Old School or Smarter Fish?

[Island Runner]

That's a good question Sparky60, and one I'm interested in hearing the answer to. I kinda fall into the same catagory as you. I grew up with my Great-Grandfather fishing everyday all summer from the late 70's to the late 80's. Erie Dearies and an occasional nugget were all we ever used and can not remember a day we came in without our limit.
When I got my first Erie boat about 5 years ago, the first walleye lures I bought were Erie Dearies, as this is what I remembered. I found a lot of over 200 of them ebay and bought them for $51.00. I pretty much used them exclusively up until last season, when I started to rig the boat for trolling. The reason to rig the boat for trolling was simple. In 4 years of fishing almost every weekend, I have not pulled a limit on my own boat. Hate to admit that publicly like this but its a fact. (thats why I have never posted a report, i can tell you how and where not to fish). Now, my boat and tackle boxes are equipped to troll and will try the setup out for the first time next weekend. I planned on going up yesterday, but I came down with a sore throat and feel like crap. That and the weather report kept me home this weekend.
All this said, I to would like to know why the venerable weight forward spinner has lost favor with the walleye and the walleye fisherman alike.

[ebijack]

I know folks who still use them. But friends who have chartered on Erie for many many years switched to using weapons. They are cheaper and catch more fish. Lots of charters still only drift fish out there and catch plenty of limits. The 27 and 30 ft sportcrafts drift real well with a 20 mph wind. Each person runs a bouncer/harness and casts a weapon. One of the charters has folks insist every year to use either erie dearies or golden nuggets but they just catch as many fish as the folks using the weapons. Lots of baits don't work as good as they used to, like hotntot's for example. There are still days when they work but those are far and few in between for me.