To Glow or Not to Glow

Hey folks, with all the glow jigs and spoons available now from large and small manufacturers I’d like to get a discussion going about their place in your ice fishing bag of tricks. I already have a bunch in my tackle box but I’m curious to know how you all use them. After a quick search of the forum I wasn’t able to find a comprehensive discussion of glow lures so I figured I would pose a few questions to the community…

What percentage of the time do you find yourself using glow rather than traditional patterns? As a follow up, do you prefer a specific glow color (green, red, blue, etc.)? I think that several factors may influence the choice of glow over traditional: time of day, weather, and lake clarity come to mind. Have any of you found specific conditions that call for glow over traditional? Another important question: Do you find that glow works better for some species than others? I’m looking forward to your responses!

Glow in color is unique in that it puts a color, say red, at depths where red isn’t a color but brown. Do glows work? You bet. They can also turn fish off if the jig is appearing too large because of the glow. Glow casts an “aura” around whatever it is that’s glowing and in murky water that aura might make even a small glow jig seem larger than what the fish feels it can eat. Try poking a small hole about the diameter of a toothpick in a matchbook cover and lay the jig under it so only the area under the hole gets charged. That tiny spot is all that’s needed to get any fish’s attention and helps to focus the hit specifically at it, not at a big glowing. non-distinct chunk sitting there.

Keep glow jigs and plastics in an inside shirt pocket where body warmth makes charging a lot easier. Sunshine is the absolute best source of light to charge jigs and glow plastics and a camera flash is hands down best right after the sun. Many of the plastic bags that jigs and plastics are sold in today have uv inhibitors in them which really curbs the ability to take a charge while still in the bag so take them out to charge them and don’t base any jigs/baits based on in-bag tests.

Thanks for your thoughtful responses! Already picking up some useful information.