Night Fishing Lights (Green Fishing Light) For Dock, Line Or Boat!

Just as with any animal, fish congregate near to their food source is. And when you put some lights into the water, the smaller fish and plankton are attracted. These smaller fish then entice the bigger predator fish.

Night Fishing Lights (usually a green fishing light) is put in/on, or near the waters that you are going to fish. The purpose of these lights is creating its own ecosystem, that will encourage the game fish which you want to catch to this area.

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What Is Night Fishing? (Or Green Light Fishing)

Night fishing is fishing at night! – Also, Dusk and Dawn are usually considered being night fishing times.

Scientific research has proved that the fish food chain can see in blue and green light better than other colors. However, any colored light will help to attract more shrimp, baitfish, and their predators to the lit area.

The best way to set up night fishing lights is to permanently attach green lights under the water. This can be to a dock, boat, or some other structure. Switch them on every night. Plankton then bate fish will be attracted to this in high concentrations. Game and predator fish will then assemble around the fishing lights every night.

Fish have intelligence, and they remember where their food is and will turn up every night.

Not that you have to wait weeks before your night fishing lights will improve your results. Within minutes you can attract baitfish, which will, in turn, start to draw in the fish you want to catch!

What Is The Best Color Light For Night Fishing?

The best color lights for night fishing are blue or green. Green must have an advantage, as there are so many of them compared to blue. The reason these are better is that the light travels further in water. Red light is absorbed quickly, so does not light up a large area.

What To Look For When Buying Night Fishing Lights

When looking for night fishing lights, the following are the things you should look for.

• High intensity – Light up a large area
• Blue or green – Best colors for under the water
• Submersible – If you shine a light from above the water, a considerable amount of the light is lost through reflection

You also need to think about how the light will be powered. The higher the intensity of the light, the more power will be used. So if powered by a battery, you may need to go for a lower strength than is ideal for getting a good battery life.

Types Of Night Fishing Light

Green fishing lights can be broadly categorized into four classes:

• Fixed Dock Lights
• Fixed Boat Lights
• Line Attached Lights
• Handheld Lights

Line Attached Lights

Line attached Lights are the simplest and quickest way to try using fishing lights. A glow stick or similar is attached to the line and goes into the water with your bait/lure. These lights are not bright enough, or going to be in the water long enough for it to make its own ecosystem.

However, it should help attract creature towards your bait.

The most common way of attaching a light-source to your line is to use a glow stick. These work best in murky water, or deep at sea, when you are fishing at a depth that light does not penetrate. (After 220 yards / 200 meters, only a tiny amount of light infiltrates). They may also be useful in clear waters once it is dark.

Fish like the “Angler Fish” have used small luminescent appendages to entice other fish into its mouth for millions of years. Why shouldn’t a similar lure work for you?

This is going to work best in dark water and is commonly used when Ice fishing.

Floating Fishing Lights

Floating fishing light is as the name implies, a light that floats on the surface of the water. Pointing there lights down into the depths. Again these are not overly expensive and do not require a lot of pre-planning and setup, just set them in the water and you are done.

The floating fishing light was initially a homemade device, comprising a light (e.g. a headlamp, a 12-volt battery, both fixed to a wooden or Styrofoam floating platform that anglers built for themselves.

They can be used from a boat, or from the shoreline. If used from the shore, be sure to attach a line, so you can pull it in when you are finished. Floating fishing lights work in the same ways as mentioned before for other lights. The light will attract small baitfish and other creatures, and these will eventually attract the larger predator fish.

Submersible Fishing Lights

Submersible Fishing Lights are like the floating lights above. They were invented to reduce some inadequacies of the above lights. Float fishing light has the disadvantage that they also attract a lot of biting insects.

The second flaw is that some light is reflected, so the light given out may not penetrate far into murky waters.

Commercial models of the Submersible Fishing Lights are waterproof and have been designed to sink when they are placed in the water. There are more fish lower down. Very little of the light is wasted, lighting up the skies and attracting the mosquitos etc., making these light far more efficient.

Some Submersible Fishing Lights are built with weights in them, and some need to have the weights attached to them. The lights that need the weights fixed to it are more versatile. They can be used as a submersible light or a floating light if the weights are excluded.

Handheld Fishing Lights

This method is far from ideal, but may help when you have no other options to hand. Using a powerful handheld flashlight, attached to a tripod, or place on a rock/branch. This pointed at the right spot on the water, may also entice fish for reasons mentions earlier in the article.

The light will not penetrate the water far, and a lot of the light will be lost because of reflection. But in a dark area, when there is no moon or other competing light sources, it may encourage fish. Try it and let me know!

Boat Lights For Fishing

There are several types of light that may be considered Boat Fishing Lights. Most of them fall into the categories above Floating Fishing Lights, Submersible Fishing Lights, and Handheld Fishing Lights. These will not be covered again.

