Bloodnut
Newly Enlightened
I spent all last night jug fishing on the river with some other guys. The deal is, you rig lines and hooks to floating jugs, bait them up, put them out, then go check/re-bait at various intervals. (Catfish would be the target here). All of this is done in the dark, on the river.
I took enough lights and knives to nearly sink my boat. The lights were: Streamlight Lite box w/ spotlight bulb, Ultra-Stringer, el cheapo Rayovac 2xAA LED, 1xAAA LED penlight (also a Raoyvac), an automotive rechargeable LED worklight, and a 400,000 CP Q-Beam. I left my two Malkoff equipped SF's at home on purpose so they would not be lost to the river.
The Ultra Stinger ended up being the most useful light. The battery held up all night with intermittent, but heavy use. I used it for spotting the jugs so they could be re-baited. Throw was good and beam pattern was ideal (adjusted to the tightest/most throw setting). I kept waiting for the battery to crap out, but it never did. It is light enough that I was able to run the tiller-driven outboard and the light without fatigue. Again, the US was great!
The Lite Box was also used to spot jugs, mostly in an effort to conserve the batts in the US. My Lite Box has/had a switch issue which got better as the night went on. Things that made the Lite Box sub-optimal were weight, form-factor, and the pencil thin beam. (It's not really built for this sort of use.) We really had to pan with the light to find jugs. I ordered this with the flood lamp, but it shipped with the spot lamp. The guy that I bought it from gave me such a good deal, I never made an issue of it. I'm going to end up swapping out though. One thing the Lite Box did well was, I turned the head 90 degrees and stood the light up on the bow to make a headlight for the boat. That was just okay. The good thing about this light was the massive runtime. I ran it without any worry that it was going to leave me in the dark.
The night before the trip, I picked up a Rayovac 1xAAA penlight for $3.49 at Wal-Mart. Stupid thing has a collimater for a lens which yields a circular beam pattern tightened into a spotlight of sorts. Who in the world tries to turn a 1xAAA light into a spot light? Best thing about this light was the small form factor and clip which let me clip it to my pocket for easy access. I used it for checking on things in the boat. Okay for what I paid.
The Rayvac 2xAA light in another story. Caught this on clearance at the same Wal-Mart for ~$8.00 a few weeks ago. It's the 65(?) lumen model. It lit up the inside of the boat nicely and worked for helping my partner bait hooks and stuff. Great bargain! I kept trying to use it to spot jugs because within the boat, it seemed so bright. That didn't work. The river just sucked the life outta that little light. But I was real pleased with this one.
The rechargable work light was brought as a utility light to light the inside of the boat (16 foot aluminum jon boat). It worked pretty well, but the 180 degree throw meant I was constantly being blinded by the thing. This was more user error than an issue with the light. (Stupid partner!) But i'll continue to take this one just because I can.
Last but not least is the Q-Beam. I spent yesterday getting a cigarette Light socket wired into the boat so I could run this thing. After that was done, I realized I did not install a fuse so I was a little hesitant about firing it up - but I did it anyway. Durn thing killed my deep cycle battery after just a few minutes and so I had to hand crank the motor the rest of the night. That wasa bummer. Another guy in another boat had some Mac Daddy Q-beam. He looked like a friggin tugboat going down the river! I've got to get this sorted out.
Last but not least. This was an environment where headlamps ruled. Another guy (there were several of us) had a headlamp set-up with the battery on his belt. The light was an incan. Didn't see it in action, but clearly this was the hot ticket for hands-free work. This particular fellow jug fishes *a lot*. He knows what works. Someone had some sort of lantern on the boat for a worklight. I would imagine the 360 throw from that thing blinded the users, but it made a really good beacon with which to se them from afar.
I took enough lights and knives to nearly sink my boat. The lights were: Streamlight Lite box w/ spotlight bulb, Ultra-Stringer, el cheapo Rayovac 2xAA LED, 1xAAA LED penlight (also a Raoyvac), an automotive rechargeable LED worklight, and a 400,000 CP Q-Beam. I left my two Malkoff equipped SF's at home on purpose so they would not be lost to the river.
The Ultra Stinger ended up being the most useful light. The battery held up all night with intermittent, but heavy use. I used it for spotting the jugs so they could be re-baited. Throw was good and beam pattern was ideal (adjusted to the tightest/most throw setting). I kept waiting for the battery to crap out, but it never did. It is light enough that I was able to run the tiller-driven outboard and the light without fatigue. Again, the US was great!
The Lite Box was also used to spot jugs, mostly in an effort to conserve the batts in the US. My Lite Box has/had a switch issue which got better as the night went on. Things that made the Lite Box sub-optimal were weight, form-factor, and the pencil thin beam. (It's not really built for this sort of use.) We really had to pan with the light to find jugs. I ordered this with the flood lamp, but it shipped with the spot lamp. The guy that I bought it from gave me such a good deal, I never made an issue of it. I'm going to end up swapping out though. One thing the Lite Box did well was, I turned the head 90 degrees and stood the light up on the bow to make a headlight for the boat. That was just okay. The good thing about this light was the massive runtime. I ran it without any worry that it was going to leave me in the dark.
The night before the trip, I picked up a Rayovac 1xAAA penlight for $3.49 at Wal-Mart. Stupid thing has a collimater for a lens which yields a circular beam pattern tightened into a spotlight of sorts. Who in the world tries to turn a 1xAAA light into a spot light? Best thing about this light was the small form factor and clip which let me clip it to my pocket for easy access. I used it for checking on things in the boat. Okay for what I paid.
The Rayvac 2xAA light in another story. Caught this on clearance at the same Wal-Mart for ~$8.00 a few weeks ago. It's the 65(?) lumen model. It lit up the inside of the boat nicely and worked for helping my partner bait hooks and stuff. Great bargain! I kept trying to use it to spot jugs because within the boat, it seemed so bright. That didn't work. The river just sucked the life outta that little light. But I was real pleased with this one.
The rechargable work light was brought as a utility light to light the inside of the boat (16 foot aluminum jon boat). It worked pretty well, but the 180 degree throw meant I was constantly being blinded by the thing. This was more user error than an issue with the light. (Stupid partner!) But i'll continue to take this one just because I can.
Last but not least is the Q-Beam. I spent yesterday getting a cigarette Light socket wired into the boat so I could run this thing. After that was done, I realized I did not install a fuse so I was a little hesitant about firing it up - but I did it anyway. Durn thing killed my deep cycle battery after just a few minutes and so I had to hand crank the motor the rest of the night. That wasa bummer. Another guy in another boat had some Mac Daddy Q-beam. He looked like a friggin tugboat going down the river! I've got to get this sorted out.
Last but not least. This was an environment where headlamps ruled. Another guy (there were several of us) had a headlamp set-up with the battery on his belt. The light was an incan. Didn't see it in action, but clearly this was the hot ticket for hands-free work. This particular fellow jug fishes *a lot*. He knows what works. Someone had some sort of lantern on the boat for a worklight. I would imagine the 360 throw from that thing blinded the users, but it made a really good beacon with which to se them from afar.
