Best Spot On Slip To Place Underwater Light

I assembled a mercury vapor 175 watt underwater light to place in my boat slip. I was going to place it in the center at the front of the slip.

However another slip owner advised me to place it at the back of the slip. He stated my pontoon would cover most of the light area when I was fishing from the pontoon. If I placed it at the rear of the slip then the light would be at the rear of the pontoon where we fish when we fish the slip.

The slip is 13' wide, 36' long. My pontoon is 20' long. When I am not there I have the pontoon moored about 6' from the front of the slip, with about 3' on each side of the slip. When we fish the slip I pull the pontoon to the front of the slip and to one side so we have about 16' to fish at the rear of the slip and about 6' to fish at the side of the slip.

Should I place this 175 watt light at the front of the slip or should I place it toward the rear of the slip? The light will be placed about 2' from the bottom and generates a 20' circle of light when on.

I have read that crappie hang outside the light and ambush minnows that swim outside the light. If this is true then placing it at the front of the slip will place the end of the slip at the end of the circle of light. Then our hooks will be in the area where crappie are hanging out to ambush minnows.

If this is not true then the pontoon will cover a large percentage of the area that the light circle covers.

So where would the members of this forum advise I place this light for the best location to catch crappie?

Several quick questions: #1 how deep is the end of your dock? #2 what is the usual water clarity? #3 is there cover anywhere in this picture? Ideally from what have read UNDER the pontoon is "ideal"...

Thanks for your response. I will try and answer your questions.

The front of the slip is 10.5', the rear of the slip is 11.3'. The water is a green stain, with underwater lights in nearby slips you can see fish swimming 2'-3' deep. Without a light you can only see fish swimming a few inches under the water.

I am unaware of any cover under the slips where I am. I am new to the slip area. The slip owners I have talked with have not added cover to their slips but some have underwater lights. I have been told that many of the slip owners have not visited their boats in over a year. They are using the slips as on water storage for their boats. So I don't know if they added cover or not.

The fishing barge is about 100 yards from my slip. I have been told that the marina has not added new brush to the fishing barge in over two years. But it does have brush piles added in previous years.

I plan on adding the Honey Hole Tree Fish Habitat pvc structure at the end of the slip sometime in the next month or two.

The slip that is two slips over from me has a 175 watt mercury vapor underwater light similar to the one I have assembled. He has it on the front of his slip. When he turns it on you can see white bass, large-mouth bass and bream swimming in the light generated. I have caught several 21" plus large-mouth bass from his slip.

I have not seen nor caught any crappie swimming from his slip but I have caught large numbers of undersized crappie fishing my slip when his light in on. His light does not reach my slip. It only reaches about half way into the slip between us.

I do have green 5050 LED lights around the edge of my slip. These lights are mounted on strips of wood so that they shine directly down into the water.

What do you mean by "under the pontoon"? Do you mean place the underwater light at the front of the slip so that the pontoon covers the 20' circle of light?

Thanks again for your response.

I have delayed the installation until next week due to illness. So I would welcome any suggestions or input before then.

Ed

Would add cover in 2 rows shallow to deep 20` apart likely straddling the dock and mount the light between the rows, preferably with the tied off pontoon dead OVER the light so you can fish as much of the edges of the lit area as easily as possible. Keep in mind you will lose some fish in the cover, BUT your catch rate should also go up a little to offset the 1s you lose...

Thanks for your advice.

I always lose some fish when I fish brush piles and submerged trees. This is just something you accept when you fish areas where the fish can hang you up. :)

So you would advise that I sink one cover at the front of the slip and the other one at the rear of the slip.

The pontoon is 20' so I would need to sink the second cover at least 26' toward the back of the slip to have them 20' apart. That would leave a six foot area at the front of the slip to fish and a ten foot area at the back of the slip to fish. Plus the open water at the end of the slip.

I would also have three foot of water at one side of the pontoon to fish, which would be in the circle of light generated by the mercury vapor light bulb.

I had planned on buying a Honey Hole Fish Habitat to place at the back of the slip. These are 7' long by 6' wide. But from what you are saying I should have two of them, one at the front of the slip and one at the back of the slip.

I think I will look into building them myself, as I would be looking at almost $400 buying them. I've looked at their pictures and they should not be that hard to build, for a lot less.

I am also thinking about building a 400 watt mercury vapor underwater light in January to use in the slip. Then I could have one in the front of the slip and one toward the back. But first I want to test how well this one works, to include seeing my construction holds up under months of being in the water. :)

I do appreciate your input. What you suggest sounds like a good plan to try first.

You could also do a single line of attractors from shallow to deep running under the centerline of the boat...place the light so it`s as close to under the boat as possible...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lowellhturner

You could also do a single line of attractors from shallow to deep running under the centerline of the boat...place the light so it`s as close to under the boat as possible...

---

Sorry about the delay in responding. I have been away from my computer for several days.

The light must be placed at one side of the boat or at the front of the slip. This is the only way I can mount it at this time.

I think I will look into finding a mount I can use to place a light in the center of the slip. But for now I will mount it on the side and then try different positions to determine which one attracts the most crappie.

Thanks for all your advice.

Ed

I placed it on the side, almost at the middle of the slip for now. I am thinking about seeing if I can use two concrete blocks to place it in the center of the slip. Here is now it currently looks.
Attachment 140393

It will work sir...let us know how WELL.

So far it has attracted very few fish. My neighbor two slips down has one that has been there for two years that comes on every night. His slip is full of fish when it comes on.

Other neighbor two slips on the other side has one that he turns on when he is there to fish. He says fish start to show up about two hours after he turns it on.

Both of them have their lights at the front of theirs slips. I have mine on one side, around the middle of the slip.

My light is brighter than either of their lights so I don't know why they both attract more fish than I do.

However I will wait a couple of weeks, with it coming on every night at 5:00 P.M., to see if it improves over time.

If it does not improve I will move it to the front of the slip to see if that makes a difference.

If your neighbors do no have cover but do have the lights and you haven't put any cover in yet I would definitely start working on that. It sounds like there is plenty of light to attract the plankton that attract the bait fish what will hold more bait fish since there is so much light will be the cover and with cover for the bait fish you will start attracting more predators such as the crappie.... From my experience your dense cover holds the bait fish which attracts the crappie and your less dense cover will hold your crappie.... It seems that light its not an issue as much as cover.... Please let us know how things work out.... Now in the winter when the temperatures drop halogen lights emit more heat then your LED lights so the food chain will move in on the warmer water....

Thanks for your suggestions. I am currently working to build three pvc condos to drop into my slip. They should be ready in a few days if real life will quit interfering.

Come January I am going to pick up three or four Christmas trees and place them in my slip as well.

Hopefully that will make enough difference to draw the larger crappie to my slip area.

My neighbors both allow me to fish their slips when they are not there. Unfortunately I am not catching crappie from their slips.

I am catching keeper white bass and keeper lmb from my slip. I was catching large numbers of small crappie from my slip. I started doing that when I added the Green LED lights to the edges of the slip.

I am just not catching keeper crappie. Nor am I seeing the fish swim in my underwater light although I am catching fish from my slip.

Since I added the mercury vapor underwater light the number of small crappie I am catching from my slip has dropped. But I did catch two 11+" from the slip Saturday night.

I guess I just need to build the cover and be patient until the bigger crappie start coming in. :sigh

As have `suggested`, add the "C" trees by looking at their trunks. Find if there are curves or branch humps. Cut ALL the lower branches off the inside of any curved trunks 18" up the trunk then stack 2 cement 8-10" blocks and get the trunk FLAT and FIRMLY against the top block. Use a 30" piece of nylon coated steel cable and go thru the block hole closest to the end of the trunk, around the trunk itself 2X about 8" from the cut end and thru the same hole of the block. Add a loosened C clamp in position, clamp a pair of Vise Grips on each end of the cable and pull ALL slack out of the cable, drawing the block very tight to the tree. Tighten the clamp. Test by lifting the cut end of tree. The block should come with the tree, if slack, loosen and retighten the clamp. Tie off the upper end of the block to the tree thru the other hole with VHD weed eater line...sink trees with tops towards shore in rows. Add PVC on the deeper end of the lines of trees. Many persons put them UNDER their docks...THAT will attract your bait fish, minnows, ect.

Thank you. I will do it this way. I like the idea of placing the trees under the slip. I might be able to place two or three trees underneath each side of the slip. The would have the crappie hanging out in the slip itself while making it harder to hang up in the trees.

Ed