Jig Head Eyes

How much difference does it make to paint eyes on crapie jig heads?

When I fish, I will lose the entire paint job on the head after a while. It doesn't seem to bother the bite that much. With that in mind I wonder if eyes really make a difference.

I consider the eyes an important part of my jigs . I tie bluegill and red ear jigs and I like the looks of them in the jig box.
I can't honestly say it makes any difference to the fish, just the fisherman. lol I've had jigs go blind from the eye paint comming off but the bite didn't change.
Just an observation from west Illinois.

I paint eyes on some of my own jigs and it does look good, but I don't think it's gonna help catch more fish. Whatever you have confidence in is what you should use.

Also, if you're having problems with paint chipping off, are you using powder paint and then curing it in the oven?

I've been seeing this subject pop up on here several times in the past year or two. I've noticed the majority of folks agree that the eyes don't make much, if any, difference when it comes to catching fish. I can tell you that there's been countless crappie caught in the Mississippy lakes on these ... Crappie Jigs ...which don't have eyes. I've even put the store-bought holographic eyes on a couple of our ol' standby colors, and secured with epoxy........and I couldn't tell any difference in the bite count. I agree with what some others have stated......it's a personal cosmetic preference. Heck, for all we know, that crappie may feel sorry for that "blind bait", and is just culling the herd for management reasons......while curbing it's hunger:)

My 2¢ worth....

The yes catch the fisherman's eye and they buy that jig. Again it is whatever you have confidence in. On my personal jigs that I use, I have eyes. Why.................DUH.....minnows have eyes and I want to give the crappie the impression that this is something good to eat.

Whichever you use, have CONFIDENCE in it and fish it slow!

I powder paint, bake , paint the eyes and put on Hard as Nails. They look good but I do not catch any more fish than with the plain lead heads.

Thanks for the discussion. You guys are a great help. I've been spending time painting on eyes and I think I'm going to drop that step and see what happens. I'd rather spend the time on the water if it doesn't make a difference.

Let me take a little different view for kicks. Not that I use only jigs with eyes, because I don't, but here are a couple of things to think about. Maybe they help in times they are picky, I don't know that though, but still, maybe it does.

My first observation about eyes is this. Look at nature, the red fish has that black spot near his tail, heck lots of creatures have fake eyes to distract their predators that eat them and maybe give them a chance to get away. I do know that most fish (crappie included will eat or hit the head first to kill their target. So maybe eyes will make the crappie target the right place for us at least, LOL!

Next is a statement I read on the internet at a tips page for fly tying and it went something like this.... Someone asking about eyes or not and the answer was how may bait fish have you seen without eyes?

So I think most of the time it probably makes no difference, but there are times it may help IMHO!

Skip

Love the analysis there Skip!!

Skip, you have become too analytical. :confused:
I say more time fishing, less time thinking about jig eyes. LOL ;)