UV a factor in soft bait colours?

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    Posted: 12 Jan 2017 at 9:55pm
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Titanium
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Folks, what do you reckon about the value of UV colours in soft baits? I was in Smart Marine the other day and the topic came up during a chat with the in-store guru and fishing mag writer Johnny Pearce.
He mentioned the greeny/brown Z Man 'Motor Oil' is one that glows under a UV torch.

So last night I checked out my lure collection under my squid fishing torch in the garage.
Very interesting. The Motor Oil certainly lights up. So does the Redbone Glow (which actually says UV on the label). The Gulp Curried Chicken lit up big time. The Z Man 'New Penny' glowed, but only the belly part. The Nuked Chicken Z man was very bright.

I wonder if UV in the body material it makes a difference - maybe gives a lure an edge on a hard day? And at what depth does it start to have an impact?

I remember Lethal saying the Electric Chicken Z Man was his favourite colour out deep, and that definitely lights up in comparison to say the popular Bruised Banana.

Your thoughts?

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote PJay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 12:10pm
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Yes, there's been a theory about for years that it's not so much the scent as the UV reflection that works best for some of the Gulp! SBs.
 
Johnny's a scientist and worthy listening to.
PJ
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 3:00pm
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As you say, PJ, in the line angles thread, it's good not to over-complicate things. But i tend to try to learn and improve my catch rate by reading and trying out new things, rightly or wrongly!

So I'm thinking about the UV thing. And another other concept I'm trying to get my head around is about how colours are visible in certain light.

i read that if the sea appears more green than blue - which it typically is in the inshore Waitemata unlike your neck of the woods - it means green light is being absorbed more in that situation. And therefore green lures will be more visible to the fish in that water than blue ones, for example. That was my take on what i read, anyway.

I doubt scent or UV etc is much of a deciding factor when fish are zoned in on baitfish (more probably stuff like large eyes and a bit of flash), but when snapper are grubbing on the bottom in dirty ish water I reckon UV might be a reasonable factor.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Stripstrike Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 4:18pm
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An interesting thread TTK. I have been wondering the same thing with UV on metal lures, particularly with various Japanese slow pitch jigs now available with UV paint or coatings. 

Presumably UV will come into its own when fishing the heavier jigs in deeper waters, although from the diagram below UV is still a factor at those depths typically fished with softbaits.



Although it is dependent upon water clarity, it seems that the long colour wavelengths like red will be visible in the shallows and the shorter wavelengths like blue will be visible in the deep.

The chart below will relate to the water clarity of one specific body of water that was tested and should not be directly compared to the 40 metre mark in the Hauraki Gulf, but the gradual reduction in the spectrum wavelengths would be typical.





So I ask the question, is it the colour of my slow pitch jigs (my first choices being orange or red/pink zebra patterns) the UV coating, or the action of these jigs that is doing the job in 40-50 metres of water?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 4:37pm
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Good input, mate.

I know that Mr Senior made a big deal about the UV blasts on his Jitterbug inchiku jigs. Maybe marketing spin, maybe not.

As you'd know, it's been a 'thing' in fly tying as well, particularly internationally. i know my Tongariro 'egg' flies, which are basically beads given to me by mates in Australia, light up like Christmas trees under a UV torch. They are deadly, so maybe it's important in low light conditions. I try to incorporate a bit of UV material (dubbing) in flies, particularly for deeper water.
I'm sure the good ol' Hare & Copper and Pheasant Tail are totally devoid of any UV, but their appeal lies in general imitative buggyness.

It's always made me wonder when someone like Nik Key (Snap) rates the green and red Candy Apple colours as his number one in 50m, yet supposedly red is brown from about 10m down.
Now that I've seen the Nuked Chicken light up (mainly the green bit), maybe it's the UV/glow/fluorescence that is the key with them, rather than the red (brown)/green?

With the fishing fairly average at the moment, and a full moon, it's a good diversion to think about what might create an edge!

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote muchalls Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 6:26pm
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Personal experience? UV striped slow jigs seem to work best, and Motor Oil Z Man saved the day this week, turning an empty bin into a feed.
I'll need to check my fave ZMan New Penny Paddle Tails....
Top tip, Black Magic UV LED light week worth the investment
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan 2017 at 11:04pm
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I've got a little Black Magic UV torch. One of the small black ones. In my opinion, it has one major design flaw - no metal ring to attach a string or lanyard to for hanging off your neck or pocket strap etc.

Crazy, given the chances are the angler has damp hands and it's likely to be dark and probably cold.

Let me know what you see with your Paddlerz, but in the curly tail, the belly glows a greeny tinge, but the back glitter part doesn't. Johnny mentioned that. 

