Night light

I'm building a light for night fishing. I have some thin wall 1-1/2" diameter stainless steel tubing for the mast that I'll put in a port side rear rod holder. I made it in two peaces with a 45* elbow so I can break it down and store it.
I'm thinking I would like to use 12v Fluorescent but I want to be sure it's bright enough to light the boat deck and the surrounding water around the boat. I don't want to look like a football stadium on the lake. I've looked at the available deck lighting fixtures at the marine suppliers and they just don't appeal to me, especially with some of the prices. I'm interested to here what some of you have done to accomplish such a task.

i bought boat lights from bass pro shops that kinda work like recess lights in a home. you can mount them anywhere in your boat and i wired mine up on individual switches so i can turn on only one or two.

I have also been eyeballing lights for night fishing. We have a lot of bugs and skeeters like you do i'm sure. Those things will pick you up and carry you off. I was thinking about a black light for inside the boat just to see to tie lines etc, and one that floats in the water to attract some critters. Wish you luck

I dont quite understand what kind of light fixture youre building but I use flouresvent bulbs in clamp on style light fixtures. I have two that I use mounted on PVC pipe which stands in the center of my 16' boat from the center console, one pointing to the front of the boat and the other pointing towards the back. Amazingly, I'm using "13 watt" bulbs and they do great. I believe their lighting is in comparison to 100 watt regular bulbs and they are hardly any drain at all to batteries. I thought I was nuts paying this much for bulbs but so far, so good. If they'll last me a couple years I'll buy again. They light up the boat very well, all my rod tips, and throw a light pretty good out the boat as well (better than standard bulbs). They are soft to the eyes, and never get hot. Here's the link I ordered from since I couldnt find any local.

http://www.solarseasy.com/cfbulbs.html

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Originally Posted by BIRD NEST

I have also been eyeballing lights for night fishing. We have a lot of bugs and skeeters like you do i'm sure. Those things will pick you up and carry you off. I was thinking about a black light for inside the boat just to see to tie lines etc, and one that floats in the water to attract some critters. Wish you luck

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If you dont already own a thermacell you might want to invest in one. They arent free to operate since you'll have to buy butane and scent pads for them but this is one contraption that actually works as advertised. I never leave home without mine, be it hunting or fishing.;)

I bolted a 4" piece of metal strut to a seat pedestal, then I clamped a propane "tree" on top of that put a coleman lantern on top of that. I have 20# propane tank in the back inside a milk crate. Takes 3 minutes to set up. Lites up the boat really well ,a 20" lund. It's the bomb....LOL. I use a 4' green light when I'm over deeper water say deeper than 12'. Water under 10' I don't use a light in the water anymore. The florescent light idea will work great, and with the new LED's you can set up with plenty of light with very, very little battery drawdown. I fish almost exclusely late afternoon and into the night year round. Haven't been in 3 weeks but will start back 1st of Febuary.

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Originally Posted by gabowman

I dont quite understand what kind of light fixture youre building but I use flouresvent bulbs in clamp on style light fixtures. I have two that I use mounted on PVC pipe which stands in the center of my 16' boat from the center console, one pointing to the front of the boat and the other pointing towards the back. Amazingly, I'm using "13 watt" bulbs and they do great. I believe their lighting is in comparison to 100 watt regular bulbs and they are hardly any drain at all to batteries. I thought I was nuts paying this much for bulbs but so far, so good. If they'll last me a couple years I'll buy again. They light up the boat very well, all my rod tips, and throw a light pretty good out the boat as well (better than standard bulbs). They are soft to the eyes, and never get hot. Here's the link I ordered from since I couldnt d any local.

http://www.solarseasy.com/cfbulbs.html

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Thanks for the link. I had been looking at those bulbs and solareasy had the best deal.
As I said earlier, For the mast I used some scrap 1-1/2" SS tubing. It's very thin wall so its light. Its polished so it looks real good with the black elbow to join the two sections, light head and mast.
I got two heavy duty clamp lights from Lowe's and 25 feet of waterproof 12/2 wire. I wired the lights parallel to a plug in the elbow. I can take the light head off the mast and fold it to stow (or disconnect the plug and separate) in the floor rod locker.
I'll set the light mast in the ski pole hole (ranger 1850 reata). The elbow extends the light head forward over the deck and 90" above the floor. Its high enough to be above everything. Low enough to be able to reach the lights.
For now I'll plug to the trolling motor battery in the bow for power. I could wire a plug from the starting battery to the ski mast bracket in the bilge and plug the light up there. Although, that would need to be done at the dock. It would be hard to reach the plug from inside the boat. I really don't want to put any more load on the starter battery.
I tested it with some 23w AC Fluorescent bulbs and it works real good. Those 23w put out much more light than 100 watt bulbs do, like you said.
I may add a third light later and maybe a couple rod holders could be added to the mast pole also. Thanks again for helping me finish it.