yet available in stores but should be soon

No doubt about it.

We are the "KVD era"

I wonder sometimes when the pro's throw "prototytpes" of lures.  meaning something not available to you and I, if the final product is an exact duplicate of a winniing lure like this lure, or if the marketing and sales team don't change it around for cost or sales purposes.

an example of this is the rebel pop-r.  this is a huge selling lure, but virtually everytime a pro talks about it, they mention how they modify it.  Usually shaving down the lip and maybe the flattening the sides.

I think rebel has finally come out with a "pro" model or something that takes some of these changes into account.

But my question is, if a lure like the KVD cranker is a winner, why mess with it at all?

I thought KVD was the point man for Lucky Craft crankbaits. Did that change this year or are Strike King and LC just two of many lure companies sponsoring VanDam? I guess you gotta' have a program to keep up with the players.

I would like to see Aaron Martens win The Classic and Skeet Reese Angler of the Year.

I thought KVD was the point man for Lucky Craft crankbaits. Did that change this year or are Strike King and LC just two of many lure companies sponsoring VanDam? I guess you gotta' have a program to keep up with the players.

I would like to see Aaron Martens win The Classic and Skeet Reese Angler of the Year.

I don't think KVD has ever been sponsored by Lucky Craft.

KVD's name has been associated with Strike King Pro-model tubes and spinnerbaits for awhile now.  I think any company that can get his name on their product is going to jump at the chance.  

Oops!

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_90416_100005001_100000000_100005000_100-5-1

my mistake...

Yeah, KVD has been one of Strike King's heavy hitters for a while now, along with Brauer, Bill Dance and a few others.

There are many pro's that have cranks/topwaters made specifically for them that never even hit the market. They call them "prototypes".  

The article about his win was posted last night - before this thread was started.  

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bass_grand3_07.html

actually, kvd was designing that bait last feb, at the worcester mass show after hours  he was throwing it in the test tank along with the king shad 5" swim bait, a good friend of mine, who supplies kevin with his rods and reels was with him,  i will have a few of these in about two weeks, and it is the exact same lure that he used. i had the king shad almost 7 months before it hit the stores, still havent thrown it much.

Congrats to my favorite pro angler,KVD!!! I hope he wins AOY,and another Classic win wouldn't be bad either!

I'm still "ify" about so called "designed by.............') lures.

KVD had a hard jerkbait that he supposedly designed yet when he won the classic in Pittsburg, he used a completely different hard jerkbait.

Then they came out with "the lure that won the classic"

Another example is the Rick Clunn series that RW linked to.

These are great crankbaits.  Most people will agree on that,

but the Orion series that he also supposedly designed is something they can't give away because most people don't do well with it.

I take all these endorsements and "designed by" stuff with a grain of salt.

Except for the Bill Dance porcupine fish habitat.   Who would put their name to this contraption  ;D

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=73759&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

Avid,

Actually, I think a cousin of mine is the financial backer(maybe creator?) of the porcupine that Dance promotes. He lives near Kentucky Lake and I acutally saw one near a dock on Ky Lake this spring.  Not that my relatives are geniuses. LOL

Avid,

Actually, I think a cousin of mine is the financial backer(maybe creator?) of the porcupine that Dance promotes. He lives near Kentucky Lake and I acutally saw one near a dock on Ky Lake this spring. Not that my relatives are geniuses. LOL

Some of your relatives must be geniuses, after all, some live near me ;D ;D ;D

There's lots of those attractors in Ky Lake. Besides, it's easier for the squirrels to find these. But then again, most all docks have some form of attractor close by. From what I hear, they do work. Not that I would know

deb