Is Sexy shad the best all around crank color?

[Ghostshad]

Not by a long shot.

[Born 2 fish]

I say no my 10 year old son say yes it’s his favorite he catches everything on that little crank.

[Spankey]

On 10/2/2020 at 8:20 PM, TriStateBassin106 said:

I live in NJ where we have no shad and none of those bluegill colors worked for me this year. besides sexy shad the only color i've gotten bit on is Tennessee shad and Black back chart.

I've had luck in it in Stained lakes around here in Jersey, some ponds I fish have that green algae water which is a solid green, chart black back works well in those situations. 

No gizzard Shad up there? In bigger lakes. Maybe not in a retention pond. I can see that. 
 

I use no real image or live image CB’s. Had a very short try them and forget about them. They are not in the set of cards meant for me. But I have many productive Rapalas, Bandits, Bombers and Strike Kings. 
 

Sometimes a productive patterns dies off but it gets broken out again. I’ve never written off anything that has been productive. 

[TriStateBassin106]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

No gizzard Shad up there? In bigger lakes. Maybe not in a retention pond. I can see that. 
 

I use no real image or live image CB’s. Had a very short try them and forget about them. They are not in the set of cards meant for me. But I have many productive Rapalas, Bandits, Bombers and Strike Kings. 
 

Sometimes a productive patterns dies off but it gets broken out again. I’ve never written off anything that has been productive. 

We have a big population of golden shiners in a lot of lakes and many people like throwing gold colors or shiner patterns. Some lakes have gizzard shad including Lake Hopatcong but I wouldn't know what patterns to throw in there. 

[Spankey]

1 hour ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

We have a big population of golden shiners in a lot of lakes and many people like throwing gold colors or shiner patterns. Some lakes have gizzard shad including Lake Hopatcong but I wouldn't know what patterns to throw in there. 

I think foremost when it comes to crankbaits don’t over think the color patterns. The strikes are reactionary. I don’t believe they are looking at the  green back gizzard Shad you are throwing and saying I’m not hitting that because the back is green. I’ll think about striking if it were blue back. On something that is moving I don’t believe there is much of a thought process behind it. I think they react or don’t react. 
 

The XD that Strike King puts out there are a lot of successful patterns that I’ve been using. This season natural patterns were almost all that worked for me. I only got a handful of fish on fire tiger, chart. w/ black back, chart. w/ blue bk., spring craw, brown and orange craw. These are generally good colors for me. I struggled with them. I stopped throwing them and beating myself up over it. I switched to more natural colors. Lighter bluegill patterns. Maybe the lure is not called bluegill by manufacturer but shades of bluegills colors are in them. But as far as some good SK color patterns that work real well are blue gizzard Shad, gizzard Shad, green gizzard Shad, gizzard Shad w/ black back, Tenn. Shad, silver tenn. Shad, Pearl w/ black spatter bk., chrome w/ blk. Bk., chrome w/ blue bk.. These are just a few off the top of my head that I would not hesitate to have tied on and they are just a few SK patterns. 
 

And my opinion on SK patterns is they are not the cleanest. They could have a better finish but the fish do not seem to care. They truly do not look exact as any baitfish. I have my share of Rapala and Bandits I do well with. Again just a rough representation of something on the natural side.  
 

Over the winter I’m going to pick up a Rapala DT in the original bluegill. This is a great pattern for me. I’m going to remove the hardware and put some rtv sealer over the hook hangers to keep them from rusting and hang it in one of my dogwood trees and try to fade that lure a bit. I don’t think I’ll be wasting my time. I believe it will work as good or better with that faded color. 
 

I’m certainly no expert. Will never be an expert. I just give it heck. I do like fishing crankbaits. Like catching them on them. I like the reactionary bite. I think you just have to believe. I think if you are near a Rapala display of Shad Raps and you are looking and let’s say “Gold” (gold body w/ black bk & red at gill plate) catches your eye and you say “that gold shiner is the ticket”. Buy it and go with it it will work. But you have to believe. Don’t buy it if you don’t believe. I don’t think color is real important but I have to believe in what I’m throwing. 

[scaleface]

Sexy shad is pretty darn good . I like the chartreuse sexy shad a lot too .