# My fishing lights



## JimD (May 25, 2004)

We have been talking about building your own fishing lights for boat or shore.

I have talked with two great guys on the board and will put the information according to whether you want to use a battery or a generator.

Fishnnutt found the bulb # /wagner or ge 4537 par 46
bulb 200 watt 13 volt/ 200,000 candlepower
goggle it lots of places to order / Bulb America is one

Trout250

Cheap lights off 1960. 
2 Par 64 cans and 1000 watt narrow spot lights. 
Hack sawed the cans off at last joint. Drop down.
With the 1000 watt bulbs you need a generator larger than 2000 watts to not burn out your generator.

I came up out of my rod holder with a piece of 1 inch sched 40 pcv 
On to this I slid a piece of Sched 40 1-1/4 inch pvc
2 ft piece of 1 and ½ aluminum angle 
3/8 inch bolts, nuts, wing nuts, and washers.

I drilled 3/8 holes in the angle to mount the light holders. 
Mounted the angle to the top of the pole .

We are going tonight to see how it works. I need a brace to keep the pole straight up in the air where it bungi's to the hand rail around the window.

Pictures attached.

Yes it is a work in progress. J That is why I have to go try it out tonight.
PVC is a little wabble but may use 1 inch electrical conduit but then you have a 11 or 12 ft lighting rod in the boat with you.

We will see.

I think this will work if one had the bucket of concrete with the sized pipe set in the concrete so that this can slide over or inside the pipe and be ready for the beach some way but may still have to tie it down?

JimD


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## steelrain202 (Jul 2, 2008)

Very Nice!


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## FISHNNUTT (Oct 27, 2007)

Looks good Jim post up on how it works
hope you catch a bunch !!


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## Deerfeeder (Jan 17, 2008)

If you cut off the can do you lose penetration on how far down in the water it will light things up?


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Friday night fishing out in the Pass. We did not get out and set up till after 9 pm close to one of the banks with a main cut on it.

Noticed that some fish were popping around the lights up cold pass. Anyway out to an area that is 11 ft of water and backwash area that goes from 4 out to 6 feet as you go back into the little open area that is calmer water. 

The tide was ripping in. We started having fish at the lights within 30 minutes of starting the generator. We basically had fish at the lights all night long till about 5:30 when the gas ran out and we were so tired that we wanted to leave but I did stop and try the surf for a while with it green to the sand but did no good.


I have two par 64 cans and one is a 1000 watt and the other is 500 watts. The way I had to set up I had the 1000 bulb toward the 6 ft water and the 500 watt toward the deeper water. We caught fish all night except for an hour and it was sandy time till you got tired of catching them. From 2 am till the lights went out we had schoolie trout in the deeper water just under the surface. They looked like schools of mulletty. Never seen it like that before. They were thick all around the boat in the smaller sizes. You could jig them for fun. I threw every thing in my box that had never caught a fish. Even had a 19 inch flounder run up under the lights and hit a plastic right under the surface. Neat to see.

The better fish for the most part 16 to 19+ were caught around the calmer water of the 1000 watt bulb but deeper down. You did not see near as many fish in the brighter light. 
My older boy was given out.

Fun time and well worth the trip.


Good and Bad. 

The lights are on a 1 1/4 9 ft piece of pvc with an 8 ft piece of 1 inch slipped sinside the larger piece to fit in the rod holder. THIS IS NOT STIFF ENOUGH SO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD. The lights kept flipping around so it was hard to stabalize the top that kept the l ights stable. 

Thinking 1 inch electrical counduit. 

Once mounted it is hard to readjust the light mounting on this high of a mount. 

Other that that it was a great trip. No problems outher than given out and sore arms.

Should you go to a shorter piece of pipe? 

Ideas for a way to adjust once up?

WHY did the fish stay just under the surface in the weaker light? We are not talking a few either. 

Opionions or suggestions?


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## POC Transplant (Feb 26, 2008)

You might try a 1" wooden dowell. My buddy uses this for his lights, although his are only just above head level. He doesnt have any problem with flex in the pole of the lights.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

https://www.landbigfish.com/articles/default.cfm?ID=141
Here is a link to another article on lights. Here they are fishing deeper water and using another type of battery and light system.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

From this old post of mine I found that the pvc was too tall for the boat and too flimsy to hold the lights stable.

