For the last few days it's been overcast and rained on and off. I decided to put the maxim to the test and try brighter colors instead. I poured some clear plastic minnows with a gold/purple/black flake combo mixed in and also poured a milky bright chartreuse with black flake. The aggressive hits from 5 species left no doubt that the brighter colors or flash in clear plastic did as well, if not better, than solid black. I attached a chartreuse tube tail strand to a black slider body and I believe it did better.
The slider tail is okay some of the time when fish want the strobe wiggle of the paddle tail, but I was 10' cane poling in pad pockets with my spoonminnow or tube-strand tail and got over 30 fish just vertical jigging with twitch pauses. The slider is better on the slow horizontal retrieve (some of the time) but can't be worked faster or slower than one speed.
The finesse tail rocks, as does flash! Subdued colors (green pumpkin with black flake) I'll keep around for semi-clear and clear water.