How Important Do You Think Eyes Are On Artificial Baits ? 2025
scaleface reply :
A few years back , I did a lot of bass fishing below a dam in the winter. This place is heavily fished by all sorts of anglers. It was slow fishing but usually managed to catch some. When the fishing is slow like that one does a lot of experimenting. My most successful lure was a smoke grub on a black jig head, with white eye and black pupil. Other jig heads did not get near the bites. My uncle, who fishes the same water , talked with me and he said the exact same thing. The jig heads had to have a prominent eye to get bit.
Now I try to have an eye on most my lures. I even go as far as adding them to bullet weights with nail polish. I don't paint the entire sinker just add eyes. Do you gentlemen think eyes are a very important attractor or not?
00 mod reply :
It is all about YOUR confidence in eyes. I don't see any particular success or not, due to eyes on lures.
Jeff
HookSetDon reply :
On 11/3/2012 at 9:45 PM, 00 mod said:It is all about YOUR confidence in eyes. I don't see any particular success or not, due to eyes on lures.
Jeff
x2
Dwight Hottle reply :
I have a couple of favorite jerkbaits that have lost an eye due to the number of fish caught on them. They still produce as well as when they had both eyes on.
ww2farmer reply :
One of my favorite baits is a SK Red eye shad, I have one that has caught so many fish both eyes have fallen off, and it continues to catch. This bait is some what of an old timer in my collection, in that it has NOT been bit off in 5-6 years of fishing it, even though I have caught tons of pike on it........but it will be now LOL.
Jigfishn10 reply :
A lot has been written about the importance of the eyes on artificial baits, along with rattles or no rattles, colors, flash or no flash, etc. My feeling is, if any of those components tilts the odds in my favor, then it's good enough for me.
WRB reply :
Eyes are very important to lure designers trying to minick baitfish with eyes. We have holographic eyes, yellow, red and black eyes, eyes that look down and bug eyes that bulge out.
I have had days where ghost shad crankbaits with yellow eyes out fished the same lure with red eyes and vises versa, trout swimbaits with gold eyes verses yellow eyes, holographic eyes verse standard painted eyes. When you are fishing alone it doesn't make any difference, however when your partner is catching them on a certain eye color and you are not, then eyes are very important. Now we just need to figure out what the bass like best and know one knows for sure! I do know that jigs and worms do not need eyes...unless....
Tom
Bluebasser86 reply :
In clear water they probably make a difference but in most of the lakes I fish I doubt they make a difference.
Bassn Blvd reply :
Hogwash! It's all in the presentation and wiggle. Anything else is just brain overload.
loodkop reply :
As a lure maker I can tell you that lures with eyes out sell eye less lures.
SirSnookalot reply :
The only eyes that are important are my own.
matstone7 reply :
I was never really concerned but, since this topic have recalled a few times on the river when the ball head color with contrasting eyes seemed to make a difference.
On 11/3/2012 at 11:20 PM, WRB said:I do know that jigs and worms do not need eyes...unless....
Tom
Way to leave a group hanging, lol.
More please..... I'm still hungry.
Jig Man reply :
The first several years I didn't even paint jig heads. So I don't think the fish care one way or another. That being said I paint eyes on everything because I like the way they look.
Bassn Blvd reply :
On 11/4/2012 at 2:06 PM, loodkop said:As a lure maker I can tell you that lures with eyes out sell eye less lures.
As a self proclaimed professional bass fisherman and light tackle inshore fisherman, I can tell you I have caught more fish on lures without eyes, missing eye or discolored eyes than those with pretty painted eyes.
In fact, here's an old trick for pier, beach and jette fisherman who want to make longer casts with Zara Spooks. Drill the eyes out of the spook. You can then add water to the body. thus, adding weight which will allow for longer casts without affecting the action.
WRB reply :
If lure manufacturers offered lures that looked like a bait fish without eyes they would go out of business. Glass eyes were offered on wooden plugs as far back as the 1890's. Predators target bait fish by striking the eye end of the bait and some bait fish have evolved to have false eyes on the middle or back of the bodies; threadfin shad for example.
Jigs with eyes.....if the jig mimics a bait fish, eyes help convince a bass the lure is real baitfish.
Tom
Bassn Blvd reply :
^ yea beacuse the freaky rubber skirt and bad crawfish imitating trailer won't scare'em away. Perhaps the small, painted eyes will make up for trout colored lures in S. Florida and oversized treble hooks.
IDK, maybe I could be convinced that eyeballs make a noticable difference to flyfisherman who fish shallow, gin clear streams. Even then, I'm not so sure.
SirSnookalot reply :
QuotePredators target bait fish by striking the eye end of the bait and some bait fish have evolved to have false eyes on the middle or back of the bodies; threadfin shad for example.
Maybe some, but certainly not all predators strike at the eyes. I fish live bait quite a bit, and have caught small fish that a predator goes after, very common here. Fish like kingfish, barracuda, shark and many others cut the fish in half at the middle, then come back and clean up the rest, a good reason why 2-3-4 trailer hooks are used, helps in getting them on the first strike. Predatory fish that inhale bait such as bass, stripers, snook and tarpon to name a few quite often inhale from the head. However so many of these fish are caught on fly, soft jerkbait on a plain leadhead jig, bucktail jigs that are just painted with no eyes, this is a fact, I catch them daily that way. As already stated so many fish are caught after the eyes have been knocked off hard baits. IMO the eyes are put on for the consumer to make the lure look more lifelike, and make it more attractive for sale.
