Rod Tip Light – Seeing your rod tip at night

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Rod Tip Light – Seeing your rod tip at night

When night fishing there are various forms of light systems to help your see / determine bights in the hours of darkness whilst sea fishing

One of these is to attach a rod tip light

There are many models on the market and come in various colours – red being the favourite at the moment. They give out great light and you can see the tip from some distance

They are whipped on to your rod tip and require batteries which do last a long time 80 – 120 hrs

I personal have not used these so do you have any tips or questions on using rod tip lights please post below

[Simon TorbayFishing]

I have tried almost all rod tip lights and my conclusion is for cost effective night fishing use reflective tape and a rechargable headlamp. In the long run this works out much cheaper that paying for lights that I find are not as bright as a good couple of pieces of reflective strips going down 6 or 7 inches of the rod.

[Fishing Forum Admin]

reflective strips going down 6 or 7 inches of the rod

I would agree but a lot of anglers use them and the battries are only a few quid which seems good value for about ten night trips

I have seen them on the beaches and seem to give good light and indication plus (might be wrong hear ) but would spook fish less than head lamps when say targeting bass in the surf ?

[fishypaul]

this light is very good,you can see it from a long way off,particularly when you have two of them(one on each rod),or 4 in simon's case,

i would agree with the battery life,they seem to go on for ever.

the one drawback is that the light doesn't seem to be resiliant to salt water,the 2 that i owned were fine until rust set in,
on my lights there was a little metal contact on the inside of the light(the part on the light that comes into contact with the rod)
this activated the light prior to switching it on,you couldn't switch the light on without this contact being depressed,
on my lights these contacts rusted away quite quickly and rendered the lights useless.
i wrote to the company who made them and didn't get a reply,i wonder why ?!?,

perhaps these lights are better now, but perhaps it might be worth thinking about this before you buy one.

[pingu]

those lights are great but agree with fishy paul as had 2 and both contacts failed eventually(could just be some cheap ones about last year?)
now use chemical star lights(buy very cheap in bulk on internet) and have discovered micropor tape (wound dressing tape) is fantastic to tape on the starlight(in same way/position as bettery light) , as is waterproof and the light shines through it

[fishypaul]

Originally Posted by pinguprogress

discovered micropor tape (wound dressing tape)

what a great idea,will try it at newhaven on saturday

[steve devon]

i have used tip lights, snal lights and reflective tape and i find reflective tape best as it doesnt catch the wind and doesnt need batteries or anything

[Simon TorbayFishing]

Just to expand on my original post-

A lot of the newer headlamps have two settings. One high beam and one low beam (mine has 6 small halogeon bulbs for the low beam) which give off much less light but still lights up my rods up to 30m away.

I used to use nightlights for all my night fishing but now only use them for float fishing.

[Stickyboy]

I've used/use the ones you've got a picture of and find them great.
The only draw back is that occasionally the line gets around them when baiting up or taking off a fish etc. For that reason alone I've decided to experiment with the other disposible chemical ones. When its actually fishing it can be seen very easily.
To prevent them rusting up I use vaseline (I have some for many uses!!!). Take the top off and spread a bit in the top where the top seals. Should do the trick.

What sort of light is yours Simon? Sounds a good one.

What is the tape you're talking about Pingu? Does it have a name? Is it available from the chemist?

Whats the best reflective tape? Has anyone tried a combination of reflective tape and rod tip lights?

[wellyfish]

Originally Posted by Simon TorbayFishing

Just to expand on my original post-

A lot of the newer headlamps have two settings. One high beam and one low beam (mine has 6 small halogeon bulbs for the low beam) which give off much less light but still lights up my rods up to 30m away.

I used to use nightlights for all my night fishing but now only use them for float fishing.