Have to disagree with kengore, plan is quite feasible and no different a process than making your own spinners. Diameter of the shanks depends on your target species. Musky fishers I've heard would use something as large as .051" diameter wire shafts, while a steelhead fisher I know uses .035" for his Intruder style patterns. This is not something I have tried myself because I have yet to invest in a wire former, but definitely worth experimenting. You might find this discussion interesting: http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-bette...wire-and-hooks.
Personally I would argue making shanks for something like a Game Changer would just not be worth the effort (there are better options than "spines" in my mind), but if I just needed a few shanks in specific sizes and I had a wire former, this is definitely something I'd want to play with. At the moment, I'm just cutting up cheap hooks and that has sufficed. YMMV.
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