Another Fishing Headtorch Advice Thread!

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie here but I've been reading a lot of posts from this site lately and found it interesting so thought I'd register and see if I could kindly ask for a bit of advice.

I'm an avid and pretty dedicated sea angler in the UK and had a headlamp failure on my last trip. I normally pack a spare light but hadn't realised it wasn't in my box in my rush to get out the door on that trip, thanfully one of my fishing buddies had a spare, so I got to fish on.

so Anyway,long story short I'm in the market for a new headlamp and wanted to kindly ask those in the know if you'd be good enough to advise.

I used to use a petzyl myo XP which was ok at the time but after 5 years I changed it for a LemonBest 2000 Lm XM-L T6 focus LED Headlamp from a popular web based company with one day delivery . I've gotten 3 years out of that one had more than my monies worth and it's been ok but I think there's better out there.

I do a lot of rock fishing from the shore, which is often isolated, very dark, involves a long walk in and often in inclament weather. I fish year round, and can be out when it's 14°F in the winter or 85°f in the summer, often wet and windy and even if it's dry a lot of sea spray. In fact it's just starting our cod season just now, which is rough weather rock fishing. Not for the feint of heart or those unsteady on their feet!

I'm looking for more of a spotlight with good throw than a floodlight, as quite often we like to see the fish when they get to the surface so we can assess how to land them (normally we fish at range so casting 70-200 yards is not uncommon), and while a flood option can be useful I know I can work with a spot better if it's one over another. It will have to be water resistant enough to cope with pretty heavy rain for extended periods, submersable would be a bonus but if I end up in the water here for more than a few minuites it probably won't matter, only make the recovery of the body easier!

So far a lot of UK sea anglers are heading toward Fenix with the HP25R, HM65R and HP30R being very popular. While these can be very bright at max power and full charge my reading leads me to believe the stepdown can be fast and severe. I think I'd rather trade that kind of max power for a light that has a longer runtime with a more consistant throw. Our matches are normally 6hrs fishing time, may be all in darkness. Weight is a penalty I'm willing to pay, as is a couple of battery changes but I'd like to get 3 hours with a strong light out of it.

I've come accross the Zebra 600 headtorches which look fantastic but I'm a little concerned they might not have the narrow spot beam or are they just so bright that the spill illuminates a lot?

Budget wise I'm looking at $100 ish, though I have a little flex in the budget so spending an extra $20 or $30 woudn't be out of the question.

Sorry for the long first post but any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Pete

Looks like the Xtar Warboy should be on my list too, it might be a good compromise for me with good runtimes, even on high. I had a look at the thrunight TH10 which looked great but I'm unsure about runtimes and stepdown though I may need to take mah and power into account to get an idea of how they actually compare.

Ok so I had a good review of the specs and thanks to mhanlen's review here https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...headlamp-(Runtimes-throw-lumens-tested-and-co I decided to opt for the Xtar H3 Warboy as the throw still sounded pretty good and although the turbo is less bright than the TH10, I think the warboy will run at a higher output for slightly longer. Price was pretty good too at only £40 with free delivery and they have an outlet in the UK.

If things go well and my back recovers (hurt it last weekend) I'll be out on the 23rd to put it through it's paces.

I had really hoped I'd get some kind of advice here. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. As a newcomer to your community it's really disheartening to find a community that's so disinterested in helping a noob. I had made this post with some beam shots but I don't know why I'm bothering. I'll wish you all well and I'd love to say it's been informative and welcoming but it hasn't.

Take care,

Pete

Hi Pete. I'm sorry that you didn't feel that you were welcomed here. It surely isn't malice towards new members as we were all noobs at one point and a great deal of new threads are started by relatively new members. The headlamp subforum is less trafficked than other subforums, so it is very possible members didn't have any good suggestions for you at the time of your posting. I know for me personally I know next to nothing about available headlamps as it isn't my particular area of interest. In my experience the more specific your request is the easier it is for people to help also. I hope you find something that suits your needs and are able to come back and share it with us.

Cheers,

nbp

... and I'd add that if OP would like this thread moved to the Recommend subforum, any of us staff would be happy to do so.

Your thread would likely have more visibility there, and I'd guess you might get more response and advice :shrug: