Headlamps for night fishing...

Kia Ora from New Zealand,

I've been reading these forums for awhile now researching various headlamps that are intended for fishing from the rocky shore in New Zealand.

Being from a small island in the South Pacific our selection is pretty limited. However, with what I have picked up from this forum a Flood Beam Headlamp is what I need (i think)....

For what I require brightness is very important (pitch black night, rough uneven ground, dealing with baits, hooks, line etc) alongside longevity (I'm often out from dusk till 2-3am, sometimes later). It doesn't need to be hardcore shock proof but some water resistance is important. I'm not particularly worried about the hue/tone of the light. Comfort is important.

Happy to spend 100-150USD.

Cheers

I assume from your description that you are fishing from shore and not from a boat?

I think something like the Zebralight H51f would work nicely. It's a diffused light, uses 1 AA and is easy to change batteries. It's light weight. If you aren't moving around a lot I'm guessing you would use 30 lumens or less although it can go up to 195 lumens.

It's winter there now so dusk to 3 am is probably 8 hours. If you use it on the 7 lumen setting you can probably get by with one battery per night. Otherwise you will need to change the battery.

If runtime is an issue and you don't want to change batteries while fishing then you might want a headlamp with a battery pack on the back where you can power it with 2 to 4 AA's. I don't have a headlamp like that but if I was looking for one I'd at least check out the Petzl MYO RXP.

By the way you can make most any headlamp floody by putting a piece of translucent tape over the lens.

Maybe others will come along with better suggestions.

pure flood is good for working with your hands but not good for hiking. a floody, but not pure flood, may be what you need.

i would recommend you take a look at the Spark ST6-460NW. it comes with a clear lens and a frosted lens so you can choose between a spot and a floody beam. its neutral tint, relative to a cool tint, will enhance depth perception making it easier for you to see uneven features in the landscape, and will also reduce glare from mist and fog. it uses an 18650 battery so it has long runtimes. it is $100 US.

+1 on the Zebra and Spark. although i might go with a single AA vs. 18650(Spark ST6 also support 2 CR123a), just a little smaller package and if you run it on the lower two settings you'll get some good run times. Kinda funny how you suggest you need a really bright light in the darkest of nights. It would seem the darker the night the less light you really need. I always want my light to be brighter when I am competing with another source of light like right now typing this post. I have my ST5 on medium 2 to see the keyboard(because I can't type worth a damn), but if my computer screen were off low would be more than enough.
If your going thru one cell per night u might want to consider rechargeable batteries. NiMh comes to mind.