Getting ready to order some crankbaits.  I fish ponds, ranging from 8'max to 20-30' max.  Water colors range from crystal clear, stained black thats clear, and a couple muddy ponds.  Im not sure what colors to get, so I was thinking about getting 2 colors of each model I order.  A natural color for the clearer ponds, and some sort of chartruse variation for the muddier and stained ponds. 

So Ill order one natural and one bright color for shallow, medium, and deep diver.  Does this make any sense, or am I way off?

And my other question, I am looking at Norman and Strike King.  Are these brands good ones to buy?

Thanks for any info.

So Ill order one natural and one bright color for shallow, medium, and deep diver. Does this make any sense, or am I way off?

Uhhh, yep, you are overthinking it, if you want to follow the "natural" approach good for you, doesn 't guarantee success. Why I say it ? cuz many moons ago I used to be just like all the guys who followed that approach and throughout the years experience has shown me that the bait doesn 't has to imitate the pattern of what the fish has available as forage.

In my neck of the woods the forage would be: mirror carp, tilapia which exhibit gazillion color variations, bluegill, baby bass, frogs and toads, tadpoles, a ciprinidont similar to a golden shiner and an aeterinid similar to a minnow. So based upon what the fish have available to eat I should use patterns. Guess what ? bass don 't seem to mind what it looks like, shad painted baits work just as well as chartreuse or orange or firetiger and there 's nothing that looks like shad around here, rainbow trout works and bass where I fish most of the time have never seen a trout.

Oh yeah, I 've fished for ages with hot fluorescent colors in crystal clear water and with natural colors in muddy water, what is more important for me is not how the bait is painted but the body shape, size, wiggle or wobble and sound ( or the lack of it ) the bait has.

For clearer waters where the fish can see the bait I prefer tight wiggling, thinner, flatter, shaped baits, for muddy/stained and deeper waters I prefer rounder, wider wobbling, noisier baits.

Let me show you an example, here 's my friend Ulises with a fish he caught on a bait I lent him, see how muddy is the water, he caught that fish and several others with a shad painted Rapala Rattling Fat Rap, shad would not be one of the colors you would use for water that muddy, yet the other characteristics of the bait overcame the importance of the bait pattern.

You are definately headed in the right direction. For the clearer water, I would get a version of sexy shad, and also a chrome color whether it be silver or gold. And for the muddier water, definately focus on a chartruese color like chart/blue back, chart/purple back, or chart/brown back, even black back works great as well. You can also use the chrome color for the stained water as well. And a color I've had a ton of luck on in moderately stained water, like 2-4 feet visibility; Sexy Chartruese Shad.

Norman and Strike King are both great brands. I have had a ton of luck with the SK series 3,4,5 & 6 personally. And I think it's a pretty common belief that the best DEEP divers are Norman's DD22's and DD14's.

Anyway....can't go wrong with those brands. I'm not sure what price range you're looking at but you might also want to throw in a few higher end cranks like a couple Lucky Craft Rick Clunn's, Spro Little Johns and I haven't had a chance to use them but the new Koppers cranks look sweet and I'm sure they will work too.

The action of the lure is more important than the color.After saying that , you are on the right track , just make sure you buy baits with different types of action(wide wobble , tight wobble).

Normans  & strike kings are great cheaper plugs , you don't have to spend 15.00 on plugs unless you've got money to burn.

I'm not big on specific colors and I think you're doing the right thing by going with just two colors. That should do you fine.

As to Norman and Strike King, they're both fine. There are countless good brands, making the selection process very daunting. Sometimes we just have to make arbitrary decisions.

Any well-known brand (and not so well known too) should serve you well. Just buy baits that match what you want in terms of size, depth, action, etc.

well said Raul. The best post I have read in quite some time.