Hook N' Look Enters 3rd Season
Retired Stricker Plans To Stay Busy Below The Surface

Photo: BassFan Kim Stricker said the time he's devoted to his other business ventures recently diminished his desire to compete at the tour level.

"All through my career, keep in mind that I had a paint business and I never really had to catch fish to eat," he said, referring to the company that was founded by his father in 1956. "But by the same token, I could never focus 100% of my attention on tournaments, like say a Kevin VanDam could.

"I said to myself that I wanted to make a (Bassmaster) Classic and an FLW Championship and win a national event, and I did that. For someone who was running a successful business, I felt I was successful (at fishing) as well."

Next year will be the first since 1981 in which the 57-year-old doesn't cast for cash. He'll do plenty of fishing, though, both recreationally and for his innovative TV show, Hook N' Look.

"There's a few reasons (for his decision to retire from competition), but the No. 1 thing is the time factor. To do right by my Hook N' Look sponsors takes a lot of focus, and the paint manufacturing company has taken up a lot of time with what this economy's done.

"With everything combined, I just didn't want to go to the tournaments with all this other stuff happening."

Passion for Sub-Surface Action

Hook N' Look, which is sort of a cross between a standard bass fishing show and a freshwater version of the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, will begin its 3rd season on the Versus network in January. Stricker recently inked a deal with Humminbird and the company's Side Imaging technology will be featured prominently throughout 2010, including an episode revolving around a shipwreck on Oneida Lake.

He and son Danny do just about everything themselves in taking each segment from a conceptual idea to a ready-to-air episode.

"I've been a diver since I was 17 years old, and I came up with the idea for this show and it's been really well-received," he said. "And doing it with Danny is a lot easier than it would be doing it with anybody else – we work together beautifully. He's been a hard-worker since he was 8 years old.

"Some of the guys who film with us think I'm a slave driver because I want to get all these shots from all these different angles, and Danny's shooting 90% of it. Some of them tell me, 'Geez, I wish I could get my guys to work that hard.'''

Photo: Kim Stricker Before becoming a tour pro, Stricker did a stint as a professional keyboard player.

"We go places to film in the late fall where the water's 50 degrees, and that's a real treat," he said with a hint of sarcasm. "There's definitely a lot of work involved because its really two shows in one. The mix time involved can be twice as much, but when it fits together right it makes a neat show."

Age Catches Up

Stricker, who also did a stint as a professional keyboard player in a bygone era, admitted that all the time he's spent in a bass boat has taken a toll on his body. He recently read an article about Ken Cook, who retired from the Bassmaster Elite Series this year, and he empathized with the aches that Cook described.

"He mentioned that a lot of times he was thinking about his knees instead of his next bite," he said. "I'm kind of that same way with my neck – it's taken a lot of beatings."

He said the frightening auto wreck he and Danny were in a year ago while towing a boat back from a Ranger event in Arkansas had no effect on his retirement decision. They'll make that same trip again this year, sans boat, and will also be on the road a lot for Hook N' Look and other underwater taping gigs.

"We've developed a niche for the underwater stuff, and if so-and-so calls and says they need some underwater footage, we'll go do it. We're doing something that nobody else has done and the response has been phenomenal. And with the unfortunate way that budgets are being cut, the fact that we're still around says something.

"I look at everything I've done in my life, from the music side to being in front of audiences with fishing and seminars and my business, and it's all been a steppingstone to Hook N' Look. I just hope this struggling economy breaks loose and we can continue the show.

"It's not an easy thing right now. If this was 10 years ago, we'd have no problem."

Notable

> Stricker's tour-level win came in a Bassmaster Top 100 at Michigan's Lake St. Clair in 1994.

> To visit the Hook N' Look website, click here.