Uncle Jessee,

When you say you add eyes in the form of beadchain or dumbbell eyes, I consider those a way to add weight to the fly more than simply adding eyes to a pattern. When I tie stream patterns for bass (not counting Clousers), I usually 3D eyes to them. I actually did an informal "study" more of a blind test really for a year where I fished the same patterns (color size etc.) some with eyes added and some with no eyes added. My observations were that when the fish were in a good feeding pattern, the streamers with eyes out produced the streamers without eyes by about 40%. However, when the bass were in a finicky mood where they would rush in behind the fly when it stopped between strips, pump their gills a couple of times to taste the water and swim off, the patterns without eyes out produced those with eyes added. My guess is that the eyes are an important trigger to striking, but when they fish are shy, they become more of a deterrent. Perhaps the bass feel like they have been seen and a quiet take will be unsuccessful.
All that being said, I like the look of streamers with eyes, so I routinely add them to my streamers.

Jim Smith