Ultra Violet

[NJ CLAD]

Is there a way to incorporate utra violet reflective into a clear soft plastic bait?

[carolinamike]

Lureworks has a great UV additive.  You don't use very much at all.  If you use too much, it's going to give the clear plastic a little bit of a blue hue.  But under a black light your baits will glow like a white t-shirt in a disco. 

[NJ CLAD]

Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!

[RonDon]

I found out about the color change Mike is talking about the hard way! I loaded up some black with the UV. In the shop they looked great so I kept popping them out. 500 baits later I took one out in the sun to find the black looked purple.

[mark poulson]

I found out about the color change Mike is talking about the hard way! I loaded up some black with the UV. In the shop they looked great so I kept popping them out. 500 baits later I took one out in the sun to find the black looked purple.

Is that a bad thing?

[Anglinarcher]

I have a dumb question here.

 

Just how important is UV to us in the fishing world???? I know this is the latest fad, and sure, I can shine a black light on it and it looks "pretty", but can fish see it?

 

I know for sure that the minnows, including carp, can see UV all the way through Infrared. I know for sure that trout and salmon can see some UV, but science is debating how well they see it. I know those scientists are saying Bass cannot see UV. I know those scientists are saying that Walleye have only two color receptors, Red and Green.

 

If this is true, then unless I am fishing for carp, trout or salmon, UV light reflectivity is of little use to them, and therefore to us.

 

What am I missing here?

[Kajan]

     I would have to think most Scientists are very educated, extremely intelligent. But most probably never fished. So everything they talk about with fish / colours are theoretical.  But on the UV part, I think it could possibly be a plus in catchin fish in Deeper water where its below the point where regular light stops traveling, although I have never tried it to see if it makes a differance.

[Anglinarcher]

     I would have to think most Scientists are very educated, extremely intelligent. But most probably never fished. So everything they talk about with fish / colours are theoretical.  But on the UV part, I think it could possibly be a plus in catchin fish in Deeper water where its below the point where regular light stops traveling, although I have never tried it to see if it makes a differance.

Theoretical, not so much.  They take the cones out of the eyes and expose them to the light waves.  If they chemically react then the cones detect the light waves.  That does not mean that the fish see the color as we do, but it does mean that they see something when exposed to that color or wave length.

 

It should be noted that Walleye have only green and red cones, but the green cones are centered on that wave length, but some intereaction is had with the near end of blue, and yellow.  The Red cones also detect some yellow.

[Kajan]

    Point I was tryin to make was, I have heard all kind of Scientific theorys of what colours fish see and don't. But I know for a fact fish see bou'cou' of the slightest colour changes, or at least the colour changes make them eat a lure or not. So regardless of the cones in the fish's eyes, they still have no clue what the fish sees in my opinion. But like I said, the " GLow of the UV" , I have never tried it, so not sure if it will work. Only true way I would think is if it has been tried for a long time to see for sure. Just like they use glowing sticks for sword fish in the Gulf and ocean at nite, it might work. Might not work for other saltwater species.

 

    But I have a theory also LOL, I would think it will work for saltwater fish who are feeding hard as long as its in the correct colour

[Anglinarcher]

    Point I was tryin to make was, I have heard all kind of Scientific theorys of what colours fish see and don't. But I know for a fact fish see bou'cou' of the slightest colour changes, or at least the colour changes make them eat a lure or not. So regardless of the cones in the fish's eyes, they still have no clue what the fish sees in my opinion. But like I said, the " GLow of the UV" , I have never tried it, so not sure if it will work. Only true way I would think is if it has been tried for a long time to see for sure. Just like they use glowing sticks for sword fish in the Gulf and ocean at nite, it might work. Might not work for other saltwater species.

 

    But I have a theory also LOL, I would think it will work for saltwater fish who are feeding hard as long as its in the correct colour

 

I sure agree about the slightest color changes making a huge difference for sure, at times. I use to do a lot of fly fishing and my boxes are full of various shades of nymphs for those days. I will also agree that, in the past, scientific theory was not fact. They did not have the ability to test the rods and cones like they can today. Will today's facts be revised, probably, but I think they are getting pretty close now.

 

Still, not all fish have been tested so how can we know if there are species that can see UV, other than Carp, the Minnows, and to some extent the salmon and trouts? Is that the targeted species we are making lures for? If so, then this answers my first question.

