Headlamp

[JasonC]

Can anyone attest to the best type of headlamp for night fishing? Red light versus uv led or "black" light? Also, if anyone has a specific model in mind to recommend, that would be great as well.

 

[UncleShorty]

Red light will maintain your night vision. Least that's what we learned at Tigerland on Ft. Polk during infantry training in '72...

C-4-3
First to fight
Last to flee...

 

[Bamboozle]

Princeton Tec has nice offerings and will stand by their products almost indefinitely.

Black Diamond has some nice offering as well with a shorter warranty.

I own both. Take your pick, they all work. You really only need them to change flies and get off of the water with the strongest light needed for getting off the water. I can change flies with 10 lumens or less.

FWIW - LED headlamps (which are all about all you can get anymore) don't penetrate water or fog nearly as well as incandescent light (Krypton bulbs).

For that reason I have an older Princeton Tec headlamp with Krypton bulbs that I use for excursions on the Susquehanna when I know I will be getting off the water when I can't see my hand in front of my face.

It's nice being able to see obstacles in the water at midnight... ;-)

FWIW - I never found that shining a bright light on the water scared fish away or caused them to stop rising, all it does is screw up your night vision for a few minutes.

 

[JasonC]

Bamboozle, that's exactly the info I was looking for, thank you! I've been eyeing up the princeton tek Fred model that starts with the red light without having to cycle through the white lights first. Throwing it out there, has anyone ever used night vision goggles? I could see someone who does a decent amount of hunting having a pair and using them. I couldn't justify spending $300+ on a pair just to fish with.

 

[Bamboozle]

JasonC:

Keep in mind night vision needs infrared heat to be emitted or reflected to see anything.

Water appears black and the giant rock or tree you will trip over will be difficult to see as well.

Bottom line, unless you are poaching, there really is no need to go the night vison route as its only advantage is NOT being seen.

In regards to the Fred…

IF you plan to use a headlamp solely to change flies, options that clip on your hat brim (if you wear a ball cap) like the Princeton Tec Impulse or Black Diamond Point are more than adequate. They are all I use 99% of the time.

Something small and simple like the Fred will work too but you have to put it on or wear it all day.

HOWEVER, if you venture into the woods and will be hiking out in the dark, you really want to get a headlamp with low lumen LED’s and AT LEAST a 200 lumen or stronger spot light.

A spotlight pays HUGE dividends when it is really dark as you can see really far in front of you. On a foggy night, you will lucky if you can see a few feet in front of you with a Fred.

Another thing, go with a regular AAA battery light, make sure it works before you go fishing and carry extra batteries. For long-term storage, don’t leave the batteries in the headlamp or use Lithium batteries because alkaline batteries can and WILL leak.

Finally, if you plan to fish a lot at night, carry a small backup light (like a Princeton Tec Impulse on your key ring).

It sucks BIG TIME being lost in the woods with no or inadequate light…

…trust me I know… ;-)

Have fun!

 

[dustyroads85]

In past years I have been a Petzle fan, their lights never failed me but as the technology got better I picked up a black diamond storm a couple years ago. It started failing here a few months ago. Contacts in the battery compartment losened up and power was intermittent. I gave up on it as I need something dependable.
Last year I bought my daughter a BioLite330, mainly so I could play with it Rechargeable lithium-ion battery. I liked it, a lot. Super light, you nearly do not notice you're even wearing it, and excellent light emission. I just ordered another on Amazon on Monday for myself. It doesn't offer as many features as the black diamond storm does but I really only need white & red lights, which it offers. BioLite also offers a 750 lumen which I considered, but I dont think I have a need for a light that bright, so I stuck with the 330 which I knew was very comfortable and small for packing away.

If I had to pick one downside it's that you can not dim the red light on the 330.

and this might not have answered your actual question - I use red light on the stream to change flies or more often, untangle my leader. I still get pelted with bugs, maybe slightly less than the white light.

