When the heat of summer drives trout and salmon into the cold, dark, depths, UV Bright finishes will help fish see and strike your Luhr-Jensen bait.

“The deeper you fish, the darker the strike zone,” explains seasoned Northwest angler and fishing writer Carmen Macdonald. “Light just can’t penetrate as deep as fish are holding this time of year. But UV Bright finishes are like a lighthouse in the fog, helping fish find your baits.”

Salmon and trout anglers have long relied upon Luhr-Jensen® Everglo™ finishes to bring visibility to low-light and deep-water haunts. And although Everglo paints glow longer and stronger than traditional glow finishes, they do require recharging at intervals for maximum effectiveness. UV Bright, however, requires no charging, as it reflects ultraviolet light to stand out in the dark. That’s because ultraviolet light penetrates deeper into water than visible light. (For more on the science, jump to the second sub-head below).

“The introduction of Luhr-Jensen UV Bright brought immediate positive feedback from top anglers that were simply catching more fish,” Macdonald recalls.

UV Bright finishes are now available on Dipsy Divers®, Jet Divers™, J-Plugs, Kwikfish, Coyote Flashers and spoons, Shoehorn and Krocodile® spoons, as well as top trout performers like the Needlefish and Kokanee Needlefish.

“Whether you’re fishing for smaller trout and kokanee, or trophy salmon and lake trout, tie on UV Bright Luhr-Jensen lures in all our low-light fishing situations,” Macdonald advises. “When fish are deep, early in the morning, late in the evening, or whenever skies are heavily overcast.”

Why are the fish so deep now?
Warm, summer surface-water temperatures drive cold-water species like trout and salmon to deeper water. Most often, they head to the thermocline, the subsurface layer of water where hot surface water mixes with very cold water from the depths.

“In the thermocline, there’s food, oxygen and comfortable temperatures,” Macdonald. “That’s why the fish are there, and why we anglers must get our baits down to that level.”

Thermocline depths vary from lake to lake, based on fishery size and depth, surface water temperature and predominant winds. But one thing is consistent, very little visible light penetrates that zone.

How does light affect how fish find baits?
Although lure action and vibration will draw fish in for close inspection and attack, even in dim light, your chances at hooking up are better when the fish can hear and see the bait. The deeper you fish, the more difficult that becomes.

Visible light - the kind we shield our eyes from with a hand or a hat brim - comprises seven color wavelengths - red, orange, yellow, green, bue, indigo and violet. Water first filters out the red-orange-yellow wavelengths, the longest on the spectrum. As depth increases, eventually all visible light is absorbed or filtered out.

As visible light colors are obscured, it becomes more difficult to catch fish. That’s why Lure-Jensen’s UV Bright gives you an advantage.

That’s because fish eyes - unlike anglers’ eyes - are sensitive to both visible light and ultra-violet light. UV light, which comprises wavelengths that exist “beyond violet” and beyond colors visible to the human eye, penetrates deeper in the water column than does visible light, making UV Bright baits stand out where regular baits are obscured.

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