Glonation Powder

[mark poulson]

Under the heading of bass are a visual predator, I've been playing around with making baits more visible in off colored water, or in low light.

I had coated a fire tiger trap with the original Glonation paint green hue natural paint, and caught a six in low light conditions, so I decided to try their powder.  I was hoping to add it to clear nail polish, so I could coat and finish a bait in one step.

https://www.glonation.com/glow-in-the-dark-products/neutral-glow-powders.html

The powder mixes fine and goes on smooth, and it does glow, but, because the nail polish is clear, it doesn't cloud the original paint scheme as much as their paint does.

It does settle to the bottom of the polish bottle if it sits, so I make sure to shake it really well before I apply it.

Just another arrow in my quiver.  Man, I sound so cool!!!  Hahaha

 

[bassrecord]

Hey Mark, whose clear nail polish do you use? Does it contain oils and scents for women or is the nail polish you use free of those type additives? Can you buy your clear nail polish in big sizes? My guess is that you brush or dip it on.

Thanks.

John

[mark poulson]

John,

I used cheap clear nail polish.  Any of the clears will work.  I brush it on.  Because it settles in the bottle, I don't think it would dip well without constant stirring.

The info sheet that came with the powder says it can be mixed with epoxy, urethane, or any clear medium.  I'm guessing their glo paint is just the powder mixed with a white glue-like material.  Go to their website and ask them.

The nail polish made it a one step process for me.

I don't know if you can buy larger sizes.  I'd suggest you stop by a nail salon and ask them.

[Anglinarcher]

Mark, I hope this continues to work for you. 

 

My experience is that fluorescent paints work well for bass but glow in the dark do not.  I spend lots and lots of time fishing (my wife tells me I spend way to much), and a lot of that is after dark during the dogs days of summer.  I find that normally glow in the dark turns off fish like Bass and Walleye, at least at night.

 

What time of day did you catch that 6 pounder on the glow bait?  Was the glow to augment visibility in dirty water during the day?

 

Thanks for the information and techniques.

[RayburnGuy]

Mark, I hope this continues to work for you. 

 

My experience is that fluorescent paints work well for bass but glow in the dark do not.  I spend lots and lots of time fishing (my wife tells me I spend way to much), and a lot of that is after dark during the dogs days of summer.  I find that normally glow in the dark turns off fish like Bass and Walleye, at least at night.

 

What time of day did you catch that 6 pounder on the glow bait?  Was the glow to augment visibility in dirty water during the day?

 

Thanks for the information and techniques.

 

You might have just saved me some time, money and effort AA. I was thinking of trying some glow paint on a few of the cranks I use for night fishing during the dog days. After reading your post I will reconsider this.

 

thanks,

Ben

[Anglinarcher]

Ben, I have discussed this very issue with Larry Dahlberg, a casual friend of mine, and his experience is similar.  Still, don't let our experience be the only factor.

 

Get a couple of glow lures and give them a try, just in case.  I would give a couple to you, but I tossed them away a couple of years ago.

[BobP]

My experience with glow paint is very different as far as catching fish.  I don't put it on crankbaits but use it on jigging spoons and it has become my "don't leave home without it" spoon finish.  I brush the white/green glow paint on in several thick coats to get maximum glow grains on the bait, then cover it with MCU.  After exposure to light, you can darn near read a newspaper by the emitted light.  3/4 oz jigging spoons with the glow paint have been deadly on the largemouth bass and white bass in a local reservoir where they congregate 50+ ft deep in the late fall and winter.  When fishing in a crowd, we were catching them at least 5:1 over guys using regular metal spoons, and that has happened repeatedly on winter jigging trips.  The results were just as good jigging for land locked stripers under shad schools in another reservoir.  Of course, I don't know anyone that fishes crankbaits 50-60 ft deep so I can't draw universal conclusions about glow paint being an asset at all depths - but it is suggestive to me.  Saltwater fishermen are certainly sold on the concept when fishing deep water jigs.

[RayburnGuy]

Have you ever fished it at night Bob? That was my main interest in using the glow paints.

 

Ben

[bassrecord]

Mark said, "I'd suggest you stop by a nail salon and ask them."

I avoid nail salons at all cost. They embarrass me. Somebody in there will want to paint my toe nails with some of that Glow In The Dark stuff. Then when I lean back in the LazyBoy, my glowing toe nails would mess up TV watching big time. Since I can't reach my toes anyhow, I'd have to go back to the dang saloon to have them remove it. Just too risky.

Thanks anyway.

John

[mark poulson]

Mark said, "I'd suggest you stop by a nail salon and ask them."

I avoid nail salons at all cost. They embarrass me. Somebody in there will want to paint my toe nails with some of that Glow In The Dark stuff. Then when I lean back in the LazyBoy, my glowing toe nails would mess up TV watching big time. Since I can't reach my toes anyhow, I'd have to go back to the dang saloon to have them remove it. Just too risky.

