What kind of lights do folks use for fishing when anchored or drifting at night? I don't mean what is required by law, just what is helpful for fishing??
I find that the white light, required by law, gives me enough light for everything but tying knots. I use an led headlight for extra light to tie by.
I'll use a black light if I use any light at all, it makes the line stand out. If I'm not using the black light I normaly am wearing a hat light, or use my boats interior lights for rigging and such, the black light also has a regular (white)flouresent bulb on the boat side of it. Hope this helps.
I normally fish rivers. I got a couple dome lights from auto parts store. I put them on the back of the boat under the rod holders. I then put a piece of aluminum between them and me to block the light so they shine up not back in my eyes. They work great. The bugs stay behind the boat and attract the small fish in the river and hope the big ones will be attracted to them. :embarassed:Well attracting the big ones sounded good.
Grizdog - I have a 25' pontoon that has a 24 volt electric motor mounted on the front. The batteries for the electric motor are two 12 volt batteries located in the pop-up changing room. I rigged a DC outlet at the fishing station in the back of the boat wired into the trolling motor batteries. I plug a 150 watt power inverter into the DC outlet and this converts the power to AC. I then plug in an extension cord which allows me to plug in two standard clamp on lights. I run the new 15 watt low wattage incandescent lights in the clamp on lights. They give out the equivalent of a 60 to 100 watt light. In the summer when the bugs are bad I will use the amber colored bug lights which work good to keep the bugs down. I clamp the lights on to the Bimini top, one in the front and one aft. The clamp on lights are nice because I can easily change their location if needed. The clamps hold good on the 1 1/4 inch aluminum bimini top rail. This gets the lights up in the air so that I have good lights all around the pontoon and any bugs attracted are up and away from your face. I don't run the lights all the time but they work great for anchoring, repositioning the boat, when lines are tangled or whenever handling a fish. They turn off and on with the tap of the switch on the power inverter. They don't seem to hurt the fishing and they come in handy on those dark, moonless nights.
On my pontoon I run LED rope lights underneath the upper fence rail. It is just enough light to tie hooks and move around without glaring up in your eyes. Being LED they draw very little power. If I need more, I have a light that comes on automatically when I open the livewell.
