The Different Types of Night Fishing Lights

Garica Ward
3 min readOct 24, 2016

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Planning for a night fishing trip? Then you must know about the night fishing lights. White and green are the two primary colors that fishing lights are available in. Wondering why these lights are not available in other colors such as purple or blue? This is because, planktons (the primary food of bait fish) get attracted to white and green wavelengths. Thus, when the planktons move to the lighted area, the bait fish get attracted to them and these bait fishes in turn attract game fish. Some of these fish directly get attracted to light. Thus, this is why White and Green Fishing Lights are used for night fishing.

There are three kinds of lights for night fishing — the floating lights, submersible lights and black lights. Floating and submersible lights help in attracting fish. They can either be used individually or in combination. A lot of people use a combination of these Freshwater Fishing Lights for night fishing as they are more versatile and they light up several levels of the water column. This helps in attracting fish, irrespective of where they are. They also provide lighting above the water and help in hooking bait, tying knots, etc. Black lights are used for lighting up the fishing line. These lights help the angler in determining what is going on under the water by seeing and not just by feeling or by line movement.

Floating Lights: These are one of the earliest kind of lights that were used for night fishing. These lights are inexpensive and still used extensively. These lights float with the beam of light facing downwards. Thus, they attract the bait fish and game fish. Now a lot of companies have started manufacturing LED floating lights. These lights are very energy efficient. Apart from white, these lights are now available in green color as well. Some of these lights have a molded unit, thus, they can also be used as boat lights, spotlights or camp lights. Some floating lights also come with a built-in black light that helps in illuminating the fishing line.

Submersible lights: For several years, the night fishermen used the floating lights. However, the drawback with these lights was that they attracted lots of insects along with the fish. Thus, the submersible lights or the Underwater Fish Lights that slide beneath the water surface were developed. Submersible lights are heavy so that they can sink immediately as they are put in the water. For submersible lights that are not heavy, weight needs to be added to the swivel to light it up. Without any weights, these kinds of submersible lights with float. Thus, based on your need, these lights can also be used as submersible lights. These lights are available in different lengths as well.

Black Lights: Black lights will take your night fishing to a new level. By using these UV lights you can keep track of any movement on the fishing line. Most fishermen use black lights along with a fluorescent line for night fishing. As the fluorescent line lights up in the dark water, fishing in the night becomes very easy.

Now that you know about the various types of Underwater Fishing Lights, get ready for night fishing!

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