Before upsetting anyone I'd like to give some information about myself. I've been fishing in Oregon for 3 years, have been working for a Marine Biologist who has been awarded several federal and non-federal grants over the past 25 years who studies on salmon habitats, juvenile salmon migration, Pacific NW deep sea and channel modeling etc etc. I'm by no means an avid angler, but put a lot of time in the water and study locations, techniques, baits as much as I can. For some I might even be called a sucker for fishing lures as well since I've basically spent a lot of money on what marketers said were "Da Bomb" or the "next best lure"...
There are facts that when salmonids are in the ocean they use uv to locate their prays. Krill for instance is one of the many that a)reflect uv b)is high in Omega-3 food chain (salmon love Omega 3). If you watched any of Discovery Channel's shows that focus on deeper seas, you'll remember that habitants of deeper sea tend to reflect light for two reasons a) to scare predators b) to lure smaller fish.Now we're talking about 40 feet or deeper water salt water(by the way, similar eating habits goes for Halibut).
Color spectrum goes as: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet and the last 2 colors visible are Near UV and Far UV (in reality UV means ultra violet = higher state of the color violet, but there are other uses such as Ultimate Vision). Keep in mind that the color you need to use for your lures not only depend on the condition of the water, but also depends on the light conditions. There's a book called "What Fish See" and is available at Fisherman's and BiMart and talks about what depth is each color is visible at best. As far as I remember in normal conditions 0-14 ft of water, these colors will be visible without any issues...
There are no scientific facts that UV is utilized by salmonids after they enter fresh water. It was discovered by a great marketing mind, to lure fishermen as it was done to lure teenagers in the early 80s(remember the glow in the dark t-shirts?) If you go to any tackle stores you will see: UV scents, UV blades, UV jigs, UV sprays, UV enhancers, UV this UV that. All that is the exact same dye that was used to enhance colors under black light in early 80s. If you really want to use "fluorescent colors" buy lures that are candy colored. I've compared a candy orange and a candy chartreuse spinner with a uv spinner and the result was almost identical.
Now did I buy any UV products? Hell yeah, I did. Why would I not have one or two extra items in my tackle box and they say they work when others don't? The first one I bought was a rainbow's end jig and the next one was a kodiak spinner. Did I see any difference? Not really!
My humble opinion is that, you will have more success by putting extra time in the water and learning fish habits, than by investing on marketing tactics. Next time when you're on the water, I'd pay attention to what others are being successful with. For instance, a good friend of mine outfishes anyone on a 2 corky setup(1 greenblack and 1 orange) and another kills on peach yarn and hook only...Just my 2 cents...
