How big are your swivels? Are they so large that they could be hurting the action of your spoons? especially the lightweight ones? Small quality swivels! Maybe a little lighter leader?? As far as colors we had good luck on standard stingers in alewife, and chicken wing, and just about anything firetiger in the mud!
Sk8man,
that deal with the wine cork is very interesting. I bet there a bunch of guys with black boxes thinking about that right now