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.
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.
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.