With so many variables, selecting spinnerbait fishing lures can get confusing. Body, skirt and blade colors and shapes and configurations of blades are just some of the variables. Too commonly, anglers allow themselves to get overwhelmed by the possibilities and simply pick up the first spinnerbait they find – or possibly one that produced well some other day.
Louisiana pro Sam Swett, who used BOOYAH Blade spinnerbaits to win an FLW Tour event at Louisiana’s 
Atchafalaya Basin last year, keeps the selection process simple. While various factors can come into the equation, Swett’s No. 1 determining factor for making spinnerbait decisions is the color of the water. Water color provides Swett clues about several things, including the best blade shape and size, blade color, and body and skirt color, among other things.
For clear water, Swett prefers willow blades, which offer more flash than do other shapes. Given moderate stain, he turns to Indiana blades. When it’s muddy, he opts for Colorado blades, which offer more “thump” and help the fish find the bait.
A Colorado blade also does really well when the fish are heavy cover, such as thick brush or matted grass. Swett noted that Colorado blades were important at Atchafalaya, when the bass were buried in hydrilla. After having experimented with willow blades to no avail, Swett switched to Colorado blades and caught a bass on the second cast.
Water color, in combination with the brightness of the skies, also helps Swett determine the color blades he wants to throw. For clear water and sunny skies, he typically sticks with silver blades. Given a bit of stain or cloudy skies, he turns to a silver/gold combination. If the water is muddy, he likes copper or in some cases black blades.
A couple special situations call for different blade colors. For tannic waters, which are prevalent in southern Louisiana, Swett likes double gold blade configurations. When the tournament trail takes Swett to big smallmouth-filled northern lakes, like Lake Champlain or Lake St. Claire, he turns to BOOYAH Glow Blade spinnerbaits, which have painted blades.
Looking at body and skirt colors, Swett again keeps things simple. He uses black spinnerbaits for muddy water and white and chartreuse or plain white for clear water. If shad are ultra-abundant, he’ll opt for all white. He rarely uses all chartreuse, except in smallmouth-dominated waters.
Finally, when the bass have pulled out of really shallow water and the sun is shining brightly, Swett pulls out the color he calls his “ace in the hole.” Cotton candy/firecracker, which has pink as a dominant color, draws strikes when other colors won’t cut it.
Swett has observed that if you hold a shad toward the sun, it looks quite pink, with the sun shining through and highlighting blood inside the fish. He believes that when a cotton candy/firecracker BOOYAH Blade swims over a bass’ head the fish looks up and sees the same type appearance, and the natural reaction is to grab a meal.