SPRO Baby Fat John 50 Review

I got my hands on a SPRO Baby Fat John 50 at a writer’s conference in April and I’ll be totally straight and to-the-pointâ€”this is one awesome crankbait for the 0 to 2-foot range. I’ve been fishing with it a lot and there are 4 things I absolutely love about it.

Hunting action
Durable
Super sharp stock hooks
Great castability

It hunts on a straight retrieve

It’s very rare that a baitfish swims in a straight line. When a big bass is hot on their trail, they’re going to dip and dive every direction to elude it. SPRO and John Crews developed the Baby Fat John 50 to mimic the natural, erratic action of a shad and they did an outstanding job.

When you retrieve this crankbait, the first thing you’ll notice is its intense vibration. Despite its compact profile, it will rattle your arm all the way to your elbow. As you wind it in with a steady retrieve, it also “hunts”, kicking out sometimes a foot or more from its original course. Don’t get me wrongâ€”every one I’ve thrown runs very true, but its wandering action is incredible.

If you hit a piece of cover with it, it kicks out violently for a couple cranks of the reel handle before straightening itself. Even better, you can burn the Baby Fat John 50 and it doesn’t spin out and lose its action.

Outstanding durability

Many small crankbaits will catch a lot of fish, but it’s tough to make them last. The SPRO Baby Fat John 50 has held up very well to countless fish catches and heavy cover collisions. To date, I have not chipped the paint, bill or finish on any of mine.

The durability of the Baby Fat John 50 has allowed me to fish around really nasty cover without worry. The most productive days I’ve had have been fishing it around thick blowdowns near bream beds, and I was able to plow it into branches and stumps without any loss of structural integrity.

This crankbait also excels around shallow rock. Its high-quality paint job maintains its shine, even after grinding it against shallow riprap during shad spawns.

Comes stock with sharp Gamakatsu hooks

A lot of crankbaits you buy come with lousy hooksâ€”you might as well roll up a piece of tinfoil and use it to hook the bass. The SPRO Baby Fat John 50 comes with ultra-sharp Gamakatsu hooks, which saves you time and money by not having to use different hooks.