Bait tank light ?

[Cape Horn]

Any suggestions on the latest technology in bait tank lighting? Are LED's available. Looking for a sealed under mount light for a OS65 and 32 fiberglass tanks.....Thank's

[neversink2]

Funny you ask - I just put a red multi LED in mine (19 LED's I think). I used red because that's what they use on warships/subs etc so your eyes don't have to re-adjust to darkness after seeing white light. Also replaced anchor and cabin lights to reduce power consumption. They make all kinds of replacements for regular 12V bulbs.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm

[towerfab]

One thing to keep in mind when considering providing light for your bait, bait schools in nature get their light at night from the moon of course, and that is a light souce that is usually not real bright( like my buddy Mark) and comes from above, not below. If at all possible consider having the primary light source be your deck lights or all around light, if you have lids on the tank have a set made out of clear plexi for night. You can still use the tank mounted light when you don't have any of the other lights on. Another possibility is a velco attatchment for a light stick on the under side of the lid. I have a friend in Miami who swears by that method when fishing swords at night. Tight lines, T.R.

[aclemieux]

I just posted this on http://seastriper.com in December. Hope it helps. I looked this light up on the TH Marine website and it's supposed to be available as LED or incandescant (also says so on front of package). Mine is the latter of the two. I guess that's just what Seaswirl uses now. This is the one I bought. It says 5 candlepower:
http://www.shootnhunt.com/boat_acces...e/6003144.html

I'm betting this 15 candlepower one is the LED version:
http://www.shootnhunt.com/boat_acces...e/6031507.html

Anyway, here's the write-up.
__________________________________________________ ________

Bought this little gem a few weeks ago and finally finished this project last night.



I got the light at Seawitch Marine (my dealer). It is the replacement part for the ones that are now supposedly standard on the 2005 & 2006 models. When I was there, they showed me the placement of one in a 2601WA, so I decided to match its location. Installation was simple.



Just drilled a hole through the side of the tank (from the inside through to the starboard battery compartment). Then I used a hole saw to cut a round area around through the foam insulation around the hole to accomodate the nut. Had to be gentle so I didn't dig into the fiberglass below it. Then I just removed the rest of the insulation. This would have been a cleaner install if I'd done it a little higher, but I wanted good illumination for the bait. I sealed the foam with two-part epoxy before going any further. The light bulb assembly detaches from the main plastic lens assembly to allow bulb replacement, so I used 5200 to permanently glue the lens in place. It looks a little messy, but it doesn't leak.

I ran a ground wire to a ground block located about a foot & a half from the light and then ran a positive wire up the starboard rigging tube to one of the switches on the panel labeled "ACC". These two switches seemed to have no function, but when I started digging around in the wires behind them, I found that one of them was wired to switch the recharger plug below the steering wheel and the other was a spare. It had a pre-existing wire run from one side of it to a fuse on the fuse panel already, so all I had to do was connect my positive wire to its other post. Very cool.




The connections I made were with marine ferrules that I heatshrunk over completely. I put smaller diameter heatshrink in the ends of the wires' insulation before crimping to increase their diameter to make the bigger heatshrink seal more tightly. Then I just tie-wrapped all the wires that were run in open areas.




It provides a pretty low light. Kind of like "mood" lighting for the bait.




Here's a shot of it after dark with no flash:




I give this project 2 hammers (out of 10) for difficulty. I'm going to have to get out on the water soon.

[Cape Horn]

Thank's for the info guys, much appretiated.