There have been a few threads recently discussing Glow In The Dark materials utilized in Fly Applications. While GID material has been around for a bit in the soft plastics markets, such as DOA & BA, it’s been much slower to develop with the fly folks, so here’s the $10,000.00. Are any of you using Glow Materials as the primary, seconday or accent in any of your patterns, if so do you utilize this primarily as at night, dirty water or day application? Now comes the interesting part, what has been your experience tying and fishing these materials? For example, whats patterns have been most successful and what specific tweaks, types or brands of materials do you have the most confidence in either tying or fishing? In closing, if anyone has any further thoughts or experiences on this topic please feel fee to jump in and contribute, there have been some really good information shared recently in several of the other fly threads so let’s keep’em coming! Many of lookers and readers need to turn into comtributors, who knows a few of us may even learn a thing or two and even catch a couple of more fish…who would of thunk it!
There seems to be a lot of Snook & Spec patterns used in FL for night fishing, anyone have any Pic?
While there is a TON of glow in the dark stuff in the market, you have to keep in mind that all materials are NOT created equal. I have found that the paint I buy from Glow Inc. to be the brightest stuff by far. It can at times be a pain in the ass to wait for coats to dry etc. but in the end I have a fly that will light up my entire room-no kidding this stuff is bright (think freshly broken glow sticks). In the past I would use glow in the dark flash and wrap areas I wanted to glow, but the glow was minimal. Since I found this stuff I use it exclusively and have been VERY happy. It adheres well to thread, so if you just want just a slight glow as is found in most marine bioluminescent life, you can do this and then follow with a couple coats of hard as nails.
Here is a link to the various paints I use:http://glowinc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=2
2005 1442LW Alumacraft With Camo Clad System
2006 25hp Yamaha Four Stroke
i have just used the flashaboo as well.
as for experiments, well im still waiting on a glow in the dark deer. im sure some dogooder will eventually introduce them as a “traffic safety” measure. it would make tying simple with glow bucktails. might hurt the spotlight business in a certain class of “hunters”. maybe a glow rabbit would work better. bet the coyotes would vote yes.
i have been surprised at how well LED lights charge up the glow. even if the light isnt so bright the glow charge is very quick. i will have to try that paint.
in nature most of the bioluminescense is relatively small, breeding seperator patterns. the glow squid is an exception. it uses the ink to expose whatever is pursuing it. this is a good thread topic i think. thanks jmb
pawleysI
we dont need no reservations we dont need no cruise control
Your absolutely right when it comes to the amount and quality of glow pigment that’s used in the manufacturing process. There have only been a couple of different manufacturing sources of the actual glow pigment and it’s been my personal experience that some are much better than others. The problem with playing around with this stuff is that it’s just too darn messey to mix and play around with the unprocessed material. I’m also not convenienced that it’s the healthiest idea. In a former life I played around with some soft plastic bait desinges and had different injecting plants scattered accross the country which make all shorts of different types of soft plastic baits, from FinsFish to Super Flukes, Grubs, Worms. Trailers & Tubes. the variance between different brands and types of colored dyes and pigments is huge as is the color formulas as well as thier interaction with other colored dyes, pigments and flash that’s used in the composition of the bait. You would be amazed how something as simple as poly flake can have on a baits look in and out of the water. Folks were stunned how such a small change in something as simple as a diffent type, size, color or color combination of flake could have such an outcome on how the bait looked. Unfortunately most of the Big Boys are way too conservative and tight to play around with their formulas and color combination so once they find something that sells in a specific style or size, they have a tendency to stick with what sales and not rock the boat. But that’s another story for another day, so with all of that said, you will noticed a definite increase in illumination with specific brands and amounts of glow materal. There is also an effect on how long the charged patriciples last before they have to be recharged. Unfortunately the better brands that glow the most and last the longest are also the most expensive. To get the same effect with a less expensive product, you have to use more glow material to get the same or a brighter effect, so theres is a definate trad
Hey Pawleysi, when you find that Day Glow Deer, I want some Belly Strips! By the way, I’ve been looking for “Tat Same Silly Wrabbit” for a while but haven’t had no luck, if I find him, I’ve got ya back! How are you coming on your Cajun Crokers?
ive been lazy. i think some of the avocado mixes come closest. its hard to translate screen color to dye color. i have to wait til the kitchen is “unwatched” for a few hours. i found a color chart somewhere . i think it was for cake icing but they give the mixes to get a lot of shades. some of them are primary colors but a lot of them are mixes of mixes and i didnt backtrack yet.
there are only a few FDC colors out there as far as i can tell so it cant be too complex. i shud get the formula worked out so i can scarf the after easter markdowns.
for the glow animals i dont think it would be too tough. you just splice the gene for lightning bug juice into the critter. theyve done it with quite a few things already for biotech. i remember glow tobacco from my bio text back in the 70’s but i havent kept up. dont know if theyve done animals or not. also not sure if it would still work after the animal has deceased, or been sheared. it would definitely be better if it was in the material rather than a coating.
i did a paper on bioluminesence back then. i remember that all of the deep fish used and could only see blue. but there was one guy that had a red flasher on his head so he could see everybody but they couldnt see him. bet it would be cool to sit down there with the engines off for a while. very sparse but cool.
we dont need no reservations we dont need no cruise control
I hear ya, you may be onto something big with the Glow Bug concept, give me a shout once you get it dialed in! Happy hunting with your quest for the perfect colored Easter Egg!