Stained Water Crankbait Preference

If "matching the hatch" in stained water/sunny day, do you prefer: chrome, pearl white, or regular silver/gray crankbaits? ... stained water/cloudy day?

And if not "matching the hatch", where do you go from there?? If its a sunny day/ cloudy day, that is? With crankbaits being on the expensive side of lures, and just regular fisherman with no fishing bank accts. where do we start to spend money for crankbaits - colorswise?

Anyone help out with some advise for someone starting- who can't throw a bankbook of colors at the fish? :p

Thanks guys. :cool:

If your going to pull cranks....get ready to spend some money. Its a fun and productive way to fish and I love it. Use dark colors in dark or stained water.....in clear water use your lighter brighter colors. Chrome , pearl, etc. work best mid morning till noon when there is a lot of sun. Crappie prefer the loud bright colors more than they do the natural looking colors. Anything with chartreuse is good, pink and black is good, orange is good.

Been pulling for awhile, never seen any hard and fast colors rules that hold true. If your not catching then change depth, change speed, and lastly change colors. Some days certain colors are hot, next day it might be the same, but it could be something totally different too. If your just starting out, group colors. Group by looking at the bottom of the crank: go with few shiny, a few bright/white, a few dark but shiny, and a few dark and flat. Later start worrying about stripes or red throat or contrasting colors on sides and back etc. One good thing about pulling multiple rods, it more easily to determine a color preference.

You've been a great help.

Thanks alot guys! :cool: