Hotspotoutdoors

Shore fishing during the summer at night I saw a few guys running up and down the river with some nice bright headlights on their boat. Well I finally bought a boat of my own (mostly for duck hunting but will double as a river rig), and I want to put some on the front. Are those just car headlights or something special? anything to know or just wire them up with a switch? thanks

Ive seen old car headlights and others that buy, I am assuming marine spot lights. Also some put HID Kits in them to make them get that nice bright white glow

I assume john, andy, and gordie will elaborate a bit more on this. Hang tight...

What kind of boat did you get?

i got a 16' bass tracker (mod V). It is a '79 and was showing it. we have the thing gutted and are about to start work on redoing it for hunting. Any other ideas/suggestions are appreciated. will be using it on the river a fair amount. right now the plan is to run a box down the center with swivel seats (looking for some cheap old ones if anyone has a lead) mounted on top so we can hunt out either side and store guns or whatever in the box. Leaving the front (where the deck was) open for hauling deeks. also planning on on running LP hose from a couple of 1lb bottles under the very front storage cubby (only thing we didn't rip out) so we can have sunflowers mounted to keep warm. I would really like to add a gas grill somewhere in this set-up but i am not sure if that is really practical/feasible at this point (though i am sure it would get plenty of use). Also bought a blind for it this weekend as well. thanks for any advice!

If you can swing the $ for HID, do it!


If you look around on the web you can find the 7" lights for $99 each.

The HID are very nice and the only way to go.

They do run a little more but the added light is great at night.

I do think HID lights are the way to go but were not in the buget last season so I went on the eb site and purchased a set oo offroad kc lites for 25 bucks and mounted them to the front of my boat they work great but I will add HID lighting next season just be prepared to eat up a battery if you move alot at night. There are plenty of options for lighting for boats some low dollar and some very high end stuff out there.
As for your box Idea that is what I did for duck hunting and it works great except mine was built out of plywood and when it gets wett its heavy as he!! so I would recomend tring to find an aluminum truuck tool box. Its light and its great dry storage and also is removable. This year I just use 5 gal buckets with those snap on padded seats that swivel. its a great place to put extra shells and has a carring handle. the reason for this is my boat is wide open and when cattin on the river I like as much room as possible I use fold up lawn chairs to sit in or sit on the front deck.

elwood, you mean just taking an aluminum box and put the seats on that? I actually have an aluminum toolbox for my S-10 that is just sitting on the wood pile right now - I guess my main concern would be the ability of that box to support the weight of seats and guys on it. You have a point about the wood though - I am trying to keep plywood out of this project as much as possible. We are using some sheets of 1/4" semi-flexible plastic for the floor. After pulling out all that old wood and foam I see how much that stuff can weigh when wet.

Yes a tool box like that you can put aluminum angle for supports under the seats. also if the whole top is the lid thats all the better but I think the end opening boxes would work.You can test it before you try it just have a few buddys sit on it. As for the floor if you can aford it I would go with 11 gauge aluminum for the floor and it can be riveted to the cross supports. I did this in my boat and a buddys boat,you can carpet it or use that roll on bed liner for trucks or paint it but I would put silica sand on it if you paint it.also I know a guy that does do some cool stuff for floors its a cool coating that he does.

Most of the guys out there are running some type of off road driving lights. You can get them in the halogen or HID variety. I Run two 9" 100 watt halogens and they work very well. I paid about $100 a piece for them. HID's will use a little less power and be more of a bright white light, but they are no better in the fog. In my opinion the fog is the biggest battle out there on the river at night. If there was only a good light for running in the fog we would probably all be buying them.

Has anyone over tried using night vision goggles on the river? I was looking at some Generation 2 goggles, and they look like they would work. But I would want to see what they would do, before I plop that much money into it, but if they work good, I would consider it a much needed accessory, and get them.

Does anyone know where one could rent/use a pair for a couple days, for a test drive, so to speak?

Are those mono or bi nocular? I know the monocular version has pretty much zero peripheral vision and would make it really tough.

I think thermal vision would be a fun challenge.

Hard to say if there is enough heat differential between the river and a rock thats mostly in the river.....

I would sure be willing to try it though if someone has a pair of infrareds to loan me....

You can put an IR filter on the HID's so that they only put off IR light. Then strap on the goggles and you should be good to go.

I know a couple guys that run beer goggles and they dont work that well

I put two tractor lights on the front of my boat and used a hand held spot light, it worked out OK and was cheaper than the halogens or HID's but don't give off near as much light. I paid about $15 each for them.

I have done research, and it looks as though the military use the night vision goggles to guide themselves on water at night. I have seen pictures of what it looks like, but I would like to actually use a pair. Or have some one out with me that has some. I would think that would be the answer to the fog problem as well. For right around a grand, give or take a couple hundred, depending on quality, you can get into a really nice set.

When I asked the company, how could I try them, to see how they worked, they told me, some of the larger city police dept use them, or military bases may have them, he also told me that they would work great for boat travel at night. I was hoping someone on here has used them in the military, or on the PD that could give some detail. $1000 is pretty steep for light, but if it could save me a couple props a year, or from getting beached on a sand bar, I would do it.

I also need better lights, that is an off season project. We have been using a hand held spot light. I also ended up in a pile of cattails up north with my big goat in the dark.

Maybe you should look into getting an underwater periscope while your at it.

1K seems a little ridiculous, especially once you hit a wave and they fall in the drink. Sure the military uses them, but they need to be stealthy (and its taxpayer money anyways, so who cares, right?)

Shouldn't a good GPS guide you around any sandbars? (I dont have one, just wondering)

When the water drops, new ones show up daily.

And when you fish 5-6 days a week in the summer, I could justify it, I think.

I haven't ran into to many waves on the MN River.

We dont even wanna hear about your big goat but I bet it went something like this..... COME BAAAAAAAAACK

couldnt resist HMMM wonder if you were wearing beer goggles

Gps is basically worthless at night in the fog other than telling you which direction the landing is. Even if the gps is accurate to 3' there are lots of times you have to slip through a logjam with only inches on either side of you, or go around large underwater rocks

Just get that jet conversion you been thinking about and you don't have to worry about your prop and just drive over them sand bars.

Scott come to find out the wife cousin has a couple sets of night vision compliments of the military so if you want to give them a try next spring I'm sure he will let me borrow them

where do we form the line for trying those babys out