UV coated lures

What do you guys think does it help fish see the lure better or not

Im skeptical. Fish seen to find minnows alright. But I do run some wild colors that do produce better than naturals quite often. I perceive this to be a question that has different answers for different species as well as bodies of water.
Every year companies have to market something to sell more product. And every year we see more junk just tacked onto products that does not do anything to add to effectiveness. Mind you this is not only fishing products. As consumers we are constantly being bombarded by sales pitches wether we realize it or not.
If they are still around in a few years I guess we will know the true answer to that question.

I dont know what the fish see but I know there were many days in my boat last year where UV jigs were the top producer. I was skeptical at first if it would make a difference but I did just go pick up some UV cranks for this year

I’m a believer. I don’t think that they’re magic, but in conditions when fishing stained water with algae bloom (e.g.) Lake Wisconsin in the summer, UV crank-baits have outfished non-UV crankbaits when fished side by side a number of times in my boat. That isn’t really scientific and other factors certainly could have been responsible such as sound and/or action but results are results…

True uv light is invisible to the human eye, but there are places along the spectrum where we can catch glimpses of it. In the pic below, both of the top two baits have a uv enhanced pearl white belly section. The pearl white in the hand is really pretty washed out and almost thin looking. I used scrap plastic in these baits to try out a new mold.

The bait in the center is shadowed and just looks whitish. The bait at the top has some sun hitting it on the belly color and you can see how it almost glows. The uv component in this case is mixed right into the raw plastic before it gets heated. And in the case of plastic such as these, transparent colors and the whites and opaque pearls like oystershell really seem to be much brighter when the uv enhancer used.

Jig heads and other baits can get a dose of it either in top coat of poder paint variety which is just a clear with the uv component added. Sprays and dippable liquid round out the options for using the stuff.

The theory is that uv light penetrates much deeper in water than the light which our eyes are able to see, even in dirty water. Fish are supposed to have eyes that are sensitive to uv light in both the visible and invisible bands, so its thought that any uv enhancement given to or applied to baits makes them much more visible to fish at depths we never thought possible.

The glitch is whether or not the fish hit things coated with it intentionally or if they’d hit it anyway. I can’t say since i’ve only toyed with the stuff recently, but I do have several styles of plastics enhanced with it and waiting for open water when some more pointed data can be gotten. Sure makes that ruddy white light up though.

I don’t think the UV paint scheme qualify as magic but then nothing does. I did see a couple days walleye fishing this past summer and one day of fishing lakers / salmon where the UV cranks out-fished everything else handily. That doesn’t sound all that impressive until you consider I didn’t get my hands on the UV cranks until right at the end of the season and barely had a chance to try them.

So my conclusion is they’re worth a look. So far I’ve had success with them with minimal use and that’s always a good sign.

In really stained water where visibility is nil, the vibration is what draws them in. Once they get there, the UV paintjob probably helps them zero in on the bait.

Does that sound about right?

I’ve had excellent success with UV painted lures on Lake Michigan for salmon & trout. They were our top producing baits all last summer on the big pond.

As for inland lakes & rivers, I really have not tried them yet.

Thanks for the input guys