Strike King KVD 1.0

There are times when you need to downsize your offering, so today we’re taking an in depth look at the new Strike King KVD 1.0. We have reviewed the 1.5 and 2.5 and were very pleased with these baits. When we saw the 1.0 at ICAST, we knew that we had to pick up some of these and get them on the water.

Our rational was simple. When there is a shad die off, early spring when the baitfish are much smaller, fishing highly pressured water or when the bass are in a neutral to negative mood, this size bait could be the answer. Never mind the fact that it’s just plain fun to fish these little, shallow running cranks whenever the bass aren’t deep!

So we picked up a couple of patterns that tend to do well in our area, namely the Black Back/Chartreuse, Bluegill and of course the Sexy Shad and took them out to see how they performed compared to their larger siblings. We chose to fish the 1.0 on spinning gear spooled with 8 pound P-Line Floroclear. You can throw them on casting gear but they are small enough, 2 inches long and weigh 1/4 ounce, to be used efficiently on spinning rigs.

As with all the KVD series, these baits cast easily and very rarely if ever, get one of the trebles hung on your line during a cast. You notice that the 1.0 digs down to its running depth very quickly and stays there, 2 to 4 feet, for the duration just like all the other baits in this series. This is one of the qualities that I really appreciate in these cranks.

I have fished other baits that take so long to get into the strike zone and only stay there for a short period of time, that most of you’re time with the lure is spent getting it where you want it in the water column. The KVD’s, in my opinion, are one of the best on the market at achieving their proper depth quickly.

The 1.0, again, just like its larger cousins, provides instant feedback to your hands. You can feel every twitch, wobble, wander off center and erratic movement of the bait. This bait employs a wider wobble than you might think for its size. Combine this with its tendency to wander off center on either side and you can see why it’s effective. You also know when you hit and bounce off of obstructions. Coincidentally, this is when most of our strikes occurred. Those few seconds after making contact with a tree limb or other structure and allowing the bait to die momentarily just seemed to be too much for the bass to resist.

The stock hooks are sharp out of the box and hold fish well. I can however, see changing them out for the Mustad KVD Triple Grip hooks when they get dull. This will allow you to use slightly larger hooks as well as utilizing the shorter shank to make it more weedless than the standard round bend hooks.

All of our baits ran true out of the package and required no initial tuning. For that matter, they have remained true since we got them. However, I can see a day, after catching lots of fish on each, that a front end alignment may be necessary. If that’s the case, so be it. I have yet to use any crankbait that at some point didn’t need a little tweaking after having been crushed by some number of hungry bass. That just goes with the territory.

So why would you want to add the KVD 1.0 to your arsenal? For us the answer is simple.  This is one of those baits that has multiple applications, does its job very effectively, doesn’t require any fussin’ with, can be used by anglers of all skill levels and is just flat out fun to catch fish on! Never mind the fact that they are reasonable priced, have patterns that will fit almost every fishing situation as well as are easily obtained through retailers or e-tailers. All things considered, Strike King hit at least a triple if not a home-run with this bait.

KVD 1.0
Overall Rating
A great bait to use when you need to downsize

See ya’ on the water …