 

[bigjohn58]

I have a Black Diamond and I like it BUT I hate how I always had to take off my sunglasses and store them somewhere. My sun glasses are always on my hat when I'm not wearing them. I ended up getting a couple similar to this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113821012425?var=&hash=item1a8042d1c9&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAADEGivMVvlxTpc8qEN1xCVoFN0VhjF9iXTCgkdo7htNeRHWCrZrkybEFNTqmyd1JPVvTYsGC6wrvzbXdQVwswPTfyCnH88R%252F9qYqc1YJufSoRWHHPTshfnBao7O6TYe8FLlCOx8PVB%252FBOknEhezYM895iAaREkIbPkgv%252BTdd3SyxRUdfEYkzTgK1nO8JKC1QckLNck%252BQYCWFlkQA8yah4aAR5G1XjQMww%252BUd7qMVuqp7b83kSZdsIPy45C0izrSFXr557JvlI9QFxV7ezEQQtdZ0mh4%252BbizXX8jWm9VXi3c1xt5SAEejcyp4mfBCSNDnDFQKi2Na4rxWikVY7OvDHLTG1noloAahPGHDNRagOSJTxMnn8NwkYsa1BX7Ppw67vt8bVq7jA8hL64eePGzu5X%252FOYnVpNcG3BeDOen0bZKsx41%252BDHv097sE74wIU8yYhzvjPC9OnbZ4FGH0uHbuRoINY24kdYHvOTH6XmC0aVmjq7RDUL2aHVDAfT3NQSXq5ezW%252B4cJP%252FxLL6a%252Fi3e8m2bD%252Fuh9cNtJmKNRbye%252F22%252Blrib2SmXoynWV742CaSI5KsZdS9SXUn306YbmNx5tQBVHqZ9I%252B%252BXdfMWxkFGe5FDUwdzUk5vHLr3%252BCA%252Bl%252BpZbV7JgYHP%252B64ZsFqW2dqt9BKBx9Zz0pEg2NE6gpCNClrp7u8ULzU9MBfqb4Zgi9Z4zL5GAlZWLDEdPovPFW6%252BMb5fgQgVKYwQ3K2R%252F0L4Db0ghKvI8gWwJm4AKFMEhZ1jUsqD%252FC5CHWsfU9avPLR7FOl1afn9VEJ4Wum3rezlRTopqKurjJzlmzmUqA2xzKjJe3ks3Cbft3CpTKLVOgWI%252B3G59UXqKNeQ8eQ4qwI7Nb4ya0qCwgR37eWGK%252FQl5yajzekdOFZdyo6nP0dJL1IW6u%252Ffjiw0X%252BNg17areppplrlyQxzPsFIYU08pHFpzG0yfMTizmF4tjoI1YktPBglsVGyERKRkHDr%252FxsdJu6YXxINqGe9WAhFQ0PEpqgZoXF64s9ev3J79%252Feyv3rf9Ldonex8I9Oo%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK

I have 3 different style clip on LED rechargeable lights. I got 3 of them because I keep one in my kayak, one with my fly fishing, and one just as a spare because I know they are cheap. Are they spot lights? No. Do they work and give you enough light to tie or see where you are going? Most definitely! For the price, being waterproof, and rechargeable they are hard to beat for the price!

 

[Swattie87]

Good thread. Appreciate the hat clip light idea. I’ve never strongly considered those, but see some advantages after reading this thread perhaps.

I have plenty of traditional headlamps for backpacking, and I just carry one of those in my fishing pack for night fishing, or if I end up needing to hike back to the car in the dark. For the most part, they’re overkill though. While backpacking overnight I like having the several hundred lumen spot light function those have, if needed for any reason, but 99% of the time I’m using them on their lowest setting for around camp in the evening.

While fishing, I don’t think I’ve ever needed more than their lowest settings for re-trying a fly or walking back to the car once your night vision is in full effect. And headlamps are clumsy to adjust when wearing a baseball style cap (which I always do when fishing) and can’t light the area just below the brim of your cap based on where they’re located on your head.

Will look into one for my fishing pack probably, that has a red light option.

 

[bigjohn58]

Swattie87 wrote:
Good thread. Appreciate the hat clip light idea. I’ve never strongly considered those, but see some advantages after reading this thread perhaps.

I have plenty of traditional headlamps for backpacking, and I just carry one of those in my fishing pack for night fishing, or if I end up needing to hike back to the car in the dark. For the most part, they’re overkill though. While backpacking overnight I like having the several hundred lumen spot light function those have, if needed for any reason, but 99% of the time I’m using them on their lowest setting for around camp in the evening.

