Creme Speed Scremers

Bass love the new soft-plastic creature bait

Dusty Anders of Deville was excited when he called an outdoor writer in early February.

The 50-year-old Alexandria firefighter, an avid bass angler and part-time fishing guide, had just boated an 8-pound bass at Toledo Bend on one of his favorite new soft plastics.

He thought it was high time to get the word out about the Speed Scremer made by Tyler, Texas-based Creme Lure Co. and designed by his good friend Mike Clark of Rock Hill, which is north of Tioga.

Anders said he’s used Speed Scremers to put bass in the boat at Toledo Bend, and on the Red, Cane and Sabine rivers.

“Mike gave them to me a few months ago,” he said, noting the versatile 3 ½ inch-long soft plastic comes in 10 popular colors.

“The ones we got weren’t packaged yet. They were in Ziploc bags. (But) the fish don’t care,” he said with a chuckle.

In his opinion, Creme Lure Co. has another winner on its hands. The artificial lure manufacturer, born in 1949 in Akron, Ohio, developed soft plastics that have been relied on over the past six decades, including the Creme Scoundrel, one of my favorites when I got into bass fishing seriously in 1976.

There have been many fish caught on their products leading up to the Speed Scremer and the new FlipFlop.

Brett Preuett of Monroe knows how effective Speed Scremers are after relying on them to finish in the money earlier this year at the first stop on the FLW Tour for 2018.

Preuett, introduced to Creme’s Speed Scremer last fall by Clark, used the new soft plastic to catch 12 of the 15 bass he weighed-in to finish 19th at Lake Okeechobee. The former Bassmaster Elite Series angler was swimming it Texas-rigged with a pegged worm weight, and also had it on the back of a swim jig.

Anders tipped his cap to Clark, who has been coming up with soft-plastic lure designs for Creme since 1993. His first entry into the market was a Devil’s Toe (he swears he didn’t come up with the name), a 4-inch French fry-style soft plastic that floated and gained popularity when used on Carolina rigs.

He also designed the Fish Frog, which was renamed Dudad. And the hits kept coming.

“A few years ago I designed a bait called the Reel Scremer, a swim bait,” he said.

Birth of the bait

After that soft plastic’s success, Anders stayed in his fishin’ buddy’s ear about making another soft plastic, Clark said.

“The last two, three years, he’s been on me. He said, ‘Man, we’ve got to get Creme to make a small flippin’ bait, based on trends ” in the ever-changing world of bass fishing, he said.

“I drew it out at first. A buddy of mine drew it up on a computer,” he said, noting a main feature was two “arms,” one on each side, with a tiny paddle-like appendage similar to a popular Creme crappie soft plastic. There is a slot top and bottom of the soft plastic.

After a few prototypes were made and in the field testing, Clark was mowing grass at his home near a pond when Preuett dropped by to visit Chance Downs, Clark’s son-in-law who lives next door. Preuett and Downs are good friends, and all three share a passion for catching bass. Downs and his young son were fishing at the pond with a Speed Scremer.

It was there Preuett took an immediate liking to the lure.

“Brett said, ‘I love the way it looks.’ He couldn’t believe the action of those legs in the water. They caught 12. That was last fall. He asked if Creme would take it on,” Clark said.

Fine-tuning

The prototype was sent out west to mold-maker Kevin Jones, who sent a prototype to Creme owner Wayne Kent.

“We tweaked it. I thinned out the tails and changed the shape a tiny bit trying to get maximum action,” he said. “I think it’ll be a great success. It’s so versatile.”

The Speed Scremer got into some stores around the end of the year, Anders said, and made its big debut the week of March 16 at the Bassmaster Classic in South Carolina. It recently found its way to shelves at Bass Pro Shops, Clark said.

There’s more to the Speed Scremer than its seductive action, Anders said, noting each soft plastic is tough.

“Creme baits hold up. I catch more fish on one. I caught seven or eight the other day on one bait,” he said.

For more information on Creme Speed Scremers and other Creme Lure Co. products, go to www.cremelure.com or call (903) 561-0522.

About Don Shoopman 553 Articles
Don Shoopman fishes for freshwater and saltwater species mostly in and around the Atchafalaya Basin and Vermilion Bay. He moved to the Sportsman’s Paradise in 1976, and he and his wife June live in New Iberia. They have two grown sons.