I am having a custom boat done by Uncle J. It will have bow fishing rails but I have to do the lights.

I have never bow fished. My 17 year old daughter has done archery for years, and deer hunts with a recurve. She is wanting to try her hand at bow fishing.

What is the best option for lights?

I see where some folks run a small generator. Is that better than running lights off from the boat battery?

Generator=no dead batteries=fish as much as you want without having to recharge

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Is there a specific type or brand of lights you recommend to accommodate the generator?

A buddy of mine runs the seelites. They're good. Little pricey. Don't have much personal experience with much other than those or older hps and halogen lights which require much more power.

Are you planning to run a trolling motor or use the mudmotor for putting around?

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We've found that low sodium's work the best. Especially in stained water, it seems to light up the fish much better. Pricey but worth it imo.

We've found that low sodium's work the best. Especially in stained water, it seems to light up the fish much better. Pricey but worth it imo.

I will be running a trolling motor on the bow of the boat.

12v or 24v?

If you're running a troller, I would look into lights that run off the same voltage as your troller. Run a small inverter style generator, with a converter to keep batteries full.

I've ran halogens off a generator, the 50w seelite leds and the cheap eBay 48w leds. I've fished off a boat with hps lights and they are good but pricey. I'd do halogen lights with 300w bulbs in them (you won't notice a difference with them vs500w bulbs) and a generator for muddy water but if you fish clear water leds are nice and quiet!


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I personally run 16 of the 50w LEDs of a Honda 2000w invertor on an alweld 2070. Its great bc I have 104,000 lumen output (6500lumens x 16 lights) focused directly at the water on a near-silent system. Unlike some of the bulbed lights that push light everywhere (stadium lights) or loud generators. All the energy to light the fish is cast down and very little lost in space. Some guys get into an argument and say that one type of light penetrates dirty water better, etc. etc. etc.... its BS. Science would say otherwise. Water is murky or dirty bc of tiny little solid particles that are floating around in the water. The Sun doesn't even penetrate these particles, so their bowfishing lights for sure don't. What does impact the way we see into the water at night is glare. Overall, a "warm white" or "yellowish" tint seems to be the resounding favorite light color bc it is not glaring off the surface of the water.

my previous boats have had:
8 of the 50w LEDs off 2 group 31 batteries. Was great for silence, but battery life sucked
8 150w HPS off Champion genny. Hated the oldschool loud generator and the bulbed lights get HOT and take a time to warm up.

The thing with bowfishing lights is everyone's favorite type is what they currently have on their rig, regardless of what they have experienced in the past. My suggestion is to check out a local tournament and see some of the boats and make a decision based on what your needs are.

Thanks for all the info.

I am still a bit ignorant to where you get these lights. Archery suppliers do not seem to sell them.

If you are running a generator, how are you wiring the lights up? With water and such everywhere, one would think there is a chance of getting the piss shocked out of you,.

I had figured some high speed bow fishing supplier sold a generator and light kit. I have yet to find such a thing.

The halogens are at lowes, wall mart, places like that for around 10-15 a piece. Not sure on the hps lights check bowfishingextreme.com or backwaterbowfishing.com. As far as wiring goes you could do it several ways. I've seen them hard wired just plug in a go. My first boat I had 2 switches. 1 for front lights and 1 for the side lights that ran to power strips which also have circuit protection. I did that because the side lights were blinding when you were running the big motor. Most gennys I have seen have circuit breakers on them to and a place to add a ground to it so I wouldn't worry about getting shocked.


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Puggle - at Lowes?

That explains why googling "bow fishing lights" was not getting me much.

I assume the lights are not automotive, but more similar to those rectangle work lights?

I feel like a dumb ass. For some reason I assumed bow fishing boats had some specially designed light systems. Heck, when I coon hunted we wore a very specialized light. I went to google images and took a closer look at bow fishing boats. They got all manner of cobbled up standard plug in lights with just standard extension cord type sockets.

