underwater light for smelt

[true outdoorsman]

heading to higgins this friday, and i was just wondering how far to put your light underwater. mine has a 20ft cord on it. also about what time to put it down, or would it be better to leave it at home. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Birdhuntr1]

Have always put mine just below the ice figuring the farther up they come, the less time it takes to get the line up and back down. I turn mine on right after I get everything else set up, about dusk. Last Saturday night a light didn't seem to matter. The smelt under us never seemed to get more than 10-15' off bottom in about 70' of water. Good luck.

[Rodbuster]

I also have always just placed the light just under the ice.

Good luck, Steve

[HeavyF150]

I've run my light down as far as it'll go, and just below the ice. I really haven't seen a difference. My guess is that enough light bounces off the underside of the ice anyway and that's probably all it takes to draw in the forage that the smelt are after.

As far as lights are concerned, I bought a light at Gander last season and it's already trash. It came with three different color lenses and they all broke within the first couple of uses. The glass enclosure around the bulb was not waterproof and it leaked. The halogen bulb is now corroded and doesn't light up as well as it did before.
I just bought a new one at Walmart, it looks like the same manufacturer, but better made. I gave $13.00 for it. I hope to try it this weekend.

[nscrfrk]

i use 2...one just under the ice and the other 25' down, fishing in 60' FOW. set my rigs to where i'm marking the most fish

[flydunker]

i use a 12 volt light in a mason jar, with an old industrial extension cord and 2 alligator clips (total cost is about 3 .00) for the light. I cut a mountain dew bottle in half and lined the iside of the mason jar so the light it emits in green.

flydunker

[swampbuck]

i use a 12 volt light in a mason jar, with an old industrial extension cord and 2 alligator clips (total cost is about 3 .00) for the light. I cut a mountain dew bottle in half and lined the iside of the mason jar so the light it emits in green.

flydunker

Sounds just like mine, the best smelt light money can buy.

[melnik]

Just under the ice. And you can put it outside your shanty so there's chance of line tangle when a huge whopper smelt starts taking drag.:lol:

[Minnowman09]

mine has a fifteen foot card on it and i always just lower it down as fa as it'll go, good luck on your next trip

[tbone5587]

Lots of great information about lights at www.fishinglightsetc.com (http://www.fishinglightsetc.com)

I just bought a light from there, and they have a ton of articles about light depth, color, battery life and such. Check it out. I don't want anyone to think I'm pushing their product, I just thought there was a lot of good info there.

good luck

[fishhead16]

I took a headlight from one of my jeeps and mounted it facing upward, when you look in the bucket you see the head light, then Iput some 1" pieces of alum. angle right above the light I can set another bucket in the headlight bucket. When you go out drill a hole and flip headlight bucket over it shines right down the hole, and you can put your vexi. on top of it.

[sfw1960]

i use a 12 volt light in a mason jar, with an old industrial extension cord and 2 alligator clips (total cost is about 3 .00) for the light. I cut a mountain dew bottle in half and lined the iside of the mason jar so the light it emits in green.

flydunker
I was wondering ; do you need to load a bunch of lead or "ballast" in the jar to get it to sink??
I saw a guy with a 12V RV bulb (looked like a regular 60W bulb - but ran on 12V) except he had a socket mounted on a pc. of conduit that he shoved down the hole & a small hunk cross-bolted that "T'ee'd" across the hole....
I want to build something with green & white LEDs due to weight & power issues.....


Keep the ideas coming guys!!!
:fish2: