Hello everyone. I'm new here and just found you guys and gals. looking forward to digging my way in. I've lived in NE Texas my entire life. I've spent a lot of time wetting hooks over the years. I recently sold my bass boat and bought a pontoon boat. I have a wife and two boys (10 & 8) who love to fish and spend time on the water. We are excited about pontooning for a change. The comforts of the pontoon are really nice. We will spend most of our time on the water on Lakes Texoma, Bonham, Coffee Mill, Crockett, and Ray Hubbard on occasion. Primarily Texoma.

I'm wanting to rig up my boat with some LED lighting under the deck for crappie fishing at night. I'm not sure exactly how I want to do it just yet. Crappie season is here and its time to getter done. I was wondering if anyone could either direct me to past discussions on this subject or offer any input. Preferably I'd like to mount them between the toons but will this be effective above the water instead of submersed? Anyone already been through this? Any specifics you can suggest? I was thinking of going with green led to help reduce bugs but I'm more worried about attacting fish than bugs. I can deal with the bugs if I'm catching fish.

Thanks in advance for any help. Hopefully this will generate some discussion that will give some others ideas and help too. Looking forward to getting to know y'all.

Russell

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171512061891?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&var=470537458246&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT


This is what I did on mine.

to the forum!

Here is how I rigged mine:



I rigged the lights on the bottom edge of the deck, using Green 5050 LED light strip.

Previous Thread on This

Thinking about it, rigging them under the deck between the two pontoons might be a better idea than rigging them along the edge of the deck like I did. The green light would then be under the pontoon and the edges of the pontoon might be in shadow.

So the bait fish would be under the boat and the crappie lying in the shadows around the pontoon, waiting to ambush the bait fish.

I think when I get to fish again and pull my pontoon out of the slip for servicing that I will add another double row of the lights underneath the boat, between the pontoons.

Then I can test using just the inner lights, then using the outer lights and finally using both sets to see which is more efficient in catching the crappie.

I put 2 double rows of LED's between the pontoons on my boat. Makes it very bright underneath. I looked for an aluminum channel to use for mounting the lights, but could not find what I wanted in my price range. I used light aluminum angle irons to make the channel and riveted it to each cross member. I used zip ties to make sure the light doesn't come off. I found out it will come loose hanging upside down when it gets hot.

How does having it between the pontoons impact the light spread? Does the light show beyond the deck around the pontoon as it does with my lights along the under edge of the pontoon or is the light just under the pontoon itself?

How does this impact the bait fish. Do they just come up under the pontoon or do you see them from the sides and rear of the pontoon?

With my arrangement you see bait fish swimming in the lights around all sides of the pontoon.

Thanks for the input so far. I stopped by Cabelas yesterday and Bass Pro today. I'm not impressed with their light choices. I think I'll spend some time online digging around and see what I can come up with. I plan to replace all my factory convenience lighting bulbs with LED's and add some additional LED lighting on deck. I'll probably add some type of LED flood light to the front and rear of my canopy to light up the front and rear fishing areas. I'll put these on a rheostats. But underneath I want something that will penetrate the surface and put out some serious light. Not the low glow type strip led lighting.

Surprisingly I haven't seen anyone else's rig done the way I have in mind. I'll keep on eye on this thread and I'll post what I decide to do. Thanks!

NPG

Check with The Tackle Smith and see what he has, he sells LED lighting and very reasonable on his prices and quick service, his web site is in my sig, if you don't get ahold of him let me know

ezgoing, the light directed down to the water is bright enough that it lights outside the pontoons. I have a center console boat and I have a port behind the console that I still sink a green light through, so I have a lot of light in the water. It's worked well so far. I thought about mounting mine outside the 'toons, but I couldn't figure a way that I wanted to mount them. If I had it to do again I might do it that way.

This is what I went with (see link below). I mounted 4 of these to the bottom side of my deck between the toons. I tied in to the front power supply that feeds the trolling motor plug. I installed an inline fuse and toggle switch. I'm also replacing all the courtesy lights with LED throughout the boat and adding lights to the front and rear corner fishing seats that will be switched individually. I wanted individual swithches so whoever was in that seat could have their own control of their light when they needed it. I'm also adding LED floods to the front and rear of my canopy to light up the entire fishing areas when needed. These will be individually switched as well.

When I get done I'll post some pics. I'm hoping to finally do some fishing this weekend and hope to get it all done this week.

My next project is figuring out a way to clamp a large cutting board to the rear corner and add a bilge pump, hose, and nozzle, and switch plate for a cleaning station.

BTW, iboats.com is awesome. I recently ordered a prop and these lights and their service is lights out....no pun intended!

http://www.iboats.com/High-Intensity-Led...view_id.1164993

I got mine at LED City of I35 in Dallas. Lot's cheaper than any place I found. They work great and easy to install.

Cleaning fish on the boat is very illegal .... Even tied to the dock ...

Yeah, that would be a "bait cutting station".

Thanks for that VERY important tip there fellas! LOL I didn't know that. I see fish remains around the banks and around boat ramps all the time. I didn't know it was illegal to clean fish on the lake.

I just looked it up. The TPWD Outdoor Annual reads," In order to verify length and species, a fish caught may not have the head or tail removed and may not be filleted until an angler finally lands the catch on the mainland, a peninsula, or barrier island not including jetties or piers and does not transport the catch by boat."

There you go. You guys are right. Thanks again for the heads up!