When Texas pro Keith Combs saw the first prototype of Strike King’s 10XD deep-diving crankbait, it looked more like a dog toy than anything found in most shops, and like the pit bull that he is, Combs wasn’t going to leave until he got one of his own.
“It was 2012, [right after] my rookie year on the Elite Series and right before the season started. I had a meeting in Dallas with Phil Marks and John Barnes to talk about joining the Strike King pro staff. I went into Phil’s office, and he pulled out a prototype. It was pretty basic, with a composite bill, not a clear one, and a rudimentary chartreuse color. The lure hadn’t even been in the water yet, but when he told me that he was hoping it would hit 25 feet, it got my head spinning.”
At the time, Combs was still guiding at Falcon Lake. He spent hours upon hours graphing and looking for mega-schools of comparatively untargeted giant bass, and he knew that many of them that lived deeper had never seen a crankbait.
“We didn’t have a big, aggressive-style bait that could get down to them,” he recalled. “I told Phil that I had to take it with me.”
Marks was a tough sell. “Buck, it cost $2,000 to get that lure made,” he said. It was the only one he had. Furthermore, he didn’t want word to get out and have another company beat him to market. But Combs was indefatigable.
“I walked out with it,” he said, triumphantly.
The Falcon Confirmation
On a Falcon guide trip shortly after the meeting in Dallas, Combs hosted a pair of good anglers from Missouri, and on the first day, they absolutely wrecked the bass at the mouth of Tigers with a Strike King 6XD. The bass were only in about 10 feet of water, so he didn’t need something to dive deeper and the 10XD stayed in the box.
The second day, however, was a different story.
“It was calm out and we had beat them up,” Combs said. “The fish wouldn’t bite the 6XD or the jig.”
Finally, out of desperation and with little to lose, he broke out the prototype lure, to the amazement and slight amusement of his guests. Afraid to lose it and possibly sacrifice his deal with Strike King, Combs put it on a flipping stick and 65-pound-test braid.
“On our first cast, it locked up [a] big one,” he said. “We only had one, so we were passing it around and sending Phil pictures of the fish. To my knowledge, it was the first use of the 10XD.” The water was only 12 to 15 feet deep, but it was the reaction to the lure, not its max diving capabilities, that triggered the bites.
Throughout the course of that Elite Series season, Combs used it a bit, but conditions never lined up exactly right. Besides, the bait “looked funny,” and he was waiting to get some production models to give it a better test.
Rayburn Revenge
That fall, there was an FLW Tour Open event on Sam Rayburn, open to nontour regulars. Both Combs and Marks, Rayburn experts, were in the field. By that point, the 10XD production had started, and Combs had a few of them. He didn’t use them, though. It appeared that he didn’t need to do so, as his fish were in 10 to 15 feet of water.
After Day 2, Combs was in the lead by over 2 pounds, and Marks was in third, but Marks climbed into the top spot after Day 3, 14 ounces over Combs, hardly a safe margin against one of the best Texas anglers to ever pick up a cranking stick. But the more senior pro left no doubt when he whacked 32 pounds, 12 ounces of bass on Day 4 to win by 16-5. While the 10XD didn’t do all of his damage, it produced four of his key bass, including an 8-pounder.
That event got the 10XD publicity show on the road, even though it wasn’t set to be introduced for a few more months. It left Combs in a bit of disbelief.
“I had it in my boat and didn’t use it that week,” he said. “I caught 23-9 that last day, and he still increased his lead. My fish were in the 10- to 15-foot range. I had a very good year that year, but it makes me wonder why I didn’t use it more.”
Big-Impact Bait
While Marks took home $125,000 from the Rayburn event and Combs earned a hundred grand less, the event sparked a thought process and a realization for the younger pro.
“I knew that I needed to start using it more,” he said. “That first time at Falcon, I was using it in just 12 to 15 feet of water and getting them to react. I was showing them something totally different. It was such a huge advantage.
“It confirmed things that I already knew,” he continued. “It’s like pulling up to a rockpile in 6 feet of water. You don’t need a 1-ounce jig to get down to the fish in that situation, but sometimes that fast fall is what it takes to get a bite. Since then, I’ve used the 10XD a bunch on Lake Fork in 10 to 12 feet of water. There are times when they can’t help but react to its big, aggressive wobble.”
For anglers who are intimidated by the size of the lure, especially compared to the diving plugs that they’re used to, Combs stressed that while he does tend to throw it more on big-fish factories — not just Texas, but places like Lake Guntersville or Kentucky Lake — even with the bill, the lure is only 6 inches long in total, so the body is far smaller than what even many 2-pounders eat. It is, however, big enough that it’ll often pluck the biggest member out of the school first. Still, it’s not the profile of the dog toy, but rather its bark that matters most.
“I don’t know if it’s so much the size as the wobble,” he said. “It’s more about the sound and the aggressiveness. It’s all about how hard you can hit the cover.”
Still Cranking
While the 10XD doesn’t tax an angler as hard as some of the 20-foot divers of yesteryear, it still can be a chore to cast at nearly 2 ounces, and it requires special tackle.
Combs uses a Lew’s CC5 7-foot, 4-inch composite cranking rod, which is 7 or 8 inches shorter than what many other top crankers prefer, but he said it allows him to make the longest casts possible without getting worn out. The composite construction is critical to keeping fish buttoned up. Remember, if the fish jumps with 2 ounces of lure flopping around outside of its mouth, that’s a recipe for getting away, so while Combs used a flipping stick in those earliest days, that was more about saving the lure (and protecting his sponsorship) than maximizing effectiveness. He said that the more flexible rod puts more bass in the boat, preventing losses when they jump or surge at boatside.
Unlike old-school crankbait artists who relied on slower reels, Combs employs a Lew’s BB1 Pro Baitcast Reel with a speedy 7.5:1 gear ratio.
“I can always reel slower if I need to,” he explained. “This is more about keeping my line tight and staying in constant contact with the fish. When they are jumping, you have to keep everything tight or you are going to lose a bunch of fish.” While the stock hooks are fine, he noted that they will dull after catching a lot of fish or banging off a lot of solid cover. Then he’ll replace them with 3/0 Owner [hooks] to keep them pinned even better. The key, he said, is that once he knows the fish is hooked well, he’ll gain momentum and “ski ’em to the boat.”
He spools the reel up with 15- or 17-pound-test Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon and is certain that with a long cast on 15 he can get the lure to hit bottom in 28 feet.
While chartreuse with a powder blue back is his most commonly used color in the 6XD, Combs believes that “it may be overkill in the 10XD because it’s so bright and aggressive.” Thus, Tennessee shad is his No. 1 draft pick in most conditions. “If they’re going to bite a 10XD, you’ll always get some bites on that one.” He also likes citrus shad for a wide range of conditions, and real shad if he’s cranking deep water.
Still Room For Growth
In this era when spinning tackle seems to play an increasingly important role in top tournament finishes, every time Combs thinks back to those initial golden days of 10XD supremacy it opens his mind to what could be. Bass, even small ones, have proved that they’ll attack monstrous swimbaits with gusto. Through advances in marine electronics, we’re also learning every day that there are populations of bass that are still untapped.
Accordingly, he believes there’s a niche for an even bigger, more aggressive crank.
“I would really like to have one that [focuses] on the 12-foot range,” he explained. “In the right situation, you could double the size of the 10XD and really catch them.”