In my experience, the most aggressive river color for smallmouths is no color at all, or all white. (White reflects all colors of the spectrum and absorbs none.) Color can be a very subjective thing, but see if this doesn’t apply for smallmouths in rivers near you: When the water is cloudiest, even the brightest flash might be invisible to a bass three feet away. Chrome reflects the color of the surrounding water. Bright fluorescent colors in firetiger and other patterns become visible closer to a bass than white in cloudy water, in my experience. And the beautiful thing about white as a lure color is that it’s natural, appearing on the bellies of baitfish, frogs, and on many species of crayfish.

Some very subjective observances regarding color choices for smallmouth cranks in rivers: Aggressive colors work best in high water, and white crankbaits tend to outproduce fluorescent shades of chartreuse and orange from flood stage until the water drops several feet. Fluorescent colors are supplanted by firetiger patterns while the water is still high. At just-above-normal to normal water levels, half-white crankbaits shine. These include baby bass and natural shad patterns, but all white in a smaller version or less aggressive shape might still be working better than anything else (which hints at the blending process to be discussed later).

In rivers experiencing very high flows, the first two cranks out of my box are the Storm Wiggle Wart and the Cotton Cordell Wiggle O. Warts and Wiggle O’s are round, wide-wobbling, aggressive, thumping baits that call long distance to fish way out there in the flow. I use them primarily from flood stage down to the point where the river is still considered high.

In moderate to high flows, I like a Rapala DT10 or DT6 or a Bomber 6A. The Rapala DT baits and the Bomber 6A are easily tuned racing machines that work better around wood, throw farther, and work faster than almost any other cranks on the market—the precise blend of characteristics required when the river is high, making bass scatter but also making them more aggressive. (High, cloudy water not only hides mistakes, it effectively hides bass, making them instinctively less skittish.)

So many cranks today—how to choose? An effective mindset for choosing crankbaits starts with knowing which characteristics are aggressive, which are subtle, and which are most important for the task at hand. Blending characteristics successfully results in the perfect bait for that task, wherever you are. To successfully blend the aggressive with the banal requires identifying all aggressive characteristics (bright, opaque colors, flash, noise, heavy thump, big vibration, round shape, and wide body), and all non-aggressive characteristics (dull or natural colors, translucency, subdued flash, reduced vibration, streamlined shape, tight wobble, quiet operation, and narrow bill). The number of possible combinations this suggests is mind-boggling.

Smaller versions of baits that work in high water, like the Baby Wiggle O, the Rapala XT4, and the Bomber 4A tend to produce dramatically better results when the river is dropping to normal levels or below. Those baits retain the aggressive actions of the larger versions, but size reduction dials down the amount of thump, noise, vibration, and flash. Baby bass versions of the Baby Wiggle O might begin to give place to translucent craw versions, toning down the aggressiveness of the color scheme. As those patterns lose effectiveness, reverse the process and try aggressive colorations and sizes in less-aggressive cranks like the Yo-Zuri Hardcore Shad Series.