Nothing Yet, to Scare the Competition: The Fish Arrow Spooky Jack (continued)
Versatility: As alluded to earlier, there's just not many ways to retrieve this lure, but the bright side is, there are many depths at which you can fish it. From that perspective, it is a very versatile lure but it certainly take patience to use this bait. Patience to wait for it to reach the desired depth, and patience not to turn the handle of your reel too quickly for fear of having the bait run off course and look silly in the water.
The joints afford this bait a good range of movement
but at the expense of the bait's finish
Availability: Thanks to Lobina Lures, Fish Arrow is an actual JDM company that is beginning to have a presence here in the United States.
Interestingly enough though, the Spooky Jack seems to be the most difficult of the Fish Arrow baits to come across. Hopefully, by the time this article is published, all that will change, but for now, rest assured these baits are not as hard to acquire as maybe one or two years ago.
Our Spooky Jack developed a nice, long crack in its finish along the bottom of the bait
Another look here and you can see the crack/seam in the finish
Ratings:
Fish Arrow Spooky Jack Ratings (?/10)
Construction/Quality
At first glance, incredible, but long term, the paint just does not hold up.
7
Performance
One speed and one speed only - slow
7
Price
Any way you cut it, this is a pricey bait
6.5
Features
Nothing to really set it apart from the pack
8
Design (Ergonomics)
Just on finish alone, the paint schemes are incredible
9
Application
Good for multiple depths but good only at one speed
8
Total Score
7.58
Pluses and Minuses:
Plus Minus
J Beautifully constructed bait
L Not a very durable finish
J Quality hardware
L Pricey bait
J Replaceable tail section
J More easily acquired than some other JDM baits
It took some time, but finally, a nice hookup with the Spooky Jack!
Conclusion: It took quite some time to get a hookup on this lure but I'm sure that had a lot to do with the color I chose to purchase. Red Ayu is not the most natural baitfish color around, but of course, the intent was to fish this lure in the California Delta where red in just about any bait can be deadly. Once I learned to be patient with it and slow down, then slow down some more, it all started to fall into place. But of course, that's when the finish started to erode. As much as I want to like this lure, it's a difficult one to recommend given some of the alternatives on the market like the Rago Baby Tool (only $30 more) and the Spro BBZ-1 (almost half the price). The one thing this bait has over the others are the unreal finishes, but then, those finishes just do not hold up very well, so again, it's at a disadvantage. Buy one if you like to try different things, but if you're looking for value and versatility, you might look elsewhere.
