SpoolTek "Four Inch Fatty" Hot

The Spooltek lure concept is a paddle tail lure with a coil of cable/wire leader in the head that when a fish strikes the hook pulls out a short length of wire separating the lure from the hook removing the leverage a fish normally has to throw the hook.

They came originally in 6", and 9" sizes. Recently they released the 4" Fatty version and I decided to give it a try casting the beaches and areas I fish.
I like to touch and feel before buying, unfortunately they are packed so as you can't really touch and feel them in a sealed hard plastic box.

I sprung for the $15.99 price tag, and kept to my plan, been throwing them for the past 3 months on the beach, flats, mangrove shoreline, and the local fresh watr canals where I catch LM bass and Snook.

The head is a hard plastic with a replaceable soft plastic tail. It comes assembled with head and tail attached with a spare tail of the same color.

Here is what I find:
1) It cast very well
2) It runs true and works as you woudl expect paddle tail swimbait bait
Spieces caught, Seagulls, Ladyfish, Jacks, Snook and LM Bass
4) When you get a hit sure enough when you bring the lure fish or no fish the hook is trailing behind a few inches on the cable/leader either dangling or attached to a fish
5) I lost several fish I believe I should have caught, not sold on the hook up ratio
6) To reset the leader & hook there is a small knurled plastic knob that you turn to wind the leader back into the lure head and then the hook sort of snaps in place. (this hook snap wear's rather quickly, and the instructions tell you how to sort of fix it with superglue when it does). This process takes several seconds to reset so a quick recast isn't happening.
7) After 2 days, about 2.5 hours each day of casting the beach, the cable is pretty dinged up, had a kink, and is curly que'd up, but it still does roll back up.
8) I have noticed some rust where the hook eye and the crimp lay, and I rinsed it down with fresh water after each use, so its safe to assume the crimp and/or cable are not stainless
9) the hook does not really snap back in place anymore after several outings
10) I lost the tail as it flew away on impact with a bridge piling on an errant cast, good thing the give me a replacement. Spare tails can be purchased in packs of 3 for an additional $5.99

Overall:
The Lure does work well, cast well, runs true in the water, when a fish that slams a lure like a Snook it works as advertised, the hook sets and pulls the leader from the body.