I always carry a pink 17a Bomber. Not sure why but it works.
Other then that I'm fairly traditional with my color patterns.
As for dark at night, I definitely don't live and die by it. I think some lazy tackle shop owner came up with that to make it easy for beginners. It's a good rule but I think it's easy to get hung up on it.
I never used Pink, until I bought a Habs swimmer in pink and white I got a striper on everycast last spring and my dad didn't have the pink plug so he was catching 1 per 10 casts I keep pink in my bag now.
Oh man Pete-G, your avatar bings back memories. Same spot except right hand and a black bomber after dark. Bolt cutters did the trick in gettin the VMCs i had switced out.
Pink is my favorite plug color. Have had good luck on surface too.
I just got some of the createx pink paint and am hoping to copy some plugs that I have that never came in pink (and fl. orange and green too). My favorite pink plug is the atom 2 oz poppers in the 1980's pink color.
Don't fish those any more though since you can't get them and these were made special for me in a trade. half of them have the 3 oz weight in them and cast really well.
Who knows if the flourescent colors matter, but I always thought they looked cool on the end of your line.