I recently read an article that mentioned these lures as one of the most successful bass lures the author of the article has been using the past few years. They are called Snakie Spoons. http://www.rattlesnakie.com/snakie_spoon.html

Anyone ever seen or tried them and did you have any success?

I've used the Rattle Snakie spoon....I'm not much of a deep spoon guy, though.  They did as well for me as Hopkins.   

FWIW, Randy VanDam (KVD's brother) caught the Ohio state record smallie on a Rattle Snakie spoon. 

I believe it is used as a surface spoon.I do see now they have 2 types of spoons the one is a surface spoon with the skirt . this spoon has been very effective in this area for years,also very hard to find.use similar areas as a frog or swimming toad.Braid would be a good combo with it.would be good bait to show the fish something little different than all the popular plastics.the spoon can be adjusted or bent more or less to get less or more action.Reel fast enough to keep the spoon on or near the surface pause it to let flutter down into holes.hope this helps!

AND YES HERE IN OHIO IT HAS ACCOUNTED FOR SOME TOURNAMENT WINS white would be my choice of color