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A few things I think about when deciding on color:
Two people I have fished with and I consider "professional" by two standards:1) it is their full time or part time "job", and 2) they catch fish consitantly and independent of conditions (but not always, that's impossible). During daylight hours (I think this is an important part) the first thing they do is drop the light meter overboard to the depth we will be fishing at. Common process on two competely different types of water here (Lake Ontario, and Atlantic Ocean and bays attached there to). Generally, the lower the level of light due to in one part "murkiness", the brighter (less natural) the lure. Lure selection would range from an exact "match the hatch" to the flourecent/optic blues, pinks, and lastly, yellows (the kind that hurt your eyes on a sunny day. The two things that strike me as interesting, and probably important, are the light level reading takes into account both the light level of the sky/weather and the water clarity.
After many discussions on and off the beach or boat about color, one guy told me his method that he got from someone he considered an "old timer" from the surf in the Brielle area of NJ. His rule was "match the sky". There have been many times I have listened to the color discussions since then and found this reasoning to match the agreements or general consensous (when or if there was one/some). I think this "works" both day and night to a large degree, but I don't think this includes the water (murkiness) in the selection process. My basic interpretation of matching the sky has been something like: bright/mid-day - white and yellow over white, cloudy day - blue backs, green backs with dull or clear sides, yellow sunrise/sunset - yellow and yellow/red head, pink/orange sunrise/sunset - pink and orange, dark night - all black, low light night (due to either moon or public lights) - black and purple, moderate light - dark back over dull or clear sides, bright night - dark back over shinny sides (bright white or chrome).
Use of bright colors at night I feel are a function of the water clarity and maybe location (actually bait in that location). Although, I must admit that sometimes it seems like location is more related to prejudices and the fact that some particular knowledge has not caught up with the general fishing population in that area.
Just a few places where I have heard of using the very un-natural colors for surf fishing: bright yellow green (parrot) color needle fish around the Cape Cod area and islands, pink needlefish in RI, pink bomber plugs on the Connecticut river, a little of everything on LI. It also seems like the "knowledge" of the parrot color is starting to spread all over (even NJ).
Anyways, jsut some ruminations to consider. Comments and critiques are most welcome. That's how we learn about this stuff. Thanks for listening.
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