I went back with a piece of galvanized conduit to replace the pvc and cut it tall enough that you can stand on your boat cooler or what ever to reach the lights to adjustment them once set up and turned on. 

Used some duct tape to cover the end that fits in the rod holder to keep from messing up our deck. I use a bungi to attach the pipe to the grab rail.


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## Hooked (Oct 15, 2004)

Nice setup. 
What size conduit? May want to check hardware stores for the rubber boots which fit over chair legs for the end cap. Another possibility is a rod butt cover.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

used 1 inch.

Instead of drilling the top as the pvc px I set the angle up on top of the conduit and drilled two holes on the side to hold the pieces in place. Just like the lights you need a few wing nuts for quick set up and removal. Take spares as you may drop a few. 

You can use the duct tape to put some wraps around the pipe where it sits in the rod holder if it is not stable in the rod holder.

I have the small Honda generator and set it on the back of the BC for travel then put it on a floor mat on the front with the exhaust in a safe place to keep from causing a boat burn problem.


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## goodwood (Mar 30, 2009)

fishing lights here.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Bump for the person that was looking at lights last week.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

for the guy looking for fishing lights for your boat.


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## CastinBig (Dec 6, 2010)

Could you build me one, if so how much would you charge


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Cleaning up an old computer and found this article from and old time 2 cooler on how to cut off the par 64 cans to make them better.
_________________
Cutting the cans off does make a difference in the shape of the lighted area on the water, in my opinion it gives you a more fishable light. The lights that the one fellow has are made from galvanized buckets with the par 64 bulb fitted into it. If you run large enough cord you can run both lights off 1 cord, especially if you have a 20 or 30 amp recepticle on your generator, it takes ~ 8amps to run 1 bulb, the secret to longer bulb life is to have it setup so that you can turn them off and on with a switch instead of just plugging them in, also try not to move them around/jar the bulb while the elment is hot. I have bought probably a 100 of the polished alum cans from cheaplights and done them like I described to you. you can beat their prices on bulbs from bulb america and you can get the vnsp bulb inof the nsp bulb. When I was using it out of the boat we had a setup similar to what you are describing, had a 6ft piece of alum angle that bolted to the pvc pipe. the lights attached to a bolt that was fixed on the end of the angle.you can preset your bulb angle up and down with the yoke that comes with the cans, and when you bolt to the angle/or blind cap you will just have to play with it to get it adjusted as to where you are fishing. talk to you on the ph.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Here is a px of a set of par 64 cans cut off for easier carry and better lighting pattern.

First px the pvc was too high so it could not be adjusted easily plus it was not stiff enough in moving water..

Used conduit cut piece as tall as possible and still able to adjust the lights and light patterns.


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## Jean Scurtu (Dec 6, 2011)

:texasflag

In my opinion is enough one stage light with 1000 watt halogen bulb(PAR 64)you can catch a lot of fish.
Fishing one night at ROLLOVER PASS with one stage light 1000 watt bulb i was catching more specks comparative with one guy close with me (about 20 feet) witch using 4 PAR 64 bulbs.
I have one small HONDA-EU 2000 WATT ,and support for my light i find in one thrift shop with $3 !!!!


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Jean, we use the same old style generator. Mine is the Honda 2200 watt when that was the max and probably the only change is they put 2000 watt on the same machine.  Good little generators. Still looking for a small tub to set mine in on the baby cat but I do wash it off well when I get home.

I run one 1000 watt and one 500 watt bulb due to the generator size. Seems some nights the fish like the bright lights and others nights the less bright area. Heck you never know what a bunch of females will want or do.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Bump for the traditional night fishing lights.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

post for the guy looking to get a set of lights.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Posted


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

How is your old Baby Cat doing?


Mine does not get out like it should but still runs steady and true with the old Tohatsu 90.


It was a fad back in the day. Hope that yours is still running like it did when you got it from Donny.


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