While fishing, I don’t think I’ve ever needed more than their lowest settings for re-trying a fly or walking back to the car once your night vision is in full effect. And headlamps are clumsy to adjust when wearing a baseball style cap (which I always do when fishing) and can’t light the area just below the brim of your cap based on where they’re located on your head.

Will look into one for my fishing pack probably, that has a red light option.

There are several of those clip on style hat lights that have a red light options. Just got to look on Ebay or Amazon. If you go the Ebay route you just got to be patient getting them. I'm very happy with what I received for the money. Those clip on lights are so much lighter and its so nice with no batteries just plugging into a USB port to charge.

 

[Bamboozle]

A couple of things…

As I already said, the only time I actually use my headlamp, is for getting out of dark or unfamiliar woods or off big water.

For fly changing, I use a hat brim light that is maybe 5 or 10 lumens. I also never use a red light because it is another press on the button and I never felt the need.

10 or so lumens doesn’t screw up my night vison for more than a few seconds and fish ignore it.

That being said, I wear a ball cap. My go-to headlamp (currently a Black Diamond Spot) is narrow for a reason. When I need it and need to look down, I tip my cap back; put the headlamp around my head BELOW the hat brim and pivot the headlamp down.

When I want to see just straight ahead, I put it around the cap over the brim. A narrow headlamp makes this whole lot easier than some of the wider headlamp options out there.

A couple of things about on clip-on hat brim lights:

If you use a chest box, chest pack or even regular fly boxes in a vest, you will find it a royal pain in the *** to get light down into your chest box or fly box without pointing your head way down or pulling your hat brim down.

What I did a LONG time ago because I use a Richardson Box is fabricate a different mount for a Princeton Tec Impulse that attaches to my hat brim. My mount allows me to pivot the light more than 180 degrees and extend it so I can shine light down INTO my chest box, a fly box or anywhere I need light.

In my case, I couldn't find what I wanted so I had to “invent it.”

If you’re not that clever, take a look at the Princeton Tec Point MPLS. The “Point” can attach to a hat brim (and a lot of other places) and has a gooseneck.

BTW – There is a cheaper version out there that just comes with the hat brim clip.

Another thing about hat brim lights, think SMALL because you may have an issue if you use a clip-on magnifier also attached to your hat brim. In my case, I have a magnifier & flip down sunglasses attached to my hat which is why I invented my own mount.

Finally, all of the cute small headlamps or hat brim lights made by the big three (Petzl, Princeton Tec & Black Diamond) go away in time so if you find one that is PERFECT…

…buy a few spares!!

 

[mossyoakpenn]

I wanna hear more thoughts on the night vision goggles. I dont think they would be practical, maybe too bulky/heavy and very expensive. But, in the Corps, our N.V.G.’s had a miniature uv (?) light that was cast out from the goggles with the push of a button. You couldnt see it with naked eye but it lit EVERYTHING up in the goggles like it was daylight out. I bet you could see well enough to make repeated, accurate casts which would be huge for night fishing!

As for headlights…Walmart has an Ozark Trail 400 lumen rechargeable headlight for $22. Has floodlight, spotlight, and red light that you can go to first. I love them. I have three of them and give them away to my friends as gifts because they work so well. HIGHLY recommended!

 

[mossyoakpenn]

I wanna hear more thoughts on the night vision goggles. I dont think they would be practical, maybe too bulky/heavy and very expensive. But, in the Corps, our N.V.G.’s had a miniature uv (?) light that was cast out from the goggles with the push of a button. You couldnt see it with naked eye but it lit EVERYTHING up in the goggles like it was daylight out. I bet you could see well enough to make repeated, accurate casts which would be huge for night fishing!

As for headlights…Walmart has an Ozark Trail 400 lumen rechargeable headlight for $22. Has floodlight, spotlight, and red light that you can go to first. I love them. I have three of them and give them away to my friends as gifts because they work so well. HIGHLY recommended!

 

[troutpoop]

I'm using the NEBO Mycro this year and keep it on my hat all the time. Its super small. I have a petzel in my wader pocket for back up. Both have served mt well. e