I still read about Ultra Violet light as I believe crappie use UV light to help them to better catch prey.
Lord Attenboro did a series on color in the animal kingdom, and he covered ultra violet light. He shoed insects, frogs, birds, and creatures living in the sea, all using UV light to find prey items, and suitable mates. He also covered another subject matter known as Polarized light. That is light that exists in just one plane. Things that are said to be polarized appear dark against a light background, because most things are not polarized.
Imagine looking at something and I hand you a pair of sunglasses. Suddenly the objects appear differently. Each pair producing a different light effect. We forget that these other forms of light exist all around us because they come from the Sun, and we think about what we can see. Looks pretty to you means nothing to a fish. He also has the extra filtering of the water, which can be stained. What does a crappie see ?
Well answer is we don’t know, but UV light is definitely real and definitely affecting our lure appearance. I like to use a lot of UV enhancement as I see it as helpful in getting my lures noticed.
This is enhancement of UV reflectivity. The UV light is actually shining over top and not on them as when it is on them the glow over powers the camera lens and I get imperceptible imagery.
In low light conditions, as in early in the morning, UV reflectivity is noticeable even to my eye. Which has filters to prevent me from seeing too much UV light. Allowing UV light in to my retina would damage it over time and blind me. God gave me UV shielding so I can see three colors- trichromatic. Red- Blue-Yellow. We have lots of cones to see colors and can easily see an orange tiger hiding behind some rocks. Deer see orange as green and the tiger looks like a bush or rock or something. Tigers cannot produce green coloration, so they God went with orange. Which looks green to deer.
So there is only speculation as to what our little buddies the crappie can see, what they cannot see, and what role light plays in their lives as predators. I speculate they have an early advantage every day, because they can see the minnow and the minnow cannot see them. After the Sun is high the visible light we can see becomes dominant and the UV advantage diminishes. As the Sun sets, again they have an edge over the minnows. They hide under docks, because it is dark under there and the minnows cannot see the crappie, but the crappie use their UV advantage to capture prey as it swims through.
The lakes I fish are all murky. Either green or brown basically. These colors of water affect what the crappie can see. UV light penetrates much easier because of it’s rapid wave length, and that means at depth UV light is more important than visible, because the visible never made it down there. Remember those sunglasses ? Well I do not know what color red looks like to the crappie, it can appear to be green for all I care. Just so long as the colors I use on my lures can stand out against the background.
We all know chartreuse yellow is a good color for fishing. People who scuba dine used to wear these beautifully bright chartreuse yellow swim suits so they could be seen by other divers more easily. Soon those suits fell out of favor because the color was renamed- Yum Yum Yellow. Sharks like Yum Yum Yellow. Yum Yum Yellow really glows when it encounters UV light.
Crappie have camouflaged skin, much like the open ocean free dive spear fishermen utilize. They wear dark camo swim suits so they can get closer to their targeted fish. Crappie ease up slowly from the darkness below. Great White sharks attack from beneath where the prey cannot see them coming until too late. They can get up and after them too, but crappie like the slow rise from below.
Many plastic baits have UV enhancements even if not mentioned by the manufacturer. I shine my light on different plastics and can see this reflectivity. So when added to the jig head many plastic offer even greater visibility. I am using my best most reflective colors. Yellow, green and orange. The walleye fishermen have used UV enhanced spinner blades for decades. Now I am using them for crappie. They powder paint or air brush the blades. I simply use fingernail polish.
I just got the willow leaf blades today. I have Indiana blades and smaller french blades coming. I figure to offer a selection of different sounds and vibrations by using different blades. To go along with my many different colors and all the different profiles of plastic bait.
I read where a few of our best crappie fishermen use nothing but Road Runners to troll. That tells me that once a spinner bait gets dialed in, it will always be the best producer. I think there is a difference between RRs and these jigs. Look different, sound different, produce different vibrations. The way the blade hangs straight out from the swivel on these jigs, gives these blades an advantage. Spin faster, so spin earlier, too. Go slower and get same spin, go same speed get faster spin. RRs have the blade coming off at an angle to the swivel. This impedes the action.
RRs are effective when using feathers and buck hair and rabbit fuzz. Therefor these jig heads would also. I will be tying up some at some point. Right now I still think plastic is impossible to beat.
Maybe they will bite this one……