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If there was one bait I had to throw all the time, it would be a Strike King Series 6XD. I consider myself a crankbait freak and while I do not even come close to being as good as KVD or David Fritts, I still love it. When I graduated high school I got a summer job at the county highway department. When I got paid I would go to the sporting goods store and buy deep diving crankbaits. Back then I had no depth finder and I didn’t have a lure retriever but I did learn where every stump was on my home lake. There must be hundreds of them lining the stumps. My favorite crankbait was a Poes 400 Series. I had every color and a lot of them. When Poes got hard to find I would go to mom and pop bait shops and buy any and all I could find. There was just something about that bait that would catch big bass. A couple of years ago Strike King unveiled the 6XD. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them and throw them. Once I got them, I went straight out to the lake and took a cast. To my amazement they felt like Poes I used to throw. Although they weren’t exact, they were close and man did they feel good. I knew they would be an instant hint and it didn’t take long for KVD to show the world how good they were by winning the Elite event on Kentucky Lake that year. The 6XD has a thin bill that allows it to dive fast. It has a nice wobble to it, not too much, but a good feel to it as you reel it in. I throw the 6XD on 10 to 12 pound Vicious Fluorocarbon. I can get the bait down to at least 17 feet. I use an Ardent Edge Pro reel with a 5.0:1 gear ratio and a glass rod. The rod absorbs the strike and helps keep the fish hooked up. I also change the hooks and put Mustad KVD Treble hooks on.
Now that summer is here there is no better time to throw a big crankbait. Throw it over points, on ledges, bluff walls, or anywhere there is water deep enough for the 6XD to hunt. The Strike King 6Xd just might be the best crankbait ever built. Most of the Elite guys are throwing them and cashing checks even though they aren’t sponsored by Strike King so that should say something about how good it is. Go out and pick a couple up today and get out on the lake and start cranking.
