Strike King Sexy Frog

The KVD Sexy Frog is one of the finest, feature-packed, frog-style baits yet from Strike King. Designed and approved by Kevin VanDam for open water and heavy cover applications, the Sexy Frog is an ideal bait for great topwater frog action! Designed and approved by Kevin VanDam Sealed nose to minimize water entry. The Sexy Frog free-floating rattle creates noise. For open water and heavy cover applications

STRIKE KING® LURE COMPANY

So just how old is it? When did it start?

Strike King ® has been providing fishing lures for many years and has a great tradition but we’ve wondered exactly when did it start? When I first joined the Company in 1996 I studied all the old catalogs to learn the product line history but they only went back to 1975. The tax return showed that the Company was incorporated in 1972 but I knew that it predated the 1967 “All-American Invitational Bass Tournament” Ray Scott held on Beaver Lake. Four of the guys that fished that event are part of the history; Dennis Demo (pronounced Dee-mo), Bill Dance, Charles Spence and Ray Murski.

I looked up to Dennis Demo while a teenager selling tackle and knew Bill Dance as the first superstar tournament bass fisherman and TV host so it was fun to interview them about the history and get the following scoop. A well know taxidermist in Memphis named Bill McEwen was fishing a Shannon Twin Spin in the late 1950’s when one of the wire arms broke off. He kept fishing it with just one arm and that gave him the idea for a one arm single blade spinnerbait. That eventually led to him making a spinnerbait with a safety pin wire. He was getting tired of making the lures in his garage and keeping up with his taxidermy work so he offered to sell the company to Dennis for $1,300 and the Strike King ® name for $1,000. Dennis was going to buy it but Charles Spence got to him first and bought it for $2,700. When Spence and Dance went to pick it up they got a lead melting pot, some safety pins, a few bags of skirts and some molds. This was in June of 1966. A fishing buddy named Jim Fowler came up with the name. Folks used to say, “The bass are striking” when the fishing was good. From that came, Strike King.

Outdoor writer and historian Terry Battisti recently found the ad shown above in the 1964 “Don Fuelsch Southern Anglers and Hunters Guide” showing the, “new original ‘Strike King’ bass lure” by McEwen Tackle Co. So it looks like the first Strike King® lure was on the market in 1964 and Spence bought McEwen Tackle Co. and the “name” in 1966 and thereafter referred to his company as “Strike King ® Lure Company.” So depending how you look at it,

Strike King® will either be 50 or 52 years old in 2016.

As things went forward; Demo ended up with Ranger boat company, Spence grew Strike King ® as the lure manufacturing company, Dance promoted the products from the early 70’s to the late 90’s and Ray Murski sold them through his rep group and eventually bought the company from Spence in 1995. Now, Strike King® is one of the most prominent lure companies in the business and continues to grow!