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

[Fish_Eye]

TSPS,

I've recently been filming a new Tattoo offering for freshwater. It's a surface swimming, metal lipped offering similar to a classic Danny style plug. It has a slow roll from side to side that we wanted to capture on video as well as photos. The pictures revealed something I had observed last year while filming Jim White working a Slug-Go near the surface.

It's true that if you look up directly below a lure, all you see is a silhouette and no matter what color it might be, it looks black. However, if you look up at almost any other angle, you get a mirror reflection off the surface…the calmer the water the more you get a cloned image of the top of the lure. Even in rough seas you still get a reflected image of what’s on the top of the lure…eyes and all. I’m a big fan of eyes and a splash of red on all lures and flies. I’m convinced that it’s the action, noise and shape of the lure that first rings the dinner bell, but when game fish show a preference for one particular prey item they may be looking for that reflected color, or the position of a big eye to determine whether or not they should commit the energy for a strike.

What do you think? Have I been down too long? Am I all wet? Does this theory hold water?

Here are a few pictures that give you the fish-eye view looking up at surface offerings: