[Angus]

Hey all, new to the forum, and looking to pick up as much as I can on my newest found addiction. Got hookd last year on bowfishing at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. I already have a boat and stared setting I up immediately and found a platform and rail already built and modified it slightly to fit my boat last year. Yesterday i changed it up more after finding out my deck was too high with no shooting rail, so I lowered the deck 2 feet.

My setup is a 20/72 Xpress with 90 Merc prop. 40 inch high rail and have lowered my deck to 16 inches instead of top of rail, now have a 24 inch rail around deck. The setup had 8 500 watt halogen shop lights on it but was hard on the generator and didnt like the way they were mounted s they came off yesterday. Im looking at 110v 50 watt led warm white lights. I can get a package of 10 and pretty much run solid light around entire deck and only be pulling 500 watts and leave the big loud genny at home an take the small quiet yamaha inverter/genny to run lights and keep batteries charged. Ill be running fish finders, interior leds, trolling motor etc off batteries so plan to run the 110v lights off genny on bowfishing deck.. My question, will the 10 50 watt leds be a good setup and give me good light? Im pretty new to this and have heard leds arent great in muddy water. Ive never fished over them. What would you all change on this rig?

 

[mattman]

welcome to the forum. I have never personally shot over LEDS but from what i saw they dont do too good in muddy water. The white light seems to reflect more, i heard tinting them yellow or amber helps a ton. good luck, sounds like you already have a sweet rig

 

[NuffDaddy]

If you like a lot of light look into HPS lights. They are a bit more expensive but 6 150w lights would give you way more light than the LEDs would for just a few extra watts. They also have a very orange color which is great for all water conditions and put off almost no glare like the halogens do.

 

[8ball7]

Would some led light bars work or would the reflect too much?

 

[mattman]

Some guys shoot over light bars and they work good. In muddy water I still would rather shoot over hps or even halos. You can also buy a "tint" for them and it should cut down on the reflection

 

[8ball7]

What kind of tint or what color

 

[mattman]

Not sure on brand but I would probably go with a yellow/orange. White light reflects the most

 

[8ball7]

Ight appreciate the info

 

[Kap]

I fish here in North Carolina where the waters are murky. I'm new to BF so I never had the chance to shoot over HPS lights. All the guides here have moved to LEDs and run 6 or more batteries. I have 17 48w led lights all tinted with yellow tint. Two interstate sr-29 deep cycle batteries (24v) setup. And another marine start/deep cycle for the boat motor and accessories. I only fish for 3 or 4 hours so the lights start to dim after 3 hours. Thurs I ran a generator with a 50 amp inverter and the lights worked well but I don't like the noise. I want to fish some tourneys so I know I'm gonna have to get a couple more battery's.

 

[justx0237]

Hi everyone,

Here is the solution you seem to be looking to eliminate LED reflection. Goto ebay and type in "Carplite" in the main search box. They sell HPS or Green colored filter covers for 50W LED lights. Also have Custom sizes if needed for other types of light frame sizes. I used them and made a world of difference. I bought one at first just to try out and bought ten after that. Got the best worlds of using LEDs with the color of HPS to better penetrate the water and reduce glare. They are made from transparent plexiglass so much much more durable than tint/film. And you can easily remove these in seconds if you want the bright light back for clear water. Much cheaper alternative than going HPS with all the extra bulbs, capaitors, genny, difficult wiring and weight, etc. Hope this helps, just wanted to share what I have found to everyone who had the same issues I had.

Here is the link:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xcarplite.TRS0&_nkw=carplite&_sacat=0

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