Thanks anyway.

John

 

Hahaha!!!

[mark poulson]

Mark, I hope this continues to work for you. 

 

My experience is that fluorescent paints work well for bass but glow in the dark do not.  I spend lots and lots of time fishing (my wife tells me I spend way to much), and a lot of that is after dark during the dogs days of summer.  I find that normally glow in the dark turns off fish like Bass and Walleye, at least at night.

 

What time of day did you catch that 6 pounder on the glow bait?  Was the glow to augment visibility in dirty water during the day?

 

Thanks for the information and techniques.

 

I caught the 6 in low light early morning conditions.  It is very bright, because it is a bright chartreuse paint scheme to begin with.

I caught fish at night on a mag wart that I repainted in a brown/green craw with an orange belly, and coated with the glo paint.  It is much more subdued, due to the darker paint scheme.

I find that darker colors don't glow as brightly with the glo paint on them.  Maybe that makes them more subtle, so they don't put the bass off.  I find that's true with soft plastics, a hint goes a long way.  I like the UV dip for soft plastic.  I'm just starting to play around with the glo powder on my laminates with a pearl white belly.  So far, the non-glo seems to work better.

Edited July 6, 2014 by mark poulson

[mark poulson]

You might have just saved me some time, money and effort AA. I was thinking of trying some glow paint on a few of the cranks I use for night fishing during the dog days. After reading your post I will reconsider this.

 

thanks,

Ben

 

Ben,

I'm going to try using it just for the eyes, and to accent the gill shape and the tail, to see if that works.  I'll let you know.

I have some red glo powder in nail polish, too, but it doesn't glow as long, or as strong.

Edited July 6, 2014 by mark poulson

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Mark.

[Anglinarcher]

Bob, your results are interesting, and I sure wish we could fish side by side and see what the differences were. But, I digress...... I should have been more complete in my observations and my discussions with Larry.

Mark,

First, I have found glow in the dark to be extremely effective for trout, salmon, and steelhead. This fact I have proven to myself for well over 20 years. I had a dam I used to fish behind at night for oversized brown trout and Cutthroat trout in Idaho, and there was so little light that you MUST have a flashlight to tie flies on. We found that color did not matter, as long as it was white or black. It was about Halloween when I was planning a trip and my youngest daughter had some glow in the dark fingernail polish she had purchased. I "stole it" for the night. At the river I put a single drop of the glow paint on the fly eye, charged it with a light, then fished it right next to two other guys that were using the same fly without the paint (I always provided my flies to my friends in the OLD days). I out fished the guys at least 5 to one, maybe even 10 to one. I switched flies with one of them and he was now the one catching the fish. It did not take long before we always used glow painted fly heads at night.

Years later, after moving to Washington State, I discovered that they guys were trolling lighted crankbaits for Steelhead at night. The brand they bought, Lightning Lures if I recall right, were not great quality. About one in three lures would work in the water, so the guys would buy a lot of lures and return the ones that did not work. I hate trolling for Steelhead, so I never joined in, but it was well known that lighted crankbaits were the way to fish for Steelhead at night. Of course, I already knew that glow in the dark corkies worked for Steelhead and Salmon when drifting, in clear or dark water, day or night. I had also proven that glow hooks worked extremely well for Kokanee at night.

It is well known that glow lures work very well for squid off the coast. In fact, it is the best way to get squid. I have only done this once, but it was not even worth using a non-glow or non-lighted squid rig.

Now, after giving success stories, I must give the opposite. I purchased some glow in the dark crankbiats from Heddon in the early 80's. They would catch fish during the day, Bass and Walleye, but I bought them for night fishing. First the Walleye.

I had a lake that was extremely rocky, vertical cliffs, broken outcroppings, long points, really weird structure. Trolling bottom bouncers was out of the question and trolling lures was a case of backing up and using drop and bounce lure retrievers all the time to free them. The only method that worked for me was the cast and retrieve so I could keep better control of the lures. I would work the shoreline with crankbaits for Walleye ranging from 16 to 30 inches, usually using perch or crawfish patterns, sometimes rainbow trout patterns. This worked well during the day, but I wanted to try night so thus the glow lures. I started fishing in late afternoon and was catching fish right to dark using the normal lures. As it started to get later I changed over to the glow and it continued to catch fish, until dark, at which time it stopped cold. I fished hard for a couple of hours and nothing, not a hit. On the way back to the launch (I was fishing from a canoe so frequent stops was normal), I decided to grab the other rod and toss the crayfish pattern. I started to catch fish again. So I tossed the glow and again, nothing. I switched back and forth all night and the only time I caught fish on the glow lure was after the lure had gone without being charged and was now lightless (at least to my eyes). I have had similar experiences on Walleye several times after that. Even today, I have a lot of commercially produced glow gigs and I find that they do not work as well as the non-glow.

