Summertime and night fishing on Round Valley go together like boats and water. So far I’ve been doing this by the light of the moon, my LED headlamp, and the small white light in the stern of the boat.
People using submersible lights swear by their ability to attract more fish, and indeed I’ve successfully fished while this method was employed night Bluefishing off the Jersey shore. Anxious to try something new, I looked into getting a submersible fishing light for night fishing on Round Valley but quickly ran into a few problems.
- cheap lights tend to be dim, prone to leaks and failure.
- expensive lights look great… but they’re expensive! I contacted one company to see if they would let me try one out but got no response.
- You can make your own using a glass jar, 55watt car headlight, aquarium air tubing, wire, and some marine epoxy, but i was pressed for time.
The solution was to use things that I already owned/had in the boat. I suspended my waterproof LED headlamp, which I had purchased years ago for $40, from the line of an unused fishing pole.
I added a 1/2 inch wrench for weight. Here is what the light looked like in 40 feet of water.
We didn’t catch anything all night, until the light went into the water. Once in, we started catching Rock Bass like this little fella one after the other, all on small shiners (we couldn’t get herring this late!).
All fish were released. My headlamp stayed lit the entire time we used it, 4.5hours. The next day it was dead, taking it apart I discovered some water got into the lamp and created a short so when the lamp was switched off, it was still on.
I took everything apart and let it air dry, then wiped everything down with an old t-shirt and it works like new! Since the headlamp is all LED’s, it does not get hot so next time I’ll just put it in a clear plastic bag to prevent the water from getting in. There you have it. A poor man’s submersible fishing lamp.
