Should I Stay or Should I Glow? (Sorry)

[KayakFisherman]

First, sorry for the shameless pun. Seriously, though, my friend and I were night fishing in unfamiliar brackish water and in preparing for the trip, we'd both considered using them. Not exactly sure why, probably because neither of us had any preconcieved associations about what would work there at night. Nonetheless, in an effort to learn more I prepared dual rigs (small umbrellas), both with 5 inch white curly-tailed grubs, one glow and one regular. Unfortunately, lacking the discipline to start fishing with an untried lure in favor of the regular version (It was cold. I was tired), I switched after only two casts of the glow rig, and on my first cast of the regular one (cast #3) I had a fish on. Not enough of a sample to draw any conclusions, and I never switched back. That's why I'm not a scientist.
Anyway the question lingered. I'd gathered some data from well-placed sources (tackle shop owners), but even tbe experts were hard-pressed to describe the applications beyond day fishing structure in deep water where there's limited light.

My gut says that a striped bass, especially a big smart old one wouldn't want to eat a glowing fish any more than I'd be inclined to eat ice cream that was glowing. I haven't got a clue, so I'm going to crowd source it and throw it out to you guys.
Thanks.

 

[BoatGuy]

I have used the white Spro bucktail and the same size Spro white Glow bucktail. For me, the white catch much more. YMMV

 

[wader]

when fishing for swordfish in really deep water - have always used a light stick rigged to the line - it attracts them to the bait

 

[KayakFisherman]

When I worked on a longliner we caught swords with light sticks. The key was to not have them so close to the baits that you illuminated the leader.

 

[PropellerJohnII]

Except for bluefish on bait & chum at night and herring in the dark, I save glow items for deep water applications. My experience has been white spros are happy time for fluke in lesser depths. But I have definitely scored better with fluke with the glow spros at deep water Cholera and Angler banks. When fishing inshore for cod I do not have much luck
with a Scandinavian lure that emits LED lights . But in depths of 150 feet or more, I get more cod bites with it than without it(Ling love LED too). On a cod trip last Saturday on the Captree Princess, my friend Adam had the biggest cod on board using this LED lure attachment. I was nailing large to jumbo out of season c bass using it and dropped a cod . So I say there are times when you should glow.

 

[KayakFisherman]

Thanks! As often as I do that kind of fishing from my yak, I'll probably be staying with what I'm doing most of the time. Love to learn, though.

Before I was a longliner, I was a lobsterman, and we got a LOT of ling that would make their way into our pots. Occasionally their struggle would attract a shark, which would get its pectoral fins wedged inside the opening. It would struggle in turn and bring about its own demise satisfying the appetites of bigger sharks. What we got back two days later was most often the HEAD of a shark wedged into the pot, a lobster or two, and one VERY scared ling.