Underwater Lights

[Heron]

i am interested in installing some sort of underwater light for squid, fish at night and see what is going on when drifting offshore overnight. I would appreciate knowing what you use and recommend.

[sharkwaters]

I have been interested in this as well. I think a good way is to use the led version mounted on the trim tab pointing down in the water. If you want squid, point down.
Bob

[Honeygirl]

The underwater lights are neat. Good ones are expensive. Just becarefull the squid will move to the light and if its near the intake thay will clog easy. Just FYI. Joe

[Heron]

Yea, The trim tab seems like a good approach. One can keep the wiring above water and there is some adjustment with the tabs. I have looked at several vendors on line. Some are real expensive. The differences seem to be the lens material (plastic vs glass), housing material (stainless or brass vs plastic) and number of LED's. Is white the best color for fishing squid etc?

Are there any good local suppliers for LED lights? billf

[Wa Mei]

Hi Bill,

I am in the business of manufacturing LEDs for a number of industries.
Boats not being one of them...

Personally, I fish with my family and the little knuckleheads so I hate
running the generator. I have tried numerous different high power LEDs
for squid. We are talking from 500 lumens to 3000 lumens in both white,
green and in combination above and below water with mix results. Then
again, with the seals trained to follow the lights, so it really doesn't matter
what you use nowadays.

I like the little green fluorescent tubes...

[Heron]

Why do you suppose the LED results were mixed? Did you have some kind of lens with your trials? LED's sure seem like a good match for energy saving and lifetime. There are some interesting products out there. http://www.oceanled.com/Product_Pages/Amphibians.php
http://www.abysslite.com/gallery.php
Most of the single lights seem to be 500 to 1000 lumens. You need anyone to do some additional product development and testing?

[Wa Mei]

LEDs do not put out any measureable amount of UV lights, even the high output 1W LEDs that are 120 lumens per watt. I can only guess that the squid is attracted to lights because of the UV output, but if that was the case, wouldn't they be out during the day time?

To answer your questions about lens...I have used an underwater swimming pool light housing and put my 2k lumen LED bulb in it. I was getting alot of
shadowing because of the pattern on the glass, so I then tried it with a diffuser which spread the light more evenly. Not the best results with squid
either way.

This is just my experience during the last 2 seasons. It doesn't mean that someone else haven't had better results than I have. It could just simply mean that the squid was not around during the time I tried. However, I have had situations where I cannot get the squid to show, but I do have them on the meter. When I switched from the LEDs to the green fluorescent tubes,
they started showing.

Why do you suppose the LED results were mixed? Did you have some kind of lens with your trials? LED's sure seem like a good match for energy saving and lifetime. There are some interesting products out there. http://www.oceanled.com/Product_Pages/Amphibians.php
http://www.abysslite.com/gallery.php
Most of the single lights seem to be 500 to 1000 lumens. You need anyone to do some additional product development and testing?

[Heron]

Your information is very helpful. I am going to hold off on LED's until more information is available. The critical issue you bring up is whether the spectrum of the LED's is attractive to squid. LED's are attractive from a power consumption and lifetime perspective, but if they are not squid attractive, then we fisherman just have pretty lights which are not useful. Well, they are still helpful for seeing in the water when fishing at night.

I wonder if anyone else out there has experience with LED's for squid?

[DOGHOUSE26]

I just use a simple 2-500W Halogen Lamps off a gunnel rod holder with a dimmer switch to get them to float closer. Some guys use those green lights to get them to gather on the boat; then use the dimmer on the other lights to bring them closer.

[Al Gagnon]

Were can I get some of these halogen lights and are they 12 v or 115 v. I would like to see what I can bring up to the boat over night. When I fished on the tuna sieners we had plenty of deck lighting and would always have loads of squid around the boat. Some guys would try to bring them in. They would light up red and white on deck. Skipper was pissed if the guys did not wash the black ink off of the decks after fishing for squid. Thinking about going after some Tuna this summer and spending the night drifting off the chute/sea anchor. I would like to be with some other boats so I do not get run over by a steamer. Not sure where the traffic lane is. Someone gave me a latitude but I do not remember if that was good info.