LED OR FLOURESCENT LANTERN WHICH ONE AND WHY?

[Christopher Quast]

I am looking at buying a new lantern and was looking on Cabelas site and can't decide and so I thought I would ask you guys first.

[Sandmannd]

Personally I would go with LED. Takes less juice and are very bright.

[PerchJerker]

I'd vote for LED also

[Ride_Red]

I have the large cabelas led lantern and think it is great, I velcro it a tent pole at the top clip the remote on my bibs or jig rod and with a touch of a button enough light to tie even the smallest jigs. Flourecent will have start up problems when real cold.

[broman]

I have a rechargeable fluorescent lantern and it provides barely enough light to be useful. Specially in the cold. LEDs are much better.

[fishermatt]

I have not seen a flourescent lantern so I can't say on that, but I just bought 2 24cm waterproof LED light strips from that king Kong place, and just 1 of those makes my portable plenty bright, and it runs off a vexilar battery, which is sweet because it's rechargable so don't have to buy batteries. I took the container from my Kid's sidewalk chalk and made a holder for the battery, wire and light, then I just twist tie the light strip to one of the poles in my FT Voyager and I'm set for midnight and beyond!! I'm going to try leaving the LED strip on and figure out how many hours it will last on a fully chared vex battery. That would be interesting to know.

[BartmanMN]

I have a coleman flourecent and I don't think it is bright enough.

[lovebigbluegills]

I agree with the above opinions about the fluorescent lanterns--not nearly bright enough to be of much use, and goes through batteries pretty fast.

Propane lanterns are plenty bright and add heat to the house, which is sure a bonus some days. Also when I use a propane lantern, I'll drill a hole down about a foot to set it in. This way, it's all but impossible to tip over. Another bonus of a propane lantern is that they're great for charging glow jigs.

On the down side, it's one more thing taking up space on the "floor" and I've melted off more jigs than I care to count by having my line just graze the lantern. You've also gotta have an extra one-pound can with you, extra mantles (it's a real pain to change out a mantle in the dark), and hopefully you don't break the globe.

I've gone to the HK led lights, and absolutely love them. Very bright, and they're out of the way. Like Matt mentioned above, I'll have to leave them hooked up to a fully charged vexilar battery, just to see how long it takes before they start to dim.

That's my two cents.

[RonWBasser]

I just got a 20 light LED light string for my portable. Got if off of 3bay for $7.95. Runs on 3 AA batteries.

Just food for thought.

[CJH]

LED Hands down. I get the light strips from Norhtern Tool that run off of AA's. They are cheap and bright. And the battery life is better than the UFO lights.

[Dakota Iceman]

I have been down this road and here is the scoop:

Coleman MAX> Led rechargeable Got it at walmart and it works like a champ and no more buying D batteries. Iceman out>

[Ed Carlson]

The florescent tubes are too shock sensitive, far more so then the new LED's.

For overall use and dependability my vote runs to the LED's.

[jigging-matt]

I would go with the LED also. Bright and Durable.

[moparmarv]

i have a led rope lite and love it

[hondarider550]

I would recommend the LED's anyday handsdown... The fluresents do not produce that much light and they are especially slow in cold weather. LED's have proven themselves to be brighter and more energy efficient...

[Neiko]

I vote for LED's also. NT has a couple of different varieties. 48UFO and 72 bar that work awesome.

[fishermatt]

I did a test on my 24 cm LED strip. My 4 year old Vexilar battery was showing 1/2 charge when I started the test, and I got a full 48 hours of bright light from the LED strip. It got pretty dim after that. I would think with a fully charged battery I could get a 4 straight days of light (96 hours). Hard to say how long a 12 volt car or deep cycle battery would last, but I think it could be measured in weeks.