"Lures are harder to design. Colors are not as important for triggering strikes," said Strike King Lure designer Phil Marks. "Today's colors are mostly just variations of existing schemes. Colors have to be eye appealing. There have been many great fish catching colors that don't sell well because they are just plain ugly to the angler's eye."
Like every product that hits store shelves, lures require testing, tweaking, experimenting, and designing. "It's not cut and dry. Some require days and even months, while some are very quickly tested and approved," explained Marks. "We routinely test baits via our pro-staff in different parts of the country, and some baits have national appeal, while some are regional."
If you have ideas like moveable arms or other crazy lures, it may not be feasible. Lures not only get from approval of pro-staffers, they must be feasible to make and sell. "Feasibility is a large part of our development process. It is also why we have a new products committee, because during idea generation we get constant input from our manufacturing, marketing, and sales people," said Marks. "I don't know an exact percentage, but I would guess probably half the ideas generated are not feasible."
[...] Where it all begins and ends: How strike king designs, tests, and creates lures If you fish for bass and know who Kevin VanDam is, you have likely heard of Strike King Lure Company. Their lures have won tournaments for 40 years in every level of competition. Denny Brauer, Shaw Grigsby, and George Cochran, all made Strike King Lures known through performance, seminars, and TV. What people do not know is it's not just the pros who design and come up for ideas for products; there is a team behind every lure that comes out on the market. [...]
[...] Our new product committee is always working on names for lures. In many cases, the lure is finished before we decide a name. Regarding the above mention names, some of our younger guys got silly and started naming those Rage tail baits and it kind of worked, so we ran with that line of thought.” Biography: P.J. Pahygiannis began free-lance writing in 2012 when he had his first article published in Crappie World Magazine. His articles have appeared in Bass Angler Magazine, Bassin', Crappie World, and on sites such as Pro Bass networks, Advanced Angler, and Bass Resource. [...]
[...] For example, if you want a lure to dive deep, then you know you have to cast it far, hence it cannot be a light lure, so these attributes are result oriented rather than decided on the front said Marks. How many versions will a new prototype or lure concept go through before it's deemed ready to go on the tournament trail or on the market? “Hopefully the fewer the better, it makes my life a lot easier! All kidding aside, you never really said Marks. [...]
[...] a business, we have to have credible input from all the various parts of our company in order to be profitable and to give the angler the right tools for the trade.” Color development is something Strike King always playing with, Marks added. He has found anglers in general want new colors, and different styles and has found tweaks of colors tend to produce better on high- pressured fisheries. Most of Strike King's colors additions come from the new products committee. How does Strike King judge how good a prototype is? “Ultimately the fisherman let us know through purchases, which is good and which is average,” Marks commented. [...]
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