 

I also agree that using glow sticks for Swords is working, as well as a lot of glow in the dark pigments in general are working throughout the fishing world. In fact, check out this site for the powders I am testing. http://glonation.com/glow-powder.html Keep in mind that these are in the visible light spectrum and because they do put off light the fish's rods will pick up the light.

 

My point is that you and I cannot see Infrared light, also known as heat radiation. You and I cannot see Gamma or X-Rays either, even though they are actually a spectrum of light. If fish cannot see UV light, also called UV Radiation, then what is the point? Actually, you and I cannot see UV light either, we cannot see below 400 nm, which is the limit of Violet. What you and I see is fluorescent light.

 

Fluorescent objects absorb light, including UV, and transmit them back at us in colors we see. I suspect that most of the "UV" enhancers we are using are really nothing more then fluorescent pigments reflecting back in the Violet range. That explains why we see a violet hue to most of them, as indicated above. Otherwise, when we use the UV lights to look at the product, we see the fluorescent pigments as the other colors.

 

I totally agree that Fluorescent colors work, and they work at the extreme depth you discuss, where UV passes and excite the fluorescent pigments.

 

Keep in mind, I am not trying to start an argument, just voicing my concerns, based on the years of engineering and scientific study this old man has done. Just asking.......   

[Kajan]

   I have seen those glow powders. Never tried them because of their high prices. I have been fishing glow lures since Late 70's or early 80's. Mann was one of the first companies that had it in their lures. Anyway, funny thing about glow, which I know some fresh water guys are gona argue with me about is, I have never ever caught a fish in total darkness with a glow lure. It works at night under a light source, but not tossing into dark water. I use it mostly for Day time fishing.

[carolinamike]

Guys, keep in mind that the UV aditive works best with bright colors, such as white and yellow. Its really noticable when you have a white bait out in the sunlight, sometimes white coloring gets a slight yellow tint to it. The UV brightener helps to reduce the yellowing, just think about some laundrey detergents that advertise that they make your whites whiter,  its because they use a UV aditive.

Edited January 24, 2013 by carolinamike

[jeff@mf]

Have any of you guys held your flourescent colors in a black light? they glow but I don't see how it would help in lake water.

Jeff

[Anglinarcher]

Mike, that is a good point of course. UV additives are used to make whites brighteners to our eyes, but this is because adding blues and violets to other colors cause our eyes to see more white to them. It is an additive property of light waves. Nevertheless, if this is the purpose of adding the UV, then I can buy into it.

 

Kajan, your point is also well taken. I have caught a lot of freshwater fish with glowing lures, but more often as not at depth during the day, not at night. I had one glow in the dark that I used for Walleye about 25 years ago. I fished it hard at night and never even got a bump, but in the day it worked pretty well. Still, I have indeed caught trout and steelhead at night on lighted or glowing lures. With the exception of Steelhead, I think the key is to keep the glow pretty subtle. For example, I found that painting the head of a streamer fly with a glow in the dark nail polish worked great for trout behind a dam, but using a glow body was useless.

 

Jeff, what UV does is to "excite" or cause fluorescent colors to glow. This is what you saw with the Black Light. In a lake or stream at depths, some UV makes it to extreme depths even after other light is blocked. For example, in all but the clearest lakes, the color red is gone in 10' or less. After that time, it looks more like Black then anything else. Muddy water blocks colors much faster. Orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, and finally Violet is filtered out next. Finally UV will get filtered out; this is the end of what Scientists call the Photic Zone of a body of water. Because most fish feed with their eyes, they are more likely to strike what they can see in low light conditions.

Take fluorescent colors outside at night and compare them with the non-fluorescent equivalent. You will see that the fluorescent colors show much later at night. This is because any ambient light will cause fluorescent colors to fluoresce. We already know that fish see light much better than we do (much lower light equivalents) so there is a benefit to having fluorescent colors in lures for low light conditions (muddy, stained, night, etc.).

Still, the colors white and black are not actually colors at all. White is a combination of all colors (the reason UV brightens it) and black is an absence of color (all color is absorbed). Nevertheless, we see them as colors and so do the fish. As a result, for every rule there is an exception to it.

 

Oh the joy of color.

[Bass4Me]

I do not see the need for UV in worms. Maybe it's just something new to catch the fisherman and not the fish? I will be pouring my own baits. A cross between crappie assasin and the bobby garland baits and want to pour glow in the dark baits. I fish glow baits in the darkest shade under and around boat docks.