Consider this

[keeferfish]

Here's another way to look at my wonderment...

If you hold a cheeseburger 3 ft over my head I can that it has a nice golden brown bottom bun. But does it have a top bun? What color is it if it does? Don't really know because I'm looking up at it. Is that what a crappie thinks?

But what if your eyes were where your ears are????

[skeetbum]

And then we add the loop knot. This lets the angle of the jig change therefore exposing the top color more. My thought is to follow the coloration of a natural bait, darker top and lighter bottom.

[justinp61]

As mentioned, the light button dark top colors are nature's way of camouflaging. However, I think a lot of the color combinations are designed to catch your money. The bait companies learned this many years ago when bass fishing exploded in popularity. It's the same in the hunting industry with deer and turkey hunting trinkets and gizmos.

[Pnut]

i think the reason they are dark on top as when seen from above it helps them blend to the bottom, the same way the white bottom helps them blend in to the surface.

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

I try and match the hatch when I'm painting my jigs. Some lakes I fish don't have shad so paint male and female bluegill patterns, green sunfish or whatever else might be in the lake. Normally paint a jig with 3-4 different colors and use yellow, orange or white colors for bottom with a darker blue, green or black for the tops since small sunfish like gills and green sunfish have those bottom colors. Threadfin shad usually have some yellow in their bottom fins so like a little yellow on the bottom after a white base coat. I bank fish so seldom fish jigs vertically, more up and away. When I hold a jig up and away I can see most of the colors I painted the heads with so fish will too if it's not really muddy. Fish see the bait before they can eat it. They might not eat my jigs but there is a great chance that they see it, knowing that gives me a lot of confidence and that's half the battle.