Those of you that fish waters where shad are the primary forage, do you notice you catch more fish on lures with the black shad dot on them?  Do any of you add the dot to any of your lures that don't have them?  

yes and yes. I have had days where they won't hit a bait without a dot on it. Also, read somewhere the fish see that as sort of a "kill" dot. They use that to target the bait.

I add dots to my shad colored baits and have even used a sharpie to add it to spinnerbaits. It is not a majic thing, just an extra thing I do.

nope, never had too.  If i'm getting wupped by my partner in the back who is throwing the same thing, i adjust tackle, and retrieve to match his.  I don't think color is a big deal, especially when I can throw firetiger cranks in every thing from mud to ultra clear water and catch the snot out of fish.  Its the action of the bait, the correct depth of the bait, and the correct retrieve that convinces fish to bite in my mind.  

Many moons ago when I was younger and pterosaurs nested on my home 's roof we had the photographic finish craze, cranks came painted ( I say most probably covered with some sort of photographic layer ) in ultrarealistic extra detailed finish, you got a Bagley 's Baby Bass crank it not only came painted like a true baby bass, it even had the brighty thingy pearlscaly look, I 've got a couple yet and if you saw them on your hand you would swear you were holding a real baby bass, same applied to other cranks you could find in the market at that time.

Later came the Color CLector "authorized" colored patterns craze, later the G Finish ( G for guanim ) craze.

Being an old fart and having gone from plain colors ( what can be more classic than white and red ? ), to phographic realism, to gadget authorization, to shiny guanim, to cracked finishes, reflective surfaces and so on I 've found that ........ they all work in about the same level of success, what makes the difference is -----> the guy behind the rod.

If you think and/or believe that painting on the spot trying to match to whatever the fish might eat is going to help I 'll be the first one to say -----> my man go for it !

Bass bite spinnerbaits and them don 't look like anything a bass could eat.

Well, I know you are a collector of some of the finest

lures on the planet, but I'll bet the majority of the hard

baits you actually use hardly have any paint left on them.

8-)

Well, I know you are a collector of some of the finest

lures on the planet, but I'll bet the majority of the hard

baits you actually use hardly have any paint left on them.

8-)

My dear friend, most of the crankbaits I use have almost no finish on them, that part is true, they are all beat up, chewed upon, scratched & dull barely resembling how they used to look out of the box buuuuuuuuut the same does not apply to "spares"  , so if I want to remember how a bait looked I just go to the collection and search for it ....... something that I don 't do oftenly cuz I 'm lazy and don 't wanna spend a couple of days looking into the boxes where the spares are kept.  

Can you have enough tackle ? in the words of Jimmy Morris: "ah no, you can never have nuff tackle ".  ;D

short and sweet yes I do except bass pattern lures and crawfish pattern lures. I still like G finish topwater lures like tiny torpedo and pop R and spook. The shad dot if for nothing else gives a bass a bulls eye.