There's a post on the board today getting some attention on smallie colors. It got me thinking about my favorite colors by species. The color I start with until proven it's not working.

Lake trout - Gold and Orange or Gold and Red
Brook Trout - Same (Gold and Orange or Gold and Red)
Walleye - Chartruse or blue and silver
Smallmouth - Softer / Earthy tones
Northern - I don't target northern, just seem to pick them up on any of the above.

Walleye - Clown or silver or fl orange or blue or gold or vampire or...

...you say there are other species?!

Lake trout - Silver/Blue or Gold/Orange
Brook Trout - Gold/Red
Walleye - Perch crankbaits, Gold jig heads
Smallmouth - Natural colors
Northern - N/A

Lakers...rainbow trout pattern caught fish one day consistently when the rest of the tackle box didn't get a hit. That's the first thing I have on now when trying for them followed by the purple variants

for smallies , crawdad colors are always a good choice.
a pic of my two go to smally lures when targeting shoreline structure.
Pike white spinnerbait/large mepps.
minnow imatation/rapala- blk/gold.

Walleye - gold,black, gold\black, perch

Lakers - black, white, purple

Smallmouth - watermelon, frog, chartreuse, pearl

Pike - really doesn't matter - frog, red\white, black\silver