Largemouth Bass are known for their sometimes aggressive strikes at night, and I figured that during the heat of the summer that a more visible lure would be the way to go. After all, I had the glow crankbaits and I had some glow skirts on some spinnerbaits. I won't go into details, but the same results were had as with the Walleye. At night, the dark lures worked best, the glow only worked when they were extremely faint or the light was gone (at least to my eyes).

I discussed this with Larry one time and he told me that years ago the State of Minnesota did a study on glow lures and Walleye. They found that the Walleye would ignore the bright glow and were attracted to it only when it was very very faint. He also told me that he tried glow in the dark for perch and crappie under the ice. He observed that if the jig had a lot of glow that they would either shy away or ignore it, BUT if he only had a single piece of glow flashabou tied into the skirt the fish would rush right up to the jig, stop short, then suck in the bait (as observed with a fish finder). He did indicate that some saltwater species, I believe he mentioned Marlin specifically, were extremely attracted by light.

My conclusion to all of this is that not every species reacts the same to lighted lures, just as all species do not see the same colors. Some species seem to be turned off by bright lights, while some seem to be strongly attracted. If I were fishing for Bass, I would leave my glow lures at home during the night, but.........

I like the idea of highlighting the lure with glow paint. I expect that this might give the extra attraction without turning the fish off. As for having caught the 6 pounder with a bright glow, well you might have just caught a very aggressive fish that day. As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day. LOL

I do hope your studies and experiments result in positive results.

Steve

Edited July 6, 2014 by Anglinarcher

[Anglinarcher]

Bob, I just got to thinking, being you vertical jig, how long is are the lures in the water before you are getting strikes?

 

Is it possible that the glow is almost gone before the strikes occur?

 

In those conditions, I use fluorescent colors, or black and white.  I find metallic spoon colors to be useless at that depth for sure.

[BobP]

I use the Glonation acrylic greenish white paint on jigging spoons and do not charge them up because I've found that natural sunlight, even on a cloudy day, is sufficient to get them emitting.  The glow duration of paint varies greatly depending on the color you are talking about, from an hour or two to 12-14 hours.  The intensity varies according to the size and number of glow grains the paint contains.  Water clarity is also critical, of course.  Fish can't hit what they can't see.  The stuff I use is supposed to glow 8-10 hrs, if memory serves.  I don't fish at night so can't comment on that.  But I can't imagine there's much light 55-70 ft deep in a moderately clear water reservoir on a cloudy day, which are typical fishing conditions for me.  I also note that I don't jig until I locate bass actively feeding on a shad school, so it's a very defined circumstance.  Nonetheless, the glow jigging spoons have made a night and day difference in my results in those circumstances compared to guys fishing chrome or gold metal jigging spoons.  It's usually fish after fish, often on the initial drop or within 1-2 snaps of the jig.  I get exactly the same results on white bass and stripers in lakes where they are available.  No walleyes or trout around here, unfortunately.

 

We're trading anecdotal information and trying to draw conclusions from it, which is not valid in any rigorous scientific sense.  There's precious little science on fishing lures! Readers have to accept anecdotes for what they are and draw their own conclusions.  Personally, I'm not so enamored of glow paint that I plan to use it on crankbaits, although I've tried it on a lipless crankbait and had no luck with it so far (but have not given it an honest try-out yet).

[Anglinarcher]

Bob,

 

I concur, there is precious limited science regarding recreational fishing, fishing lures specifically, but there is some that is noteworthy.

 

Additionally, I agree, we are trading anecdotal information, but as an Engineer, a Physicist, and a general science dude myself, I propose my observations are a little bit more then just anecdotal evidence.  Nevertheless, lacking the resources and the ability to create controlled experiments (although Doug Hannon did something like that many hears ago for the original Color Selector), the best we can do is trade anecdotal information until we get a data set sufficient to approximate something we can get statistical data sets.  Data sets from which we can simulate results and create an Hypothesis.  Hopefully we can continue to trade this Anecdotal Evidence.

 

I offer that the science of what is visible to fish is known, but the question of what triggers or attracts fish is not.  The following is a link to a YouTube video that seems to at least explain why metallic spoons do not work as well as your glow spoons at the depth you are fishing, and why I use Black or White or Fluorescent colors at that depth.

 

 

The guy who puts this on is WWW.makewoodenlures.com and the titles are Lure Colors Part 1, 2, 3, and 4.  I don't agree with all he says, but then again, as an Engineer, we are known for not agreeing with each other, so why would I be expected to agree with all he says.  LOL

 

I propose that by fishing for fish that are already feeding, the glow provides the visual target and the frenzy eliminates the fear.  Your method is brilliant, and explainable.  I can see why it works so well for you.  Next time you go out, try using a white spoon and a Fluorescent spoon at the same time and see if there is a notable difference??????

