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A Flash of Brilliance: Boatlight Fishing
  |  First Published: November 2009



Fishing at night is fantastic: cool air, twinkling stars, splashes of bait and the odd boof to tempt the line. I just love it. However, coordinating hooks, line and lures can be a bit tricky without good lighting, which is why I’m so excited about Boatlight Fishing concept.

The trouble with most boat lights is that they are either so pitiful that I end up hooking myself or so bright that I end up blinded for 10 minutes after turning it on. However, the Boatlight Fishing concept provides just the right amount of light needed due to its system of interconnected lights, rather than individual lights, and its portability.

The Boatlight Fishing system sees a continuous series or chain of lights fitted strategically within a boat to provide highly efficient lighting. In my boat, this meant 64 interconnected white LEDs in 11m of wiring.

These lights could be connected anywhere there's a 12V power source: to caravans and campers or even the back of a work vehicle.

It is best to install these interconnected LEDs as indirect lighting as they are virtually too bright to look at directly.

The Kit

Setting up the Boatlight Fishing is not difficult and is very user-friendly from start to finish. Instructions give six steps for installation, starting with disconnecting power and cleaning the surfaces on which the lights are to be fitted right through to the final set up of the On/Off switch once the lights are in place.

The boxed kit I purchased consisted of 11m of strong cabling with 64 light modules (each having three individual LEDs in each indestructible module), plus an On/Off marine grade toggle switch with 2m of cabling to connect to a battery and a tube of heavy-duty non-corrosive silicone sealer.

When I was shown the Boatlight Fishing kit by distributors Kirk Buckley and Cam Cross I was so impressed I ordered one for my own use, in time for the nocturnal barra fishing over the coming months.

In setting up my own boat the only item I needed was a silicone applicator tool/gun and I simply followed the directions supplied to install the complete kit within the TABS 4.2 metre Bullshark.

The instructions advised to set out the lighting roughly in the area where it's to be used – we simply threaded it along under the gunwales and then forward – and once the wiring was in the chosen place the silicone provided in the kit did a sterling job of holding it fast. This worked great and the silicone was fast drying. A bit of masking tape can be used to hold the lighting sections in place until the silicone dries.

In the TABS Bullshark the lighting started at the battery, moved through the two aft storage compartments for the battery and fuel tank, moved up under the port gunwale, across the rear of the 65L live well, into the starboard below deck storage compartment, across to the port one, from there into the anchor well, and from there back down to the battery.

The switch provided can be positioned virtually anywhere it suits the user.

Technical aspects

For the techno addicts, power consumption of the LED kit is 1.3amps per hour and it has an IP 68 (totally water-proof) rating. Lifespan is projected at some 40,000 hours of continuous lighting, which will see this old bird off his perch.

The complete kit comes with a two-year warranty and costs around $170. Boatlight Fishing can be found on the net as BoatlightFishing.com and you can order direct.

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