I fish strictly at night due to the heavy pleasure boat, jet skiers, water skiers, etc. I see boats with the black lights and would like to get info on the good & bad of using them. I fish for bass using plastics & some cranks (no live bait). Is the black light useful for this type of fishing? What are the dos & don'ts when using these lights. Is it a heavy drain on the boat battery? Thanks for any help and/or suggestions.

I do alot of night fishing mainly due to superclear water. A blacklight is a must have for bottom contact baits for moving baits not so much but it is nice if you are fishing the shore to have the light from them to see a little better. I have never had any trouble with them drawing too much power off of the battery and have fished many time all night. I use the plug in style of black lights on my boat, but if I were to buy a new boat I would have to look into the rub rail style that they are making now I saw them on a couple of boats at the Bassmaster Classic and they are very interesting.

A must for worm & jig fishing.

I've used them for years!

I run four, one on each side of the bow and each side of the stern.  You will never see enough drain on the battery to be concerned about, even if fishing all night with all four on.

I almost always use fluorescent line if I'm using the lights.  They make 17lb test fluorescent line look like rope.

When fishing top water or spinner baits I rarely use them.  These I usually fish on a moon lit night and don't want any light of any kind on.  That only messes up your night vision.  I use a small red LED headband lite when I must have lite for tieing knots etc but very sparingly.

When I was running bulb lights, I had a hard time keeping up with the drain.  Between livewell, nav lights, graphs and the bulb blacklights, sometimes had trouble starting the outboard.

Went with a rechargeable LED for a couple of seasons, transitioning to Moonlites.

I purchased a small head/cap mounted led blacklight a couple of years back.  It has an effective reach of about 10'... pretty useless for line watching.  What is the distance the beam reaches with the boat mounted models?

steve

I purchased a small head/cap mounted led blacklight a couple of years back. It has an effective reach of about 10'... pretty useless for line watching. What is the distance the beam reaches with the boat mounted models?

steve

That's strange.  I've got two UV caplights and both will light up the line a good 30-40' from the bank.

This is kind of off subject, so I apologize.  But if you use the clear blue Florescent line, you could leave that on all the time and fish with it in daylight also, right?

That's strange. I've got two UV caplights and both will light up the line a good 30-40' from the bank.

Burley... what model lights and what line are you using in that situation? Thanks.

steve