 

This thread is proving to be interesting............. MORE DATA, MORE DATA PLEASE!

[BobP]

I'm less sure that what different species of fish can see is settled science.  Obviously, it's quite different from humans.

 

I don't think we are a cross purposes when considering fluorescent versus glow in the dark paint, but it can be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with the differences.  GITD paint absorbs energy when it is charged by a light source and then emits it over a period of time. It is exactly like charging a battery.  Once charged, it will shine at any depth and in complete darkness without the need for further light stimulation.  Fluorescent paint is passive and requires some wavelength of light to hit it to shine.  We also have UV sensitive paint that fluoresces under UV light.  The fluorescence of the latter paints drops off as they move to greater and greater depth and are hit by less and less light.  Most bass fishing is done at 25 ft deep or less, so the differences may not matter as much unless you fish deeper.

 

Learning occurs mostly through day to day anecdotal experience so you can't discount its value.  You pile up experiences over the years and try to distill what it all means so your get to be a better fisherman.  But it is very easy to get it wrong when we are fishing in circumstances where there are always many uncontrolled variables that may combine to determine whether we catch a fish or not.

[Anglinarcher]

Good feedback Bob.  More specific, fluorescent paint converts available light of any visible light spectrum, and UVA and UVB, into a specific color.  So, if we have a fluorescent green paint, and blue light, it fluoresces as fluorescent green.  But, as stated, the intensity of the fluorescent color is directly proportional to the intensity of the total available light - UV or visible spectrum.

 

Glow in the dark paints absorb photons, light energy, and emit them without any additional light for a specific amount of time, depending on the pigment type, concentration of pigment, and also the color of pigment.  If you have glow green, it glows green no mater what the depth, darkness, etc.  I concur that the newest glow pigments are charged by much lower concentrations of light so you do not need to charge them with a light source before use, at least during the day.

 

One additional piece of the puzzle is the new paints designed to reflect or react to UV.  These are the latest rage, and I see a lot of pro's selling them, but the reality of rather it is even visible to fish is as of yet unknown.  For example, in clear water, pure salt of fresh water, UVA and UVB will penetrate to quite some depth, but........ add almost any contaminate, to include organic matter (plankton), mud, or dissolved minerals, and both can be halted at a few inches in the water column.  In short, the UV paints are probably useless in most fresh water environments, of limited importance to the rest of the freshwater environments, and of limited value in most inshore saltwater environments, but without an actual UV meter at any given depth, there are just so many variables that impact UV light that it is hard to rule it either in or out of importance.

 

I do have some issue with the claim that we don't know what fish see.  We do know that they have rods (black and white vision) and cones (color vision).  We do know how to take cell samples from the fish eye, expose it to light, and detect either electrical changes or chemical changes, proving that the specific light waves are detected.  We do know that if we expose the cells to green, and they react, that the fish sees the green light.  We really don't care if the fish THINKS that it is purple, or if we see it as red, all we care is that they can react and see that light wave associated with our test.

 

Not all species have been tested, but it is known that trout and Salmon see near red to near UVA.  Yes, that means that they see in the UVA range, which only people without an eye lens can see (very rare disorder).  We do know that carp and the minnows see the same range, plus near infrared.

 

We also know that Walleye can only see Green and Red........... or more specifically that these two colors are the colors that stimulate the eye cells the strongest.  More clarity is needed to explain why so may walleye are caught on yellow.  When a color is focused on the cone cells, that light color is picked up strongest in a specific range.  Some cones are more sensitive to one color, other cones another color.  Still, colors at the peak wave that stimulates give the biggest result, but colors near it still give some stimulation, lessening the farther you get from the peak.  In short, yellow may not be the strongest peak, but yellow green stimulates and orange stimulates.  The same is true at the Green range as you move toward blue.  Still, I hear all the time that someone did well on purple.  In reality, purple is a mix of blue (limited sensitivity in walleye) and red (strong sensitivity).  In water where red is available, it makes complete sense.  When it is too deep for red, then a limited reaction to the blue light with the green cones as well as the contrast with the background like black does explains the rest.

 

Bass?  I have not studied what Bass can see, but as mentioned before Doug Hannon did that for the original color selector.  That study was a long time ago, and I have not bothered to critique it, but a lot of people claim the color selector works.  I understand that the parameters of the test were not as scientific as perhaps many of us would like, but again, anecdotal experience by many seems to support his conclusions.

 

I do wish we had more scientific studies on game fish to confirm what cones are stimulated, but then again, if we knew it all, where would be the fun.  LOL