Les, I replied to your PM. I primarily fish them like tossing a spinnerbait or crankbait, but have also fished them vertically. I don't think there's any right or wrong way to use them. I prefer them for deeper water situations, at least 10' deep, but have fished them in water as shallow as 2 feet. Them & the Zonar/vibrator blade type lures are good for cold water, but as I had said, I don't restrict them to only cold water conditions.
As far as weights, I think that's dependent on the water being fished, depths and if there's current. We used them in the Chesapeake for Stripers, and might be fishing water that was 50' deep, and what weight was best, depended on how deep the fish were and how fast we wanted to lure to get down to them and if the tides were moving.
IMO, if fishing from a boat, a yoyo type of sharp up & down retrieve can be deadly, even in cold water, but sometimes you will need to move them slower and barely make the blade spin.
I've never fished anywhere that had steep ledge walls, closest thing to that type of fishing was casting near the bridge on the Chesapeake, but these lures can be great where you let them fall near a bluff wall if you have that type of lake. Sometimes Stripers will get very tight to bridge pilings and not want to chase a lure, so these will get bites when they get like that.
Many folks use them for White Bass, and I've never fished anywhere that White Bass existed, but have caught many white & yellow perch on them too.
I read an article many years ago about some guys who caught huge LM & SM bass on the Potomac in the winter on blade lures and these tailspinners. I never got to try it there, and even the Potomac is fairly shallow, but does have some deeper places. They were doing a lot of vertical fishing, which meant that they had to find the deep holes.