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote CBF-Whk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Jan 2017 at 3:00pm
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Funny motor oil and new penny are two of my go too colors,

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2017 at 6:03pm
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I messed around with this around 3 /4yrs back
Was painting my softbait heads, and stuff sinkers  with a UV paint...and using UV tubing

Since the subject has come up again I decided to head out to the shed close all the doors, no lights near as pitch black and flick the UV light thru the draws and gear
 Went like this
Old sinkers had painted and UV tubing ... glow under UV  turn light off keeps glowing
Flasher material.. including UV flasher.. some glows brillant under the light.. turn off no glow
Fancy softbait heads.. again glow with light on.. reds, pale yellows greens, turn light off ... no glow
Squid lures...most  glowed under the light and kept glowing light off.
 trolling/ popper lures etc   ..some kept glowing , some stopped with ligh off other no glow
Soft baits...lot glowed with light on , turn light off they either stopped glowing fast or no glow... couple Z man kept glowing good.
Braid... some glowed bright under UV, but turn light off no glow
 Black magic sticker label on the fluro " suitable for softbaiting" big glow turn light off no glow

So which is actually Florescence?
 what is considered UV?
 one thing that is sure both are totally different
 So what is sales pitch what is not?
 What is best and where?
 and do some colours just glow under UV?....rem this from my old physics classes... how a light of a certain colour will only show up that colour and everything else will be black.
yellows , orange and some greens seem very prone to glow under UV   red etc just stay black in a dark room

I do know the squid lures that keep on glowing work best.
And when painted the soft bait heads so glowed after ther uv light off , that seemed to work better.. as to what the soft baits did.. havnt a clue.. never considered them back then...
n UV glow on the sinkers seemed to help attract fish to the baits.
 The flasher... works well , bit of an edge in shower waters depending on colours.. never really caught a fish unless they where baited thu... but once bait had gone, could still feel fish  nibble or tap the flasher.. so that attracted , got their eye, maybe if up wind of the bait smell?

Till now have only sort of matched softbaits to what bait fish around and size....
So may revisit a play this again ...
Already marked the softbait containers
 "Glow"   "glow light on" and  "no glow"
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote The Tamure Kid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Jan 2017 at 8:24pm
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Titanium
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Haha, someone looking from a distance might have called the cops reporting a burglary Steps! I thought the same thing when I was down in the garage with the blue UV glow going on and off.

I'm guessing there are three types of glow:
  • lumo (luminescence)
  • UV
  • fluorescence.
I'm not a technical expert, but having fished with lumo flies at Lake Okataina in the pitch black and slayed the trout, I know it can be deadly in the dark and low light. I think it's a big factor for deep fishing in salt water (hence the glow sticks and lumo tubes etc for hapuku) and Sam Mossman used to write about lumo sinkers for shallow water straylining.

I consider lumo to be the straight glow, which often lasts after turning off the torch - as you reported. That doesn't need a UV torch to be effective. For squidding, Stripstrike put me on to a very powerful head lamp which is much, much more effective than my UV torch for creating the glow. Interestingly, a lot of top night flyfishers use old-school camera flashes to light up their lumo flies.

I found the UV torch lit up some softies, but the glow didn't last when turned off. So true UV that seems to attract fish in daylight.

And the ones which fluoresced also died out after the torch went off. So ditto re daytime effectiveness.

The manufacturers don't seem to impregnate the baitfish colours with UV as it's normally a shallow water scenario, and probably dying flutter movement/large eyes/flash of alarm, are bigger strike factors?
It's down deeper in the murk that UV etc comes into its own. 

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Steps Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Jan 2017 at 7:56am
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Titanium
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Stripstrike put me on to a very powerful head lamp which is much, much more effective than my UV torch for creating the glow. Interestingly, a lot of top night flyfishers use old-school camera flashes to light up their lumo flies.

 We have a LED hand spot light that we put the squid lure under for a few mins and glows for quite a while... and after a few casts clip the next one on as the 1st looses its glow
The sinkers I painted the same , but since day time, a good dose in the sun  on the bait board does the same thing

I found the UV torch lit up some softies, but the glow didn't last when turned off. So true UV that seems to attract fish in daylight.
 
4 of my softbaits continues to glow.. not as well as the squid lures thu... now wondering maybe inject some uv paint inside them??  work in progress for next trip out maybe?
Very surprised the soft bait 'glow' heads did not keep glowing thu...
 It seems to me from limited experience that soft baits dont work well at night, but baits do...this could be a reason?
 On the other hand.. looking at the excellent info illustrated in posts where the blues and UV penetrate deep into the water, many of the 'non continue to glow' lures( ie are able to still reflect) etc would still glow...
but will they still reflect the predominately yellow/ green colours that deep?  or just the blues?


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