I'm, mainly, trying to figure out if I should fish a silver or gold bladed spinnerbait.

As a rule, gold blades are for murkier water and silver are for clearer. Some say it doesn't matter. The only spinnerbait I throw any more has both colors, as do most.

I usually go with gold or painted on cloudy days, silver on sunny days, copper in dirty water.

Gold for dirty water, silver for Clear water, or both for somewhere in between. Best of Luck      -Glenn

If you really want to be diligent on this topic, you need to get a secchi disc and use it consistently.   I think that  gold for stained, silverfish for clearer waters and copper fro murky to muddy water is a good place to start.

 

I say this because in different parts of the country, clear/stained/muddy means different things to different people.  Even in Missouri - clear water on Lake of the Ozarks  is different than clear water on Table Rock, both of which is different from clear water in various strip pits and all of which is different from clear water on Bull Shoals.

 

Using a secchi disc allows you to assign a number to water clarity.