Introduction

Practical lighting that leaves both hands free to fish is an essential requirement for fishermen using a non-motorized boat or boat with a manual starting motor at night. Safety is also an important fact to consider. Both of these problems need to be addressed when you want to fish at night on a budget.

Step One
Recognize that most states require a small non-motorized boat to have only one white light with 360 degrees of visibility for one or more miles on a clear night. A motorized small boat requires the same light plus a port (left) red light and a starboard (right) green light. The port/starboard requirement can be met with one unit and one bulb with a red and green lens cover of 180 degrees of each color. These units are readily available, cheap and powered with one or two D batteries. They also come with masts that have a clamp on the bottom to attach it to a boat. Often there is nothing to clamp them to on a non-motorized boat such as a kayak.

Step Two
Remember that a better solution is to shorten the mast and attach a piece of PVC to the boat that the shortened mast of the white light can slip into. This also allows the light to be used as a flash light in an emergency and the PVC socket can be used to hold a spinning rod while trolling in the day time. Battery power is limited, but on a non-motorized boat it is easy enough to listen for the motor of an approaching boat and turn the light on at that time. A motorized boat should carry extra D batteries. In either case you can conserve your batteries when the boat is not moving.

Step Three
Recall that if you want to be able to use both hands at night on a small boat without a 12-volt battery, the only practical solution is a head lamp. The most practical ones have elastic bands that can be adjusted to fit your head or hat. Clip-on models get knocked loose. The minimum requirement is the ability to adjust the light beam up or down when in use.

Step Four
Realize that red or white light choice is extremely useful as red light allows you to retain your night vision and does not attract mosquitoes as does the white light. Of course, the red light does not allow you to see as well. An LED light is better than DC battery light as the LED light is blue/white and allows better differentiation of colors. In either case, the head light can be used as a back up for the safety white light but must be aimed at the approaching boat.
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