There's something about a spoon design that makes it successful beyond it's conception. Take for example the Acme Kastmaster spoon lure for example. One look at it and it's nothing more than a cut piece of brass with and uneven cut. It's that uneven cut that makes it does what it does. Given the right retrieve speed, the lure kicks side to side with an enticing motion that gets fish to chase and bite it. For whatever reason, it's success ratio is without doubt that it works. It works so well, that clones of it exists to various degrees with slight subtle nuances that makes them different. However the resemblances is uncanny and it's clones are going to mimic or misrepresent it all together.
The first clone of the Kastmaster lure I came upon was a Luhr Jensen Cast Champ. Now there were obvious differences that I notice right away. A sliver polish Kastmaster is high polish reflective. It's also thinner and slightly more slender. The Cast Champ was slightly thicker and slightly wider, plus it came with a reflective chrome sticker. The larger sized Cast Champs came with welded rings instead of a common split ring. When using side by side comparison, the Kastmaster has very little resistance and I'm almost unsure if the lure is actually kicking side to side, but in clear water it's easy to see it. The lure also has a good responsive flutter kick as soon as one stops retrieving it. The Cast Champ does nearly the same thing, but due to it's slightly wider profile is also slightly slower on the rhythm of kicking side to side. It also has a more feedback pulse as the lure is performing it's action.
Now I've also bought into some generic copy cat versions too. It was at that time a Cabela's spoon kit. It came with six 1/4 oz spoons, split rings, and hooks. I put them together and used them pretty much on my next few trips. That's when I noticed a lack of lure action or rather something more definitive that made them different. First there were a slight less of an edge to the cut of the spoons, the were more rounded. The overall lure has a slightly thinner cut, making the lure just slightly larger and longer than a comparative 1/4 oz Kastmaster. It's amazing how little things makes such noticeable changes to a lure's action. I also admit that I've never caught a single fish on this particular clone. I now just keep them as weight attractors.
Years later Northland came up with their Macho Minnow version for ice fishing. They were detailed stickers and very good glow paint jobs. Came with matching kicker tails that compliments lure. This clone was a much thicker spoon cut version. So essentially it's has more weight to it's profile. It's not a casting spoon so it doesn't perform that well as far as retrieval, or I haven't found out the correct retrieval speed. At the time of introduction there were like two maybe three sizes. I think 1/8th oz was the smallest version available at that time along with the standard 1/4 oz and 3/8th oz version. I really like the finished product but for some reason I couldn't get fish to bite the lure smallest version I was using. With the exception of baiting the lure, but I didn't connect with fish as much as the Kastmaster that were available at the 1/12th oz. size. As of current seems like the 3/8th oz version is no longer made and there exists 1/12th oz. version. They also seem to have changed the cut of the lure to make them thinner and much more identical to a Kastmaster.
I've also seen a Johnson Splinter spoon clone, but own none of them.
VMC Flash Champ is another clone that came upon the scene with nice plain glow paint patterns designed for ice fishing. At the time of introduction they were price point less than a Kastmaster. The spoons were cut thin enough to produce enticing flutter and wobble action. They were also just slightly wider in profile thus produce just slightly ever more flutter. They also offered two of the smaller sized spoons in a 1/16th oz version and a 1/32nd oz version of which Kastmaster did not have. Kastmaster had just came out with a 1/24th oz version but was still not into the ice fishing scene in force. This was still before the UV paint schemes and various ice fishing glow paints were popularized. Kastmaster still only had their single red and green glow versions and the glow sticker strip on their lures. The VMC glow paint versions were refreshing as well as having the much needed lure profiles and weights. While I admit that I haven't caught a fish on the VMC bare, what it does was attract fish very readily during my first field test. It was just a matter of baiting the lure and that was the winning combination. I also admit that I have not used the VMC lure for open water fishing so I cannot attest to it's effectiveness for open water. It has been a primarily vertical ice fishing lure for me. I got more fish to bite on the VMC Flash Champ just due to the size and paint job. That's my reasoning for the time being. Then finally Kastmaster updated their paint jobs. Those new Tiger Glow versions has be phenomenal producer for me in the 1/12th oz. versions. Now I see VMC has their copy cat version of Glow Tiger stripes version.