The boat fishing lights we will discuss here are the lights that need to be powered from your boat’s battery, and these far into two categories. Lights attached to the underside of your vessel, and lights that you lower into the water (which are a type of Submersible Fishing Lights, really)

Submersible Boat Fishing Lights :

These are almost the same as the Submersible Fishing Lights. They have all the same advantages and disadvantages of the above lights. The only downside is that they have to be powered by your boat’s battery.

But to be honest, I would not do that. Like most other people, I would bring a spare 12-volt battery, and use that to power the lights. Not wanting to risk being stranded with a dead battery.

When looking for this type of Boat Lights for Fishing, look for low power consumption, especially if attaching to your boat’s battery. You can get LED light that output 2000 lumens on 10 watts of power.

Underwater Boat Lights For Fishing

Underwater boat lights are the best option for night fishing lights on a boat. They have the following advantages

• Unobtrusive – Under the water, so do not get in the way
• Fixed – They stay in the same place relative to you continually attracting fish
• Bright – No reflection, and there can be a lot of lights, creating its own ecosystem after time

Of course, nothing is perfect, and they do have the following disadvantages:

• Setup – Initial setup, installing them on the boat can be time consuming.
• Power – If you have a lot of lights it uses more power

Even with the above disadvantages, attaching led fishing lights for boats will improve your catch.

Underwater Dock Lights

Underwater dock lights or night fishing lights, attached to any permanent structure, is by far the best way to use green light. These need to be connected and switched on at the same time every evening. The green glow of the dock light will create a new ecosystem by the structure. The plankton will be attracted there, the baitfish and other small creatures will come for these. The predator fish will learn that the food is here and return every night.

How Many Lumens Of Light Do You Need For Night Fishing?

This depends on several things, like the depth, other light sources, and how clear the water is. For example, on a pitch-black night, in deep clear water. A small light will be quite noticeable.

The best answer to this question is, as many lumens as possible. It is far more likely that you will not have a light that is overly bright. I don’t actually know if the light can be too bright.

If you do have this problem, you can fit a dimmer switch.

Why Are Fish Attracted To Light At Night?

Phytoplankton is the bottom of the food chain, and they are photosynthetic microorganisms, meaning that they do not eat. They get there “Food” by converting light into chemical energy. That’s why they are attracted to the lights.

Next in the food chain are the zooplankton. These again are tiny, and they eat the Phytoplankton.

Smaller baitfish and other small creatures then come to eat the two types of plankton.

Bass and other game fish are now attracted to the area to eat the baitfish in the illuminated area, giving you a better chance to catch them.

Most of the game fish are ambush predators, meaning that they may not be in the center of the lit area. These fish are more likely to be on the outskirts, or in the dark areas on the border of the illuminated water.

Why Do anglers Fish At Night?

People fish at night for many reasons, including free time, cooler, fewer people around and better fishing. Below is a summary of some of the reasons that fishermen fish at night

• Free time – Convenience, most people do not have to work and look after children at night time
• Fewer People Around – Fewer people mean you are more likely to catch fish, as they are not being disturbed by jet skis etc.
• Less Competition. There usually are fewer anglers at night, meaning you can catch all the fish yourself (well, maybe!)
• Fish More Active – Around Dusk and Dawn, predator fish are usually more active

Other Questions

How many lumens do you need for night fishing?

Every night fisherman has struggled with choosing the right light. Every fisherman has heard the saying that you need "X" number of lumens for night fishing. The problem is that "X" number is never the right number.

There are way too many variables to pick a single number. Your height above the water, the size of your boat, the distance you're casting from, and even the depth of the water can affect how many lumens you need.

A heavy duty flashlight can have up around 5000 lumens which is OK for most needs

What's the best head torch for fishing?

If you want to go fishing at night, you'll need a head torch, or head lamp. Some people think they're just a gimmick, but in reality, they're a great tool to have when you're out on the water at night. Not only do they give you extra light, they keep your hands free to do whatever you need to.

The best head torch (a touch that goes over the head) is probably LED LENSER SE07R, FOX HALO AL350C or RIDGEMONKEY VRH300

What color attracts fish the most?

As anglers, one of the most common questions we ask is "What color attracts fish the most", but there is no one answer that will apply to all species of fish.

The answer as to what color attracts fish the most may vary depending on the species of fish you are fishing for.

The color of light that triggers fish to bite varies between species and is loosely related to the color of the fish’s diet. Fish that eat insects may be attracted to a blue or green light, while fish that eat small fish or zooplankton may be attracted to a red or orange light.

The two primary colors anglers use are blue and green. White light is also a choice, but that's really just the blue and green. Red does not do so well for fishing.

References

If you require more information, please check these references

Fishing Light Attractor , article, “en.wikipedia.org”, retrieved on, Sun 08-September-2020

Bait Fish , article, “en.wikipedia.org”, retrieved on, Sun 08-September-2020

Fishing At Night , article, “www.reddit.com”, retrieved on, Sun 08-September-2020

588816 Night Fishing Lights , article, “forums.iboats.com”, retrieved on, Sun 08-September-2020