Flashlights for Icefishing with candle option?

fishfry

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Dec 6, 2006
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Just discovered this site and I've spent the last hour or so reading the multitude of posts. I always wondered about my weird fascination with flashlights but it appears that I'm not alone LOL..

I'm looking for a fairly small flashlight that can also be used as a candle like the Maglites but brighter..

Each year I take a trip to Canada for perch fishing and the first hour or so in the morning its pitch dark in the ice shanties and I need a flashlight that I can sit down on the bench or hang to use hands free that lights up the whole space.

Are there any powerful smaller flashlights that convert to a lantern or candle?

Thanks alot.. Great site!!!
 
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DaveG

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Dec 2, 2005
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Target was selling a Energizer flashlight that converts to a small lantern,by pulling on the head,runs on 3-aaa cells,has one 5-mm led in it.Not very bright,but small enough to toss in your pocket and was not too expensive.Along the same line try the River Rock lantern at Target,small and bright,well liked around here.
 

Pydpiper

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Jan 4, 2005
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Welcome to CPF! Now stay away from my perch. :)

A great light in an ice hut is an Eternalight Elite Max, it can use lithium AA's, what that means to you is two things, it will float in the hole if dropped, and it will run days without the burden of loosing power quickly due to the cold, the way standard batteries do.
here is a link Elite

You wont be able to break it, and you wont be able to kill the batteries, likely in a whole season. The neck lanyard can hang from a ceiling support and in full "on" mode will be extremely bright. If you fish from a cloth shack then the internal magnet can be used for support as well, a small piece of steel on top of the shack will support the light.
It has some other cool features like it's internal LED, it will easily light a shack in a nice warm color for days and days and days....
After a few beers the strobe light can be pretty entertaining too, face it your only coming here for the beer anyways.
 

strat1080

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May 22, 2006
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I would go with a headlamp for this situation. A very floody headlamp like the PT Quad ought to be very useful. You can usually get them for $30 and even less if you look around. For most tasks outdoors I've discovered that headlamps are really the way to go.
 

Northern Lights

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Jan 17, 2006
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Southwest
look through this site:
WWW.qualitychinagoods.com
Head lamps, and many multi-led or single LED lights that will do what you want.
I prefer the 25 led head light for situations fishing like you describe from the wholesale site of the above vendor but the 21 led would be ok too from that site:
http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/3xaaa-4mode-headlight-p-357.html
For a flash light I use the 7w Golston:
http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/golstonreg-2xlir123a-waterproof-rechargeable-recommended-p-409.html
I am known to be a big fan of this light, we have a lot of information on it, very popular light, here is one of the originating threads:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/103057

More infor on its clones, this one is like an index for a few things about the light:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/142395
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1698577&postcount=3

I just ordered several of these because of the hi/low feature, I will use these crappie fishing. Perch will wait till spring when I go north again.
http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/super-bright-haiii-2xlir-rechargeable-p-486.html

Off course I use the rechargeable batteries and charger from the same seller, his wholesale site has more choices, lower prices but a minimum order.
www.szwholesale.com

There are other vendors you can find listed on CPF that carry similiar products and they have reports by customers here too, so you have a lot of research to do but you will find what you are wanting.

Mmmm...Perch! I am with you on this, Fishfry.
See ya on the water!
 

Theatre Booth Guy

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Jan 29, 2006
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344
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Michigan, USA
Some great suggestions above.
A couple that are different: River Rock lantern from Target (uses 4 AA batts and seems to be liked very well). From Peak LED Solutions, they have a diffuser that fits over their Pacific or Baltic lights to spread the light evenly around an entire room.
I much prefer the whiter light provided by something other than the standard 5mm LED.

Welcome to CPF and beware of the motto to "buy them all".
 

Blazer

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Dec 10, 2005
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338
Location
Ontario, Canada
Main problem is that you're getting up too early to ice fish.

Most of us who go ice fishing need our flashlights late at night, to find the Crown Royal someone left in the kitchen without turning on the lights to wake up the nancy's who lost all their money at the poker game and went to bed early.....and if you don't know what Crown Royal is you're really not ice fishing the Canadian way. :grin2:

As for a candle flashlight...see above posts.
 

Bogus1

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Feb 7, 2005
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Oregon
The strength in CPF has not only been its market savvy for what's widely available in the retail sector but for what you can find in custom lights.

For a light that can be candle mode with long run times and be very bright you can't beat the TnC SF-Series, of course unless you don't want to spend $200 or over for a stinking flashlight.:laughing: There simply is nothing available to the general public that can perform up to the level of a custom light.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1673018#post1673018
 

fishfry

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Dec 6, 2006
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Thanks everyone for all the help. I never really thought about a head lamp but that seems like a logical choice in combination with PydPipers Eternalight recommendation..

And yes PydPiper the perch are pretty much just an excuse to wolf down Canadian brewskis but I wasn't sure about the title " Whats the best light to find your beer in the dark?".... Also I just ordered a Fenix P1 just because it is cool.. Couldn't wait for the new cree and wasn't sure I needed the extras that come with it anyway..

Thanks again.. Fish
 

msm1018

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Jan 30, 2006
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USA
fishfry said:
Also I just ordered a Fenix P1 just because it is cool.. Couldn't wait for the new cree and wasn't sure I needed the extras that come with it anyway..

Thanks again.. Fish
Be careful, Murphy's Law would love to throw that P1 down the hole! keep it tied to yourself, Knock on wood I have not let anything fall down that small hole that seems so big once things fall into it. I just use a propane latern in my buddies portable, I just put it on the lowest setting when I watch the flasher. No need for any more light, and when I have a fish on I turn the nob onto full power and I'm good to go.
 
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