Some people swear by UV, others not convinced. Does it have magical properties in the eyes of fish? May be depth dependent, and light dependent?
So, as mentioned in the current top 3 softbaits thread, while bored last winter I did a bit of research of my softbait collection's UV reactivity.
In complete darkness in the garage, I shone a UV (blue light) torch over the tubs and packets.
Interestingly, Gulp New Penny had absolutely no reaction to the torch, but I've caught some of my best snapper using that colour over sand. Note, Z Man New Penny does have some UV (see below). Most of the baitfish or natural colours had no reaction. Perhaps, in the manufacturing stage, it's hard to inject UV qualities in lighter greys, silvers etc?
Then there's the 'lumo' qualities that some baits have. Also mentioned below. May be more of a factor in deeper water or low light conditions.
For what it's worth, my findings were (and i don't have every colour by any means, this is just observations of the ones I have):
Highest UV reaction:
Z Man
Nuked Chicken
Electric Chicken
Motor Oil
Atomic Sunrise/Coral Trout
Fusilier (chartreuse part only)
Sexy Mullet/Sexy Penny (chartreuse part only)
Baby Bass
Space Guppy
Laguna Shrimp
Coconut Ice
Gulp
Nuclear Chicken
Lime Tiger
Satay Chicken
Blue Fuse
Pink Shine
Orange Tiger
Moderate UV reaction (sort of a dull glow)
New Penny
Shiner
Houdini
Bruised Banana (belly only)
Redbone (belly only)
Nuked Pilchard
Because they have lumo content (hence the 'glow' in their name) the Nuked Pilchard, Coconut Ice, Redbone all glowed in the dark after being charged by the torch.
Also, because I had some Motor Oil shads mixed with some non-UV treated lures such as Smoky Shad, I noticed the Motor Oil had leached a bit of tint and UV properties into the other lures. That doesn't seem to happen with other colours - eg. Atomic Sunrise doesn't leach. Motor Oil has some serious juju.
A number of people have listed Chartreuse colours in their top three, and they would almost certainly be strongly UV, but also fluorescent (highly visible in dirty water or poor light conditions). No coincidence it's a classic lure colour.