New Product - Spanky Baits St. Clair Special

Here's a new product from Spanky Baits that's been a hot seller at the musky shows so far. It was developed last year on St. Clair and at Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake. I can't call this a product review, as I haven't yet used it yet on Mille Lacs. It only became widely available before the Chicago show, but I've run it in a pool and it looks good.

The St. Clair Special was originally developed for trolling on Lake St. Clair. Spanky Baits owns St. Clair, theirs is the only double-10 bait that the charter boat captains will use. The charter boat captains say any double-10 with a thin blade will disintegrate in a matter of hours the way they troll out there. Anyway, some of the charter boat captains asked for a single blade version with a magnum willow. After a short develpment period, the St. Clair Special was born.

The St. Clair Special was then brought to Andy Myers Lodge on Eagle Lake to work on a casting version. AML has been a development and testing ground for Spanky Baits over the years. They played around with a double-bladed version and tried some different weighting. After a lot of trials, they eventually settled on the original St. Clair version they started with.

It's a much different bait than the double-10s or double-8s and I like the way it looked in the pool. It has a more slender profile as it cuts through the water. The Flashabou doesn't get sucked forward into a ball shape, as it does with the 10s. Instead, it lays back flatter and shimmers. The lure pulls very easy and works best at medium or fast speed. This lure will be a great burner, but works well at a moderate speed as well. It's made on the same beefy wire as the other Spankys and is outfitted with a #7 magnum willow blade. There's a lot to choose from with 34 skirt patterns and 12 blade colors to choose from.

Having talked at the shows with some of the St. Clair and Eagle Lake guys that have used this lure, it sounds like a great complement to the double-10. I kept hearing that it seemed to produce consistantly, even on days when the double-10s weren't even getting a sniff. I think it'll be a winner on Mille Lacs and anywhere else.