Fishing With Nanotech

Major vacuum equipment manufacturer ULVAC has announced plans to enter the fishing tackle industry with a new type of lure featuring a nanocoating applied with special vacuum technology. The high-tech lure, called STROM, will go on sale online in October.

Relying on a vapor deposition polymerization technique used in semiconductor manufacturing, an optical coating is formed over the entire glossy surface of the lure. The ultrathin optical coating has a high degree of light transmission, giving the lure an iridescent “holographic color” that changes according to the viewing angle.

Fishing lures typically use motion and color to attract the attention of fish, and they often feature decals and paint designed to reflect sunlight. These conventional lures are only capable of reflecting light in one direction, though, putting them at a distinct disadvantage when compared to STROM.

In tests, anglers using STROM caught 4 times as many fish as those using other commercially available lures. The company claims the lure appeals to freshwater fish such as trout, as well as to reef-dwelling saltwater fish such as rockfish.


SOURCE:
Pink Tentacle

Well, this is one of the more odder uses of Nanotech,
and honestly one that I had not foreseen.


Comments, Opinions?

interesting post, although nanotech could probably be used on more important issues/products. interestion none the less

Light transmission and color drops dramatically a few feet down. This is, as usual, only designed to catch $billfish from wallets.

Well considered that nanocoated products usually only cost a few percent more then their conventional counterparts, it's a poor plan. The only way this plan will succeed in catching "billfish" is if it actually works, and fishermen are very picky when it comes to their lures.

The coating will have other applications of course, it may be good in road signs, like making them more visible from angles and such(like if you are coming to an intersection but the road taking you to the intersection is a turn, your view of the sign may be hampered by the crystals in the reflective paint)/

[edit on 14-9-2006 by sardion2000]

I would really like to see how they are going to coat these lures. I'm guessing a sheet of metal wil be coated in the reactor, or whatever device they will use, then it will be cut up to keep production costs down. I use to be a MOCVD process tech, so this is interesting for me to read about. I wouldn't think about using the vapor deposition process to coat fishing lures. I guess we'll see if there is a big shift in the market to these type of lures. 4x the amount of fish being caught is a huge claim to make.

They probably use, as you said, the normal CVD technique(abeit tweaked). I don't think the lure market is what they are after, because that is a relatively small market compared to the entire market of reflective paint. If they came up with a CVD process and cures in UV light capable of laying down extremely precise reflective surfaces(instead of the random way it's done now with regular fibreglass paint) it will have a variety of applications from easier to spot road signs, car paint, tarmac paint, and road paint(not sure how they would do the road, perhaps they could create a tape substance which uses another nanotechnology which mimicks Geckos adhesive abilities and when they lay it down, they could engineer it to stick onto the surface when a specific frequence alternating current is applied)

I'm not an expert fisho but do have an opinion welling inside me like a burp, and here it comes -cccrrrraaaaaaaaapppp!!!!
Man, that felt good

The main point of all this new stuff is to catch the billfish. Anyone still use Mr Twisters??

US$25 for 1 halco/ barra spoon with special paint??? You gotta be kidden me!! it had better come with a guarantee never to ever get snagged or bitten off by a mack.
some days i can go through over 5 lures an hour thats about $200AU, I don't know anyone who would be willing to spend that much to catch fish