hey guys, i was looking at an older bass tracker a couple of months ago and it had been custom fitted with rope lights for night fishing.  they were real low intensity lights but still would make a great option rather than the flourescant lanterns and such.  it would probably be best to run them on their own toggle since they would draw off the battery quite a bit, right?  i don't currently have an on board charger and wouldn't have them on full time like the navigationals. you think i could get away with flipping them on for awhile here and there without having to modify too much?  if i get skunked in the A.M., i tend to drop in the stank to the bottom in for a little twilight action.  new to the site and hopefully theres no offense taken to the catfishing reference    Merry Christmas fellas.

I really doubt that those rope lights would draw enough current to worry about running a battery down but it's still a good deal to put them on their own switch.

If the rope lights are LED, then there is not much concern over killing your batteries as long as your not installing 900' of the stuff.   You should wire it up to it's own switch and fuse anyway as it will give the the option of on and off by themselves. For instance you may not want them on when you are motoring from spot to spot.

As said before, if they are led's then don't worry about it. If they are incandesent then you mght have a problem. Most likly they are leds. I would run the power from a seperate battery thatn your fish finders are on, they can cause interference.