LED lights, colors, bugs, etc

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

FuzzyGrub

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 7, 2010
Messages
1,221
Reaction score
510
Location
Rural NY
I am interested in peoples experience with different colors and the variations of white. I have a couple of LED lights (cool white) in a boat. These have tight spacing in about a 6" bar. These were too bright for night fishing and had to keep our backs to them. What colors have worked well for you? Red is suppose to be the most efficient in LED, but not so for the human eye. I want to be able to see where things are in the boat, to prevent tripping and breaking stuff, but not to cause night blindness. ;)

I am currently thinking the rope style LEDs for my current project. These have 1" spacing and hope that mounting under the rail will provide enough light down into the boat but not toward our eyes while sitting or standing on the deck. I'll have to expeirment with that before mounting.

Bugs: I have been told that LED's won't attract bugs. I can't recall seeing them around my cool white ones, but know that they love the incadeciant in the anchor light. Is this true? If so, probably because they do not give off any heat? and I'd spring for some in the anchor light.
 
Bugs are attracted to any light source...but some colors more than others. Red is your best option for night because it has little affect on your night vision and in my experience draws in the least amount of bugs. UV or black lights, like I have on my boat, are really nice. They make your line glow when they are turned on.
 
RiverBottomOutdoors said:
Bugs are attracted to any light source...but some colors more than others. Red is your best option for night because it has little affect on your night vision and in my experience draws in the least amount of bugs. UV or black lights, like I have on my boat, are really nice. They make your line glow when they are turned on.


What kind of red LED's are you using? and spacing between? thx
 
I have 2 Nucli-Eye Atoms in UV mounted on the outside of my transom. I do not have interior lights in my boat, I don't move around much when I night fish...when I do I use a LED headlight with white and red LEDs.
 
I'm sure others will have differing opinions on this, but here's my $0.02.

Personally I like red because it doesn't affect my night vision as much. My stern/anchor light attracts A LOT of bugs, so I always keep a can of Deep Woods OFF in my tackle box.

For deck lighting on my small boat I used red LED's. They're waterproof, last pretty much forever, don't draw a lot of power and are small.

Personally I used these: https://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=101400&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50523&subdeptNum=50573&classNum=50578

They were simple to install. Only requiring a drill, wire snake and soldering iron. They come with stainless mounting screws that are surprisingly tough. I was surprised when my drill didn't strip out the head (the way it did with the screws that came with my CB radio antenna mount did, but that's another story).

They illuminate the deck very well and if you need to tie a line it's easy enough to get close (3 foot or so) enough to them to see what you're doing.

Good luck!
 

Attachments

  • Interior Lights.jpg
    Interior Lights.jpg
    77.6 KB · Views: 2,040
I am currently trying to figure out the same thing. I would like a light that will provide better vision in the boat but will also not break the bank.
 
fool4fish1226 said:
Bluewater LEDs in green


They seem rather bright, but might be just the picture. Do they impact your night vision? How about bug attraction? thx
 
Yes they are bright but the photo was taken with all three sets turned on, in most case only the main deck lights are on, so not so bad.

The lights are easy on your night vision and as far as bugs - RBO said it all - any light will attract bugs but I don't think the green is nearly as bad as white. My stern light is a bug magnet.
 
....I was going to ask if anyone on this board used LED lights and it looks like some of us do! For the interior of the boat i have three strips of cool blue installed if I need to see something. For night fishing for trout I have a waterproof green four foot strip made with the LED's that have three light emitters per LED. For flounder gigging off the front of the boat I am thinking of mounting two four foot strips in white in tandem so that they will penetrate down to the bottom so I can see the flatties.
 

Latest posts

Top