My main smallmouth lure for decades was an F13 orange Rapala. It caught thousands of brown bass.

On 4/27/2026 at 9:22 AM, OkobojiEagle said:

Dear Great Smallmouth Hunter,

For the last few years I've watched Al Lindner (and a few others) glorify bright bait colors for smallmouth. He caught me and reeled me in. Bright pink, blaze orange, lemon yellow, lime green; my tackle bag looks like a bowl of Fruit Loops. I have not caught a single smallmouth on one of those bright colored baits in the several years I've been carrying them. I'm ready to accept defeat and admit I've been shilled, conned, bamboozled. Are there others that carry this shame, or am I just not persistent enough using them?

signed: I need guidance...

Like a little colorful humor, great post.

Most of the water I fish is gin clear and many of the lakes especially WV have an abundance of SM.

Natural colors have been the way to go with your typical clear water baits.

One color that I've always found surprisingly effective was white/Pearl....... flukes, easy shiners, spinnerbaits and finesse ShadZ on a Drop-shot.

Side note:

I learn way more on the water than any fishing show that's promoting and editing. 😁

I was fishing a week or so up north and I had a day that my best fish came on a white/pink Rage Swimmer 3.25" swimbait. It outproduced my standard Spark Shad in the Real color. I picked up the color just cause I wanted to give fish a different look at times. Surprised me.

This 20” smallmouth liked the clown 🤡

Also, not sure if it’s considered bright, but white is really good. White fluke, White tube, and white trick worm

On 6/19/2026 at 5:59 PM, Tackleholic said:

You might find something you like in the Spro Littlejohn and Megabass Karashi.

When I lived in Northern Illinois and fished mostly small rivers and streams, in early spring a Firetiger spinnerbait could never be beaten or equaled for Smallmouth.

I was actually able to track down and find more of them. It's a Duo Realis Rozante 77sp KO but I couldn't remember from where and finally found them.