Fish other than baitfish also have eye spots on the tail, 2 of the more popular fish are peacocks and redfish, but there others too.
Raul reply :
I´ve been in this sport long enough to live through a big bunch of changes eyes, big eyes, monster size eyes, from plain paint jobs to ultrarealistic photographic finish, simple metallic foil to guanim finish, add hook colors and so on ad inifinitum. I remember an old Heddon crank I traded with friend of mine, it had been in his tacklebox for ages, I looked at it and it was the most horrible looking bait, heck even the color was ugly, what caught my eyes was the eye size, imagine a bait about the size and shape of a Wiggle Wart but with a couple of huge yellow eyes that made about one third of the bait, it was black back, copper scale pattern over white on the sides, white belly and orange throat, it had been rubbing against his t-box´s trays for so long that it was quite dull, the hooks were all rusted and had stained the paint job;so, I traded it for a brand new Shad Rap, took it home, cleaned it, buffed it up with a chamois, changed the split rings and placed brand new hooks, it ended up looking pretty good, it was still horrendous but looked pretty clean and shiny. My intention was never to fish it but ... well, temptation was too great to stand it so I fished it and caught a big bunch of fish with it, were the eyes important ? to tell you the truth, I don´t think they were, if I were to bet my odds would be placed on the action more than on the eyes, the bait had a killer wobble that just drove fish crazy. To make the story short, I lost the bait and couldn´t find anything like it in years, then when Normark purchased Storm and began manufacturing a new version of the Wiggle Wart it seemed that the gods answered my prays, the new WWs had practically the same wobble that old Heddon lure had, I have a bunch of them and man they keep catching fish like crazy, specially the SubWart, Warts have relatively small size eyes, what you think it is ? size, shape wobble are very similar, eye size is not, very much the same results, I put my money on all the other characterisics rather than put my money on the eye size.
This is like red hooks, you believe they will make a difference ----> I´m the first one to tell you should use red hooks intensive and extensively.
merc1997 reply :
i really do not believe eyes make any difference. here is a case in point. one of my retired fishing buddies buys up all the old wiggle warts he comes across. everyone one of them, he spray paints the entire plug, bill and all, refrigerator brown. those solid brown wiggle warts catch bass like crazy with no eyes. all of my jerk baits, i hand paint, and i do not paint any eyes back on them. i catch lots of bass on them every year, and have won lots of tournaments on those eyeless jerkbaits. if eyes give you more confidence, than the eyes have it!
bo
Crestliner2008 reply :
Case in point: Berkley came out with a 3" soft plastic, drop shot power-shad years ago. It didn't have eyes. Caught a LOT of smallies on that bait. Now a days, you just cannot find them in any store. Instead, Berkley put eyes on that small piece of plastic and charge almost double the price of the old baits. And these "new & improved" plastics do not catch any more fish than the old ones did - in my opinion.
Crank baits move along at a pretty quick pace usually, with little time for the fish to "inspect" the offering. I find it difficult to believe that eyes seal the deal. Same thing with photo finishes and "precise" patterns. Fishing is all about depth & speed control. Anything other than that is speculative at best. But if it's what you enjoy tossing and it gives you the confidence to fish it properly, then that's all that really matters, right! 
Ben 16 reply :
Whether or not the fish like the eyes on the lure is beyond me, mostly I think it is meant to catch the fishermen more than the fish.
PABASS reply :
Think of how many baits that catch a ton of fish that have no eyes, or lures that look like they are from another world that catch bass, can eyes matter, perhaps. To prove this scientifically would be a cool experiment and I don’t mean your co-angler used eyes and you didn't, too many variables.
scaleface reply :
The example I gave where eyes did make a difference was in cold , heavily fished water with a grub and jig head. The lures were slowly worked on the bottom and the fish had plenty of time to study the offering. Thats why Im experimenting with eyes on bullet weights. I will not get to fish anymore this year due to an injury. Ive been putting three eyes on each unpainted weight , that way one is always visible. It may be a waste of time but it appears like Im going to have plenty of time to waste.
Arv reply :
On 11/4/2012 at 9:56 AM, Bluebasser86 said:In clear water they probably make a difference but in most of the lakes I fish I doubt they make a difference.
x2
Bass_Fanatic reply :
I wont throw a yellow eyed jig...give me red eyes!
tennsopher reply :
Years ago I had a friend that I fished with that taught me to jig fish.This was done with a saltwater blank 14foot long and the guides were hand wound on it with a coathanger bent into a figure eight to hold extra line.He made his own jigs and put teddy bear eyes from a hobby store on them with super glue.Sometimes he painted these flourescent orange.He would put the jig in a vise and slightly flatten the head before applying the eyes and then would glue rubber bands on the head to look like the feelers on a crawdad.He also did this with spinnerbaits minus the feelers.The the jigs were colored with a magic marker then dipped in polyurethane to dry.Was it the eyes?I don't know, but he was the most successful big bass angler I ever met while stationed at Ft.Knox,Ky.
(='_'=) reply :
it definitely matters... bass around here have a policy of not eating crippled fish... so a crank resembling a blind fish would get respected.... maybe even helped while crossing the street....
Ratherbfishing reply :
Most of the time I'd guess it is not important at all. But fishing in clear water with a suspending crankbait might be a different story. The clearer the water, the more important certain visual details are. I wouldn't have guessed red hooks make any difference either but that's a different thread for a different time.
roadwarrior reply :
Eyes make lures look cool, especially on jig heads. As far as "catching" goes,
not important at all.
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