The old Bellbrooks (from the '60s) with a pressed stainless steel bib probably swim as well as most lures on the market today. Some of the colours don't change much either - even back then, a "go-to" combination was the old white body with a red head, which still seems to be very much in abundance today. I think "techniques" are merely variations on a theme. Most fishos in years gone past would probably have experimented with different retrieve rates, stop/start, swim/sink, etc. and observed what worked best at the time.af