I don't see anything wrong with that BC.... I don't know much about golden shiners but I think that one looks pretty dang fine.

That would be a very popular pattern out here, especially on a larger lure. Some people throw golden rainbow trout swimbaits as a substitute for a large golden shiner bait.

Excellent work. My only suggestion would be a little darker on the back, but what do I know.

thanks cw. it's headed out to california. i guess the goldens area popular bait fish out there.

Looks good as is!

Pectoral fins looks good. Transition to belly scale is very nice. Did you mix the scale color yourself? Betting it looks great in clear waters

thanks bois! i wanted a battle tested look for the lower scales to give the bait something other than the textbook look we usually do. i found if you spray the mesh with a pretty heavy coat of paint and then use the hair drier until it's almost dry it will pull some of the scales off when you take the mesh off. i like how it turns out.
the scale base color is folkart metallic pure gold and the scales themselves are wicked gold. the two golds are close but different enough to give a nice subdued scale effect. then i shot detail sepia to deepen the gills, heavier around the eyes, and over the back.

shade the back with a moss green color

yeah i have some detail moss green i thought about using but i wanted to keep this one true to the "gold" schedule so i used the detail sepia. good idea though.