In many cases painted eyes make the fly look more realistic.
Fish often target the head area on baitfish imitations, so being able to SEE the eyes gives a good target. An obvious black pupil, surrounded by some bright-colored "iris"...like yellow or chartreuse, can be very good.
Check out the yellowish iris on this otherwise silvery-white shad (I did not take this picture)...
That being said...I use both painted eyes, and unpainted eyes on my flies. I'm too lazy to try painting bead-chain eyes, but will often use painted hourglass or dumbell eyes.
As far as what I THINK would work best...since you want the eye to "stand-out" in order to act as a target, I would imagine that a CONTRASTING color would work better towards that goal, than would a color that blends in with the rest of the fly.
JMO...
Last edited by FishnDave; 07-14-2008 at 04:28 PM.
David Merical
St. Louis, MO