is there actually a rule of thumb as far as what colours to use and when? ex. i was once told on bright day use dark colours and dark days use light colours??? i was also told for spinnerbaits use white on hot sunny days and that the black and red skirts were good for the fall??? anyone have any "theories" or any kind of "rule of thumb" for this??

Keep it simple at first. In clear water, use natural colors for your plastics and jigs like green pumpkin, and shad colors for cranks and spinnerbaits. Sexy Shad and similar colors work great in clearer water. Darker water go with black and blue for your plastics and jigs

and chartreuse, chartreuse/white for spinnerbaits and brighter shades for your cranks. Branch out from there. Pretty soon you'll be like the rest of us and have 20 colors of every bait you own but only use a couple.

Just for "somewhere to start":

Jigs & soft plastics: "dark"

Crankbaits: Silver with black & white accents (baitfish pattern)

Lipless crankbait: Xr50 blue chrome/ orange

Jerkbaits: Green or blue chrome/ orange

Towater: Green or black

Buzzbait: Black

Spinnerbait: White, chartreuse or a combination

8-)

I never catch any more or less fish based on the color.  other people i'm fishing with say the same things, light here, dark here, sparkly ones on this day, and I always end up catching just as many or sometimes more fish.  Until I personally see otherwise, I won't put much emphasis on color.

thanks for the information guys... as for my soft plastics ive got a few different colours ranging from orange to green to black and one thats like a pearl colour.. and a few others.. i must be using them wrong because i dont have any luck really with soft plastics.. my skitterpops and some other floating crank.. i actually have no idea what it is.. red head and yellow body and has a rattle in it.. works pretty good.

Do you need help selecting a new set of tyres?