Is this legal?

[Sandmannd]

Guy at work was telling me that they used to drill a hole about a foot out from their house. This was always on ice that's pretty thick. They would drill down 8 or 10 inches and lay a bar across it. From the bar they hung a propane lantern. He says it lights up the ice and you can see your bobber and everything. Sounds interesting, just wasn't sure how legal it is.

[wingnutken]

Works great but it is illegal. You can not use artifical lights to attract fish. Ken

[Lure Lightning]

that is interesting that it is illegal yet they allow lures with built in lights and batteries to boot. Such as the luminator what if a pike bit it off or you just broke your line I dont think that I want those batteries in the lake.

[hanson1287]

If you look at it from the technical point of view hes not intentionally using it to attract fish hes using is to light the ice to see his bobber am i correct?

[john.wells]

I would have to think of this as a "gray area" in regards to the law. I would think a lawyer would have a good time with this one. I personally have done this once to see how it would light up the ice, and it works well. As far as the fish went, they didn't bite any better or worse, but with one lantern, 4 different guys could see their bobbers easily and it looked pretty cool from a short distance away

[not_nuf_time]

Why wouldn't it be legal? He's just lighting his area while fishing. He's not shining fish or directly pointing into the water to attract them. I don't even see an arguement. But I don't wear a badge, so my opinion means squat as usual.

[Bobberboy]

In one of my North American Fishing books it shows this technique as a method to view your bobber and line in the hole. They suggest that it works better than having the light on the ice or above your head. They make no mention of attracting fish.

"Your bobbers down!"

[stmichael]

I think that is really cool how it lights up the area. Not to mention a pretty big area.

[LoonASea]

My understanding is the luminator isnt legal either You can sell it in MN along with the automatic fisherman,,but You cant use it here

Randoid

[metrojoe]

Doesn't matter to me either way, but if he was just using it for light, why wouldn't he just put the lantern in the shack?

[BobT]

I've done this. The advantage is that you NEVER have the light in your eyes. It also does a nice job of lighting the interior of the house as well again without shining in your eyes.

Bob

[schweady]

Gonna show my age here... We used to do this all the time... with candles.

[G_man]

I like the lantern in the house to add BTU's as well as light the space.

[Jim43]

Wish my propane lantern was that short. Would never be able to

get mine down a 8 to 10" hole. would not need anything to hold

it for sure. Need at least 12" or more for mine to hang from

anything. figure the height of the propane bottle alone is 8".

Sounds like an interesting way to backlight a house though.

[Guest]

I used to do it frequently with battery operated lanturns. The ice would have to be about 12" thick minimum or the hole would start seeping in water. Just drill a hole to a depth deeper than the lanturn is tall and set the lanturn in that hole. It will light up a decent perimeter and easily let you see bobbers, etc.

They do have an affect on fish, I wouldnt call it an attractant. When I did this while fishing for walleyes in the past I never caught any. I have had success while crappie fishing, but I dont think it was as much success as normal.... but I could sure see the bobbers good.