I've noticed that no two "glows" are created equal
. Aside from the fact that fish may prefer a weaker glow over a stronger glow, I'm looking for a strong, long-lasting glow. My little cleos are dead before I see them back
.
I have a few options, and wondering if anybody's tested various products before I go out and test them myself. I have the option of choosing a glow powder to bake, a pre-mixed glowing paint, a glowing tape, or even a glowing nail polish.
Has anybody tried a specific product they can recommend?
Phosphorescence is a photoluminescent where the electron in the phosphorescence molecule absorbs a photon of a particular wavelength, excites the electron into a higher energy state, and when the electron falls back into its resting state a photon of lower wavelength is released.
Phosphorescence is different from fluorescence in that a greater number of excited electrons can be trapped in a triplet state much longer before being emitted. That's why phosphorescent material can emit light from milliseconds up to minutes or even hours after the initial charge, where as fluorescence usually only last in the order of nanoseconds.
A material that can trap the excited electron in its triplet state for a longer period can emit these electrons later. That is, such material can "glow" for a longer period of time. A better material could also trap more excited electrons at the triplet state so you have more light emitted. With fluorescence, you don't want this triplet state to occur since it leads to the degradation of the fluorophore (ie, photobleaching). With phosphorescence, you want more of this triplet state.
Also, aside from the material, the emitting property of the glow also depend on the power of the charge. The greater power the charge, the more electrons are bumped into their excited state...until the number of excited electrons has saturated all the triplet states in the molecules of the material. But most of the time, I don't think this is actually achieved.
Here, test this out. Use a regular headlamp to charge the same spoon for 5 seconds and time how long the glow last. Now, take the same spoon after the glow has completely dissipated, then use a camera flash to charge the same spoon with a single flash. I can tell you from personal experimentation that the camera flash charge ALWAYS last longer. This is because there is much more power packed into that one quick flash than your headlamp can afford with 5 seconds of charge. So a light with higher lumens (measurement of photon output) will charge a glow spoon better. That is, a brighter light will charge the spoon longer. In this case, the duration of the charging period has little determination of the duration of the glow since the camera flash emits huge amount of photons in fraction of a second compared to the headlamp. If you use the same headlamp and charge the same spoon for 5 seconds longer (compared to 5 seconds), you will get a longer glow with the 10 second charge.
This is just background to think about when choosing a paint...the technical reasons why one paint is better than the other.
I have not tried different paints. Too much work to repaint lures...I don't have the time for it...but, I would say that a couple more coats of paint will give you a more phosphorescent molecules so that your spoons will glow longer (of course, you can't do 10 coats to make it last 10 times longer. Eventually you'll get too much scattering and absorption of the photons by the other components in the paint. Too many extra layers will simply attenuates your charge down to a certain depth). The option is not whether it is powder bake, pre-mixed or even your girlfriend's nail polish, but the type of phosphorescent molecules that is used in the paint. I personally don't know which is better...but it is for you to find out. (Different curing methods offers different durability though. I think the baked-on type is much more durable).
Also, in response to your other question regarding white light vs. UV light, just like fluorescent material, phosphorescent material may only be excited by certain wavelengths of light. There is always a loss of energy in the emission wavelength (ie, longer wavelength...more toward the red end of the spectrum), so the absorption wavelength is always higher in energy (ie, shorter wavelength...toward the blue end of the spectrum). A paint that requires UV excitation may not charge very well with a regular white LED because the amount of photons in the UV range is usually very low. Photons in the regular colour spectrum range will not charge the material (unless the material has a broader absorption spectrum extending into the violet and blue). Thus, if you have a UV excited paint, a UV LED light is best to activate that glow. It will take you a much shorter time to charge the spoon since the UV light emits more photon in the UV spectrum, thus the number of "right" photons being output for a given time is much greater than you can achieve with a white LED light.
I'm sure that some of the older white paint can also be charged with a UV LED light...since (most likely) the absorption spectrum has some UV components as well as some violet/blue component. It has to be in that region since the emission is in the green wavelength. I would think that material requiring UV excitation may emit a "bluer" wavelength...so the glow is greener and less yellow. It may appear brighter to our eyes because our eyes are more sensitive in the green region. The material that requires UV activation may also last longer simply because the property of the molecule traps the triplet electrons for a longer duration, and the only way these electrons can be excited is through the UV spectrum...whereas other material may not be able to trap the triplet electrons for that long regardless of how much UV you charge the molecule...it simply does not have the right property in the molecule.
I don't know...UV creates DNA damage though. It's mutagenic. I don't think I want to be shining UV light on my skin all the time. I'd rather paint my spoon with a glow material that excited with regular white light (ie, the absorption spectrum is in the violet/blue spectrum) rather than a paint that requires UV excitation. The former may not last as long...but I would rather charge the spoon for a couple of seconds after ever few casts than to shine UV on myself purposely.
Try industrial quality Glow powder, they claim to last a long time if proper Uv light is used. many sold on ebay. Some claimed to last for 6 hours . I have some of these glow powder, they last longer than any pre-painted lures sold in the market, never tested them that long based on manufacturers claim, I do shine them again with my Uv light after 10 minutes, takes less then few seconds to recharge them.
Sometimes I do believe, fish might get scared if the lure glows too bright, the advantage of strong glow lure is when water gets somewhat murky, then we need a lure that really glows.
I also caught many salmon without any glow on the lures, I used chartreuse or silver colored lure . the fish can see the lure at night. If the fish are in biting mode, they will hit on any lure.