I have never fished or even seen an original of any type so I am just going on how I fish them. I have made a bunch and fished them in both fresh and salt water. I fished some bigger ones than these last spring in the canal and did just as well as I was doing fishing a spook. These are not the best casting lure but not real bad either. I have mine tail weighted but not as much as say a pencil. They sit flatter. I have had good luck in freshwater with some scaled down ones with both largemouth and smallmouth and the pickeral really like them.