I need to rig up the front of a work boat with lights for some nighttime work on lakes Moultrie and Marion. My initial thought was to go on amazon and buy a couple led light bars for the front and sides of the boat and run them to a generator. Seeing these things on trucks driving down the road makes me feel like they would be more than enough light, but wanted to get the opinions of any flounder giggers or bowfishers out there. Are these the proper lights for illuminating the water and seeing through it?
The final setup should be relatively cheap and simple, something we can put on and take off for a couple months of work each year. We can do the rigging ourselves, more so just looking for an actual lighting suggestion from someone with experience. Thanks in advance.
Are you trying to look into the water or above it? http://seelite.myshopify.com/ - these are the high end light in the led world. Also the color of the light it is important “warm white” helps with stained water but is no cure all.
food for thought - led is relatively expensive and if you are planning on running a generator anyways you can get cheaper lights in halogen or if you want to really make it bright High Pressure Sodium. HPS take a lot of power to run but have an amber tint to them that really cut though the cloudy water. There is no magic light for cloudy water.
Sabalo 21 150 Yamaha
Key West Stealth 150 V-max (SOLD)
Couple cheap light bars would work fine. They work fine for the jon boat duck hunting…can see plenty well. But in opinion, one on front a couple of cubes angled 45* would be perfect to work in.
Wadmalaw native
16’ Bentz-Craft Flats Boat
I posted this a while back on the striper forum. A few of these in some of those clamp on utility light fixtures would allow you to point it where you want. 12v and 9W, so only draws about 3/4 amp per bulb.
http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=162468
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
Thanks for the responses. There seems to be some mixed opinions on this, and other forums, about the usefulness of light bars. Some are saying that the bright white light from led bars aren’t good for seeing into the water, which is what we’ll need to do. The lakes, or at least areas we work in, are relatively clear. Some folks suggest that in muddy water, bright led light reflects off the particles in the water making them not very useful to see through. Since we’ll be in clear water though, do ya’ll think the led’s would work fine?
i put an LED bar on my pontoon. everyone above is right. they work GREAT for seeing whats around you, but terrible for seeing into the water. the bright white light just reflects off the water and all you see is glare.