Question 1 is can someone please explain why red eyes on a swim bait make such a difference and how do you know when to use red eyes and when not to? Question 2 is how in the world can I make the eyes stay on the bait longer than a couple cast?

The marketing pitch behind red accents on fishing lures and hooks is to draw a fishes attention and trigger a predatory response but it is my belief everything we as fisherman throw out is designed to trigger a predatory response through action, flash and color. This is one of those things a lot of guys are going to have their opinions about due to having confidence in a lure that either has them or doesn't. As far as getting them to stick, try superglue or get some clearcoat acrylic nail polish and brush over them.

Thank you very much for your input bcshock! I just recently started using swimbaits and was just curious about whether or not the eye color made any difference.

I can tell you from expenience of using a different color of eye does make a difference. I fish Mexico where we catch over 100 Bass per day every day. You can throw a yellow eye or chart. eye and out catch the red eye 3 to 1. So that being said I will not throw a bait with red eyes here in any of our lakes.
To make a test like that #1 you have to be throwing to fish every cast and Mexico is the place to make such a test. I have been throwing them down there for 25 years and it is the same every trip. The red eye crank, jig or rattle trap will not produce as well as the other colors.
I was told this 30 years ago by a old man what was an eye expert especially on jigs. He told me that a Bass looks its pray in the eye before it eats it. He threw a homemade jig with as large of an eye that he could find and never used red eyes. He said they just would not produce as well as a golden eye of chart. eye. I believed him because he caught 5 Bass to my 1 every day using his baby doll eye jig with a non painted head. He also said that Bass like the silver head over the painted head but the big eyes was the key.