Go With the Glow to Catch More Fish

Baits that light up the night do more than just look spooky. Learn to increase your catch rates with glow-in-the-dark or illuminated lures.

Glow baits are cool. Simple as that.  And when they light the night, there’s an undeniably spooky quality that goes with October.

Novel appeal only goes so far with fishing lures, though. Functionality is far more important. Thankfully, lures that hold a glow or are otherwise illuminated offer practical benefit. Namely, when used in the right situations, they help you catch more fish.

Glow offerings come in a broad range of sizes and in baits designed to work all parts of the water column and for many kinds of fish. Popular applications include night-fishing, ice fishing and working dirty water, but opportunities don’t end there.

We’ll look at several specific lures and accessories that you can use to light up better fishing action.

Arbogast Jitterbug

The steady gurgle of an Arbogast Jitterbug’s calls fish from afar and provides a rhythmic sound for predators to home in on, making it one of the best – and most legendary – night fishing lures ever created. With the Jitterbug being a top producer after hours, it should be no surprise that Arbogast chose to create four special glow colors – Mutant, Lumoe, Cado and Undead – in the highly popular 3-inch model. These Lurenet-exclusive colors add major visibility even when your Jitterbug is sitting dead still on the surface under nighttime skies.

Bobby Garland Mo’ Glo Baits

Baits that glow in dark offer day and night value to crappie fishermen. They mostly get used after hours, through the ice and for fishing in heavily stained water, but many anglers contend that Bobby Garland’s Mo’ Glo colors prompt extra strikes even in situations where visibility is not substantially limited. Because glowing crappie baits can be important for so many applications, Bobby Garland offers several styles of bait, including the Original Baby Shad, Slab Slay’R and Hyper Grub, in Mo’ Glo colors.

Bobby Garland Mo’ Glo Slab Jam

Don’t worry if you don’t have the right Mo’ Glo colors or if they are not offered in the specific bait you want to fish. With Mo’ Glo Slab Jam, you can turn any lure into a glow-in-the-dark bait (including a plastic worm for bass). Rub some on a bait, charge it with flashlight, and you’re ready to glow! Beyond adding glow, Slab Jam is minnow scented to attract fish and make them more inclined to hold on to your bait. It is sticky and easy to apply and stays on baits and even jigheads surprisingly well. Beyond being good for night fishing and for fishing in stained water, Slab Jam is a great addition to any ice fishing bait when thick, snow-covered ice leaves limited visibility.

Crappie Pro Jigheads

For all the same reasons Slab Jam and Mo’ Glo crappie baits work well, Crappie Pro offers five different glow in the dark colors for its Mo’ Glo Jigheads and Overbite Sickle Mo’ Glo Jigheads. Pink, Blue, Ghost, Orange and Chartreuse all have distinct appeal when they glow. For daytime casting presentations, these jigheads stay sufficiently charged from sunlight between casts. For night fishing or ice fishing under cloudy skies, you’ll probably want to give them an occasional flashlight charge to maximize the glow. These high-quality heads are sized for popular crappie fishing presentations but work well for a host of fishing applications. The 90-degree line tie and weight balance make them excel for ice fishing or other vertical presentations as they posture baits horizontally, like natural forage species.

Bandit Generator

The Bandit Generator takes glow to a new level for walleye anglers, creating its own glow from the inside out with specially designed Glow Sticks that are inserted into slots in the lure. The Glow Sticks illuminate the entire lure and accentuate its colors, creating amazing visibility for dirty water and for low-light settings, even including night trolling, and triggering strikes with a unique appearance. The Generator gets its shape and fabulous swimming action from the hugely popular Bandit Walley Deep.

Lindy Glow Streak & Glow Spoon

Lindy Legendary Fishing Tackle has lit up the ice fishing world for past the few winters, first with the Lindy Glow Spoon and then with the Lindy Glow Streak. Like the Bandit Generator, both baits are designed to hold replaceable Glow Sticks, so they truly light up, with color patterns highlighted. The Glow Spoon wobbles erratically on the fall and has loud tungsten rattles for extra attraction. It comes in three sizes, providing options for everything from panfish to big pike. The Glow Streak is a horizontal postured jigging bait that wiggles and darts and has a natural baitfish profile. It warrants mention that the Glow Streak, while designed for ice fishing, also works well in the open water, especially during late fall and again early in the open-water season.

Lindy Ice Lures

Because glow has long been an important tool for ice fishing, several Lindy ice spoons and ice jigs are available in glow colors. Quiver Spoons, Frostee Spoons and Tungsten Toads are a few of Lindy’s ice offerings with glow color options. Ice on its own blocks quite a bit of light, and the thicker the ice, the lower the visibility beneath it. Add significant snow, and it can really get dark down there. Fish utilize other senses – feeling vibrations, hearing rattles and jigs banging on the bottom, and smelling baits that typically tip jigs and spoons. Sight remains important, though, and a glowing ice lure can be far more effective than one that does not glow some days.

Thill Illuminated Floats

Straying from lures, a lit-up float won’t draw extra strikes (not directly, at least), but it can make a major difference for detecting strikes under low-light conditions and especially after the sun goes down. In truth, if you’re float fishing at night and aren’t casting into a lit area, a glowing or illuminate float is critical. Regarding attracting extra strikes, while a glowing float won’t make fish bite what’s beneath that float, it can make a big difference for placement and control of presentations to keep baits in the right places, which will help you get more bites.

The Thill Night ‘N Day Glow Float has a glow finish. By day, it looks and acts like other Thill balsa floats. For night fishing, it charges under a light like a glow bait and holds the charge well so you can track the action. Thill Splash Brite and Night Brite floats are illuminated from the inside, as opposed to simply glowing. The Splash Brite only lights up when it hits the water to save battery power. The Nite Brite takes replaceable Battery Lights.

Get Your Glow!

Be sure to visit our Glow Baits page. Every item on this page is automatically discounted 15 percent at checkout through Oct. 31. Get your glow baits and get ready to light up fun fishing action!