Western Outdoors - See Like A Fish
May, 2005
By John Beath
Simply put, fish see ultraviolet light and use it to find prey.
Dozens of new fishing products
fill our local tackle store shelves
each year. Some of the products
work well; others just take up
valuable space and end up in the discount
bin near the front door of the store. While
at the big Seattle Boat Show last January, a
couple of fishing buddies told me about a
new spray on product that improved their
catch two to seven times normal.
My first thought focused on a new
scent that would magically attract fish, but
my friends said no, this new spray on
product was not a scent. To the contrary,
this spray on formula called Fool-a-Fish
makes it super easy for fish to see lures or
baits from great distances, which explains
the drastic increased catches my fishing
friends excitedly explained.
Immediately I recalled writing my
PNW Angler column in May 2003, where
I wrote about increasing the fish’s ability
to see baits and lures. In that column I
explained how simply increasing the
visibility by a few inches greatly increases
the water volume surrounding the bait or
lure. In that column I wrote, “The size of
a sphere of water, D3 x .5236 determines
the volume of water. In other words, if you
have a lure that can be seen by fish just 12
inches away in all directions, multiply
12x12x12 times .5236, which equals
904.709 cubic inches of water.
If you can use a bait or lure that is
brighter and can be seen just two inches
farther away, the same formula proves that
the volume of water seen by fish increases
by 58 percent. If you select a lure or bait
that can be seen twice as far as your
original choice, you increase the volume of
area by an amazing 700 percent.”
The concept remains solid today,
especially with this new spray on fish
attracting formula. After talking with
several other anglers who tried the
product, all of which said this product
would “revolutionize” fishing, I tracked
down the inventor, Dr. Milan Jeckle.
Jeckle lives in Spokane, where he is an
M.D. and avid duck hunter with one year
of collage chemistry in his educational
background. His Fool-a-Fish formula
came about because of his original
product, Fool-a-Bird, a product designed
to act as an ultraviolet sunscreen on
decoys. While duck hunting, Jeckle
explained, ducks would flare away from
his decoys because they could see UV
reflecting off his decoys. Reasoning that
ducks shy away from unnatural colors and
reflected UV, he created a polymer-based
sunscreen for decoys. The product
worked, but also got him thinking about
fish, and how they use reflected UV to
spot their prey.
Jeckle found lots of research, including
a Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute
study that states, “UV vision has been
demonstrated in many marine species and
it has been conservatively estimated that
there is sufficient UV light for vision down
to 200 m in clear ocean water…Several
researchers have hypothesized that UV
vision is primarily used to improve
detection of planktonic prey, and some
have shown that the presence of UV light
improves the search behavior of certain
UV-sensitive zooplanktivorous fish.”
Simply put, fish see ultraviolet light and
use it to find prey. If you could see through
the fish’s eyes, objects, living or dead
would “light up” and create contrast, just
like putting a spotlight on the subject.
Using this scientific fact, Jeckle enlisted an
old friend, Dr. David Cleary, a university
chemistry professor, and created Fool-a-
Fish. Their formula uses the second most
reflective crystal in the world –Titanium
oxide. The oxide crystal acts like a million
tiny scales and reflects UV light at great
distances giving fish a vastly greater
chance to find baits and lures, even at
great depths. The Fool-a-Fish formula
uses a non-toxic polymer base to adhere
the Titanium crystals to the bait or lure.
“We are trying to reflect at 358
nanometers, the same frequency that fish
see Ultraviolet light,” explains Jeckle. “UV
light is like a long x-ray, that’s why it
penetrates so far and damages human skin.”
“To fish it dazzles,” explains Tom
Pollack, from Auburn Sports & Marine.
“My first test with the product I fished
with Larry Gonczy on Lake Washington.
We were fishing with jointed Rapalas for
over-sized perch. The night before the trip
I sprayed my Rapalas with Fool-a-Fish.”
With Pollack fishing with Fool-a-Fish
enhanced lures, Gonczy fished with the
same lures but smeared scent on his every
time he cranked them to the boat. By day’s
end, Pollack caught twice as many big
perch as Gonczy without using scent. In
addition, he caught an eight-pound coho
on the bottom of the lake.
“In thousands of hours pulling jointed
Rapalas, Gonczy has never caught a coho,”
explains Pollack. “If I would have used
scent with the Fool-a-Fish I’m sure I would
have increased my catch even more.”
Several steelhead anglers I know have
tried spraying their sandshrimp with Foola-
Fish the night before going fishing. For
an honest test they used sandshrimp
sprayed with the formula and an equal
amount of unsprayed sandshrimp. During
the trip, half of the anglers used enhanced
sandshrimp, half of the anglers used plain
sandshrimp. Most of the results I have
heard about came out the same – six or
seven steelhead caught on sandshrimp
sprayed with the formula compared to
astonishing. Several one hundred-pound
halibut were taken on the charter boat that
day, all of which went for the enhanced
baits. All totaled, the enhanced baits
caught seven out of ten halibut taken on
the charter boat.
During the upcoming fishing season I
will be conducting my own experiments,
including controlled experiments using
bait and lures sprayed with Fool-a-Fish.
As a long time believer in using Ultra
Violet light to attract fish, I cannot wait to
experience my own results with this new
fish-attracting formula. Who knows, the
anglers I interviewed for this story might
be right – this could be the next revolution
in fishing technology.
Even if you don’t give this new product
a try, you can take advantage of the UV
factor this coming season, if you
remember that fish see at depths where
human eyes would only see darkness. This
fact has helped several savvy tackle
manufactures create lures that reflect UV
and catch more fish. This information can
help us make better color choices when
selecting lures. When selecting lures try
using a black light (I use a small, AA
battery-powered black light) to pick out
lures that reflect Ultra Violet light. This
little trick has increased my catch ratio
because it helps me select lures that fish
can see at much greater distances than
using non-UV enhanced lures. If you learn
to use the UV factor to your benefit,
regardless of the product or brand name,
you will increase your catch ratio,
especially where our eyes see darkness.
|
 Back to news articles. |
|
|
|
