Luminous or not?

[inicoll]

Hello
Most of my jigging is at night in 450 - 600+ft with 300-350g jigs, my question is do you think it is better (or necessary) to use luminous jigs bearing in mind it is night time fishing?
I use the luminous ones all the time but I have a load of non luminous ones that I have tried a few times but didn't get a hit! Perhaps because they were non luminous or perhaps I was just in the wrong spot at the time.
What are you opinions, lumo or not at night?

Ian.

[mythosbeer]

IMO, if you are bottom fishing at those depths...some glow will definitely benefit you. I've only jigged at night once so I don't have extensive experience. From that trip, we only got bit on glow jigs (in 160ft-200ft).

[Sea Draggin]

Based on feedback from my customers, the hot jigs at night for tuna on the rigs in the gulf this year were chrome or glow ones. But mainly chrome.

You can never go wrong with glow/luminous. I like a splash of color along with it though. Glow with yellow, blue, pink or orange.

[inicoll]

Thanks guys, I usually always use the jigs with a strip of lumo in them, just thought id'e get the pro's opinion.
Thanks for your answers.

Ian.

[shoefish]

Ian, I have a ton of confidence in lumo for just about everything. My go to jig is the shimano flat side in lumo as it has one side that's reflective and one side that's lumo- we seem to catch more on that jig than all of the others combined. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I feel that the reflective side draws in fish from a distance when it's bright, and the lumo draws them in if it's dark....a sort of best of both worlds if you will.

[inicoll]

Thanks Shoefish,
I also have better catches with a jig that are fully lumo on one side and reflective finnish on the other but I also seem to have even more luck with long jigs of the same design (about 9 inches or longer) rather than these shorter ones.
I just got hold of some very good luminous paint from a company in the UK called "Glowtec" so I will be customizing a few of my non luminous jigs when I get back home....oh why do we have to work..To buy more fishing stuff of coarse

[shoefish]

Yeah dude, I hear you- it's a disease. I can definitely see how the longer jigs would work better for you in really deep water, especially when there is a lot of current. If you think of it, throw a couple of pics up on here when you get the jigs all done up- I'd love to see how they came out.

[inicoll]

Oh oh...pressure is on to do a good job then! Can't be much worse that what I use to do...I got hold of some luminous tape (approx 5mm wide) and run this the entire length of the jig's belly, but of coarse this comes off to easily in the water after a bite or two. So, I do the exact same thing the next day but this time I use all the wife's clear nail varnish to coat the bottom half of the jigs covering the tape in an effort to seal it up.
Turns out nail varnish is not that hard after all! One bite and it is scratched through to the tape ripping it off!
So, next I again apply the tape then spray the whole jig with clear lacquer (for cars) but this acrylic lacquer doesn't agree with the original paint on the jig and it reacts horribly with bubbles an what not! But they still get bit
You may think "why don't I just buy luminous jigs" well I had lost most of them at that time to barracuda, was down to my last three and where I am in the Philippines you cannot buy jigs, you can't even get a fishing rod here! Plus I have approx. 50 non luminous ones that I would like to get the use of.
So, we will see what happens with the luminous paint.

Ian.

[jig42na]

I've had the same problems with clear coats not reacting nicely to paints. It really stinks when it happens. So I moved to using clear epoxies. When making our own jigs we would poor the lead, prime, paint, coat with epoxy. It turned out real nice and durable but then the primer would peal off the lead. I was told that it need to be an etching primer that reacted to metal.
So in stead i use no paint, no primer, just coat a couple jigs in epoxy, lay a piece of prism paper on one side, then the other or use luma on the other, then throw them in the vaccuum sealer and have them sit for couple hours to cure. We spray the bag down with releasent. When cured run a razor blade down the edges of the jig and the finish lasts better than any factory finish I've seen.
I don't know what you have access to in Phillipines but I would highly give this method a try.

[inicoll]

I've had the same problems with clear coats not reacting nicely to paints. It really stinks when it happens. So I moved to using clear epoxies. When making our own jigs we would poor the lead, prime, paint, coat with epoxy. It turned out real nice and durable but then the primer would peal off the lead. I was told that it need to be an etching primer that reacted to metal.
So in stead i use no paint, no primer, just coat a couple jigs in epoxy, lay a piece of prism paper on one side, then the other or use luma on the other, then throw them in the vaccuum sealer and have them sit for couple hours to cure. We spray the bag down with releasent. When cured run a razor blade down the edges of the jig and the finish lasts better than any factory finish I've seen.
I don't know what you have access to in Phillipines but I would highly give this method a try.

This sounds great, just what I would be looking for but as you correctly suspect finding the equipment here is a problem.
I am unfamiliar with this method, and am not sure what a "vacuum sealer" is and also "releasent", are these items that I could order over the internet? If so could you point me in the right direction?
When you say "epoxy" are you referring to the epoxy resins like glue? (clear)
Thanks very much for your detailed response.

Ian.