UV

[Bass Boys]

Am I correct to think it's better to use UV additive for dark or stained water over clear water lakes??

[ctom]

In plastic I add the uv enhancer in every batch I make, but I don't over-load plastic with it. The stuff is potent and very little is needed to get results. Too much and your baits will appear blue in the water regardless of the color. In 4 ounces of plastic I add a small ball of the enhancer about the size of a b-b.

[Bass Boys]

 Thank you !

[efishnc]

The short answer is both... UV comes into effect as visible light diminishes... so the darker (stained) the water, or the deeper the lure (in clear or stained water), or whenever sunlight fades (with heavy clouds or into night), UV becomes more of a player. 

You'll find a few threads on the forum related to this subject if you do a search.

[Bass Boys]

The short answer is both... UV comes into effect as visible light diminishes... so the darker (stained) the water, or the deeper the lure (in clear or stained water), or whenever sunlight fades (with heavy clouds or into night), UV becomes more of a player. 

You'll find a few threads on the forum related to this subject if you do a search.

This is what I have picked up from some of the threads I have searched on this forum,
 thanks !
 I have the liquid UV but have not really used it much .

[efishnc]

I have the liquid UV but have not really used it much .

I do as well... I consider it a must for night fishing.

[ctom]

UV enhancer works by concentrating the uv bands of light found in the sun's light. Moon light in nothing more than reflected sun light so the enhancer works even at night especially so when there is any degree of moon light not blocked by clouds.

[Bass Boys]

UV enhancer works by concentrating the uv bands of light found in the sun's light. Moon light in nothing more than reflected sun light so the enhancer works even at night especially so when there is any degree of moon light not blocked by clouds.

so on a full overcast day it has no effect on the bait color ?

[ctom]

At night with clouds the amount of uv light that fish see may be hampered. During the day clouds are not as significant. UV enhancer does not change anything about color other that if too much is in the plastic it makes the surface appear to have a thick bluish film on the surface when in the water. I had a pint of the liquid enhancer and gave it away because it was so hard to prevent the baits from looking blue all the time. Ideally a bait should show what WE see as just a hint of the bluish sheen in the water in bright sunshine. Just a hint. At that level fish will see a whole lot more.

[efishnc]

so on a full overcast day it has no effect on the bait color ?

The more heavily overcast (or more accurately, the more visible light light goes away), the more UV comes into play.

Ctom is right in that cloudy nights limit the remaining UV from the sun/moon (and other stars), but the caveat to nighttime cloud cover is fishing near artificial light that produces UV bands.  I'm not sure how today's LED lights play into this, but the outdoor lights of the not too distant past that employed electric arcs produced UV light, which would include metal halide, mecury vapor,  sodium vapor, and even fluorescent lights to some extent... (I remember the first time I did some extensive welding without sleeves and the resulting "sunburn" on my arms that was far worse than anything I got at the beach or fishing)... more than once (while night fishing below the locks and dams here on the Mississippi) I have seen the fish suddenly turn on when the lights were turned on for an approaching barge.

[ctom]

In the good old days.....been there a long time now. With the increase in skin cancer awareness, many if not all manufacturers of lights and lighting have mandates in place to filter or stop uv light transmission especially in closed areas and workplaces. As for welders....they wise up real fast. LE  lights are uv whimps.

There are two types of uv light, uv-a and uv-b. I'm not certain which is which but one is the cancer causing culprit Black lights and many of the uv chargers used for glow in the dark trinkets used the less invasive uv light. Sunlight, the arc from welding and quite a few un-shielded lighting lamps are the source of the insidious uv light, which is also the uv light wave that the uv enhancers work off from. If anyone is wondering if they have the proper amount of uv enhancer in their plastic, hit it with a black light. If the bait look like it could blinds you, you're using too much enhancer. You want a subtle bluish surface illumination while still seeing the bait color. If it glows like a bright light bulb, imagine what the fish are seeing and how they react to that....as in bye-bye, adios. Seen this on cameras under the ice and its pretty pointed. Same with too much glow-in-the-dark too.

[efishnc]

There is also a UV-C that comes from the sun/stars, and our ozone prevents all (except a very minute amount) of this from entering our atmosphere, so it generally should not be a factor in what we are talking about... with that said, I will also say that I do not know the UV make up of electrical arcs, so welding may or may not be a source of UV-C, but it is most definitely a source for UV-B and UV-A.  As for HID (typical outdoor) lights, here again I do not know the make up of the UV spectrum they produce, but I suspect it's enough to excite UV enhanced baits, yet not much more (since we don't get sunburn from these at night).

As you mentioned, black lights (or other specific UV producing lights) give us humans a loose idea of what the fish might see when our baits are enhanced with UV additives... bottom line, their definitely worth using!

[efishnc]