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Bettencourt Baits Assasin

Author: Rob Belloni

History/Overview: The Bettencourt Baits Assassin is hand made by Nathan Bettencourt in Missouri . It's a 3 piece wood hardbait, with a cut plug style face and a Kalins Mogambo type grub as the tail. It uses grey/silver 3x VMC hooks, comes in 6, 7.5, 9, and 12" sizes and retails for between 12 to 20 dollars.

Pros: I have several models of Nathan's baits, and each one just has a really nice hand crafted feel to it. The paint and finishes look great, the hardware is solid (triple ring split rings and a surprisingly sharp hook), and an overall feel that tells you that each lure is made and checked carefully. Being from the Midwest, I think these baits are designed with pike and musky fishing in mind, and the hardware on the baits reflects that, it's a solidly made lure. The Assassin has an internal rattle behind the eyes which is an interesting add on to give it a little more noise. I really like that idea and wish more of my baits had that feature. 

The tail does what you'd expect a curl tail to do, it flutters along at all speeds. How does the bait swim you ask? Well both models that I sampled swam true out of the box with a fluid back and for the action. The more joints you put in a lure, the less resistance it has, so the body of the bait tends to follow along behind the head instead of jerking back and forth. It's a surprisingly subtle sort of cruising action. Does it look like a fish? Not really . but these types of baits aren't getting bit because they look real, they're getting bit because they get the fish's attention and subsequent reaction.

The baits come in a dozen or so stock colors. Some of them look pretty fishy, and some are the more wild pinks and yellows you see for pike/musky. As I mentioned above, the baits are bargain basement on the pricing for a hand made lure, coming in the 12 to 20 dollar range so it won't cost you much to pick one up and check it out.

Cons: If there's any weakness in the construction of the lure, it's the tail which is glued on. You'd want to carry spare tails and glue for sure with this bait in case a small fish decides to come up and bite off the last inch of the tail. When I got the 9" bait in the black/silver, I thought it might be a good night time bait because I like that color at night. I tried it out and found that you have to pretty slow to get it to stay on top, and it doesn't have a lot of feel or kick to it, which makes it hard to keep in contact with in the dark.

Overall I think it's a good solid bait, but I don't expect it to light the world on fire for largemouth bass. As a pike/musky lure or a lake trout deep water trolling lure, I think it could be good.

Average Rating out of 1 voters
Apr 20, 2007
this bait is ausome i catch 10 pound fish weekley it hase cought me 3 20 pounders 9 18 pounders and hundreds of ten pounders
 
Copyright © Robert Belloni 1997-2012. All Rights Reserved.
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