By the early 1980s, bass across the country had been exposed to traditional safety-pin spinnerbaits and became more resistant to their charms, so lure manufacturers had to come up with new ways to make old reliable even better. Accordingly, the Crankbait Corporation decided to build a spinnerbait that would excel in clear water, the key element was a clear Colorado style blade that wouldn’t create the terrifying flash of bronze, chrome or nickel blades.
Never mind for the time being that the gaudy skirt and grub they chose for the ad might not be best for gin-clear water. Even with a shad-colored skirt this bait might not have worked. As KVD later showed us, it’s the flash of the blades, even in clear water, that provides a lot of a spinnerbait’s appeal. Besides, the lexan blade was so light, it hardly thumped at all. Felt more like a wet noodle coming through the water.
A few years later Berkley came out with a similar spinnerbait called the Spinvisible. It too was quickly relegated to bargain bins everywhere.
Addendum (Terry): If I remember correctly, this blade was flat on the back instead of concave, which probably had a lot to do with its lack of ability to spin. With today’s molding technology, advanced polymers and ability to add paint pigments like in the plastics industry, I wonder if a true cupped, clear blade could be made that would work? Thoughts?
Past Reader Comments:
Brian: While the bait never caught on, it was still a very good design by one of the more innovative bait creators of the time, Tom Seward. I ended up replacing all the clear Lexan blades with the then popular Strike King Indiana prism blades, and caught a lot of fish because of the switch. The greatest design feature of this bait was its stability. You could simply crank this spinnerbait as fast as your 5:1 reel would allow and it would not roll over on a cast. That feature alone probably caught more clear water bass than the “invisible” blades ever did (LOL). I still have about 5 or 6 of these baits left in my tackle box to this day.
