head/fog/driving lights for boat

[fish-n-geek]

I want to put a pair of lights on the front of my boat (15' bluefin profish) to aid in river navigation and docking/launching at night. I've been looking at the regular automotive lights and thinking about a ball mount (RAM style?) to facilitate easy aiming. I found a combination light that has a 55W driving light and a 55W fog light in the same housing, with separate switching. It seems this would allow me the best of both wide lighting and longer distance lighting ahead of the boat.

What comments on this setup?

Would it be worth going up to the 100W offroad halogen bulbs?

I don't need my boat to be visible from twenty miles like some of the crazy FM catfishers, either ;-)

-rus-

[korn_fish]

I use a 55 watt flood light and will be installing another 55 watt flood light this year so that I have two and can point both slightly out to the sides.

The only reason I want the second light is becaus the one pointed straigh forward, even though it is a flood light, doesn't cover the sides of the river enough. The one light did wonders for lighting up a wide area in front, but some times you want to see if you are getting too close to the side or if a sandbar might all of a sudden put you too close to the side.

I went up to 15 mph with the one light that I had and could see a lot. And I drive on stretches where there are a lot more snags and the river is narrower than what you find up by the metro area.

This year, most of the river stretches I fish will have tracks loaded onto my GPS unit with any hazards marked. So the lights may not be used as before. I'll use my GPS primarily and then might cover the glass with Red so that I can use them when trying to get in between snags to fish.

Did see a rig by shakopee last year that had the spot lights with the RAM mounts that you can get from Cabelas. He had one on each outside of the bow. That way they were running about 12 inches from the water pointing forward instead of sitting on top of the bow where glare could be reflecting light back into the boat. Looked pretty slick. But for the price, I like mine much better

[Valv]

I am going to use halogen driving lights, they ahve them in a very small version in many auto parts stores and also Walmart, they are very little and don't take much space. I don't worry about mounts, I had some boats with them and it's enough to move motor a little to have them point wherever you need (they are very sensible since they are the opposite end of motor)

[FishinLogician]

Korn,

That was probably me and my partner Buzbunni (Team Buzlogic). We were through Shakoppee a few times last year. I use the 55w lights. I mounted the lights with simple plumbing pipe and fixtures. Very inexpensive and pretty durable. They'll rust a bit so a little maintenance is required. I'm always thinking through improvements and modifications. I did run the wires through the pipe just about to the end and cut a hole big enough to get the wires through. I then sealed the hole with marine grade caulking.

I have had issues with the lights when coming to docks. The lights stick out beyond the edge of the boat and I've bumped them into the docks from time to time. This made me aware that a certain level of flexibility is required. If they were too rigidly mounted, they might snap off or become damaged. The mounts to the boat are solidly fixed but the pipe fittings allow some movement. This is also helpful depending on the pitch of the boat. Realigning them is easy.

I found they are great for allowing me to keep an eye out for deadheads and other hazards. We also carry a 10M CP lamp for checking the shore.

If you spot a 16' Crestliner Nighthawk with dual lights anywhere upstream of Bloomington give me a honk. Night times are hard to tell who's around. We ran into Wastewate one night and it was fun shootin the breeze.