Thats exactly what hes talking about. Just regular halogen work lights. If I were building a new setup, it would be led though.

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Look at bowfishing country. There's tons of setups and info on where to buy stuff. You can lurk without joining and you'll find everything you could possibly want to know without even having to start a thread.

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Here's somethin to think about to. You don't have to buy the 100.00 12v leds and have batteries go dead. eBay has the same 50w leds in 110v ive got 10 in my barn for lighting and they're 100.00 for 10 lights shipped. I'd get warm white vs cool white though.


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3000 watt Honda very quite generator, 10 100w led lights from amazon @ $183.00, 1 Schmacher 20 amp battery charger works well. See lots of fish, snakes, and gators. On river and on lake.

You can get two of the 2000's for the price of a 3000. More power and you don't have to lug that heavy bitch around.

amazon will have the 110V LED's for a fair price. I don't think you need to get the seelite or other American re-branded versions. I found 50W with 21 Heat Sinks (fins on the back) at 1.5" deep. They are pushing 6500lm each. were $40 each on dhgate.com.

I went to LEDs and never looked back. I couldn't stand the generator running. 2 batteries run all night long. I power 7 lights. They are not quite as good as the big 500W halogens, but the time on teh water experience is so much better without the noise and the visibility is just about as good. I'm not in really muddy water 95% of the time.

If you haven't done it before, you wouldn't know there was something different. I'm LEDs over Halogens.

I used to run the Home Depot Halogen work lights. There was 12 lights on the around the bow and I ran them with a 5500 watt Coleman generator that was fuggn' LOUD. It worked fine but the generator was annoying and the halogen bulbs seemed to be somewhat fragile. If you pulled the boat down a bumpy country road, for example, you might end up with a few lights bulbs that didn't make the trip. We kept a supply of spare bulbs on hand and it was a PITA to take the enclosures apart every time you need a new bulb but overall it worked well. I really haven't heard of anyone else complaining about this problem so it could have been isolated to the particular lights I had.

I lucked out and bought a used rig a year or so ago that was already set up with 10ea, 80W Seelite LEDs and I run them with a EU2000I Honda Generator. The generator runs the lights all night long on "quite mode" and has really made bowfishing that much more enjoyable. Regardless of what lights you decide on, I'd highly recommend springing for the little Honda Generator; it is worth it's weight in gold.

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Seelite.com
Customfitz.com

Or if you want to run HPS go to econolights.com and look for the 6x9 100 watt HPS. they are 30.oo a piece. I am running 8 on my boat with genny. Also to run lower amps get capacitors for them from www.capacitorking.com for the 100 watt hps you will need the 35UF caps. 11.00 dollars apiece. That will cut your amp draw in almost half. and keep the genny running at low load.

look on youtube at Gary Briggs he does tutorials and tests on LEDs and HPS for bowfishing.

If you decide to go the led route check out the newer cob style lights, there's a fella on the bowfishing boards that did a YouTube video on them. From the look of it they're the closest to the color of hps. Personally run 4 400w hps lights and am more than happy. Check out show me customs for housings

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I can't stand the generator running, so I went to all LEDs and a couple spare batteries. It was the right choice for me. Works great and no noise. I do not miss the hmmmmmm of the generator.

RLTW

I purchased 10 Floodlights off of Ebay and as those go out I am replacing them with Seelite lights. I have nothing negative to say about the lights. I ordered them directly off the website and they ship quick. I also run the Honda EU 2000I generator. I have a cord that runs back to my poling Platform where I strap the generator. You hear my stock PD Idle over the generator. Its a great experience and im sure you will love it but before you go and purchase everything needed I would go on a guided trip and see how you feel about it. It is pretty pricy to get all set up. We go every Saturday I am home and have a blast. Goodluck

I run halogen lights, but I just bought 1 of these to see how it compares to the halogen. Says its equivalent to a 300w halogen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5 ... 8HQ0&psc=1