How important is the color and detail on the top of a surface plug?

[Fish_Eye]

I love nothing more than catching a nice fish on a surface lure. I get such an adrenaline rush when a fish comes flying out of the water to land on my plug! Ever since I was a young boy and I discovered the world of Jitterbugs, Hula Poppers, Atom Poppers, Atom 40s and of course the venerable Zara Spook; I was forever hooked on fishing topwater offerings. If being addicted to those products wasn’t enough, later on I fell in love with needlefish, Danny plugs and over the last several years the Slug-Go has made me rethink the world of soft baits.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world and have tried surface swimmers, cruisers, poppers, propeller accented splashers, wake lures, and a variety of walk-the-dog plugs from Midway Atoll to Costa Rica. I’ve targeted sailfish, dolphin, stripers, cubera snappers, barracuda, giant trevally, snook, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, pike, and golden dorado and a host of other species, all with the hopes of watching them explode out of the water.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time videotaping what lures and flies look like underwater and lately I’ve been shooting a lot of photographs of surface swimmers. Without running the risk of over analyzing a situation, I ask you this: If a fish is coming up from below a lure – no matter what the angle might be – does it really get a chance to see what the top of the lure looks like? Is the color on top of a lure that important? Do eyes on a topwater plug really matter?

What do you think and why?