I hope we can pool thoughts, resources, anecdotes on lighting for bay fishing here.

Suggestions for direction:

1) Best color of lighting? Green? White?

2) Above water? Below Water?



The above water LED I have conked out this week and I'd love to get this thing replaced ASAP. Thanks, Texags-




The trend seems to be going toward green lights. I think the manufacturer that made my old light exclusively deals in green now. Do they work better? easier on the eyes? The white light seems more natural to me...

I have two green glows and one that you throw in and it sits on the bottom.

Here's what I've learned. This is saltwater. I have no knowledge about freshwater use

The green glows bring in more fish. No idea why. You have to put a hose around the first 10 feet if you're in a canal where people fish. They'll hook the cord and put a hole in it. Hose stopped that.

The one you throw in is awesome except it doesn't get hot and keep the barnacles off it. You have to bring it in, scrape it, throw it back out. Those green glow lights get hot and burn off the barnacles so they never grow.

I only use the throw in light when company is here
( need extra lights for people to fish) because I got tired if cleaning it once a week. It's good to have a spare and it is easily movable.

Hope that helps and that's just my experience.

Above water gets more diffraction provides ambient light and bugs

Below water get more algae and barnacles

Why not both

+ 1 for UWGFL. located in La Marque.

Fwiw. I pulled a green glow and moved it further out today. Zero barnacles. That light has been out a year without moving. The import thing is to know if it doesn't heat up it'll collect barnacles and you'll have to scrape it off regularly. I personally don't want to screw with that

Heat is the key to not having to scrape bulbs. I'm not sure why you'd need help installing the lights. Plug them in, put them where you want them. It's not hard

The real key is is water hose over the cord for the first 10 feet. No matter what light you get you have to do that if people are fishing around the light.

My grandad used to make underwater lights for all the neighbors in Bayou Vista back in the 80s and 90s. He'd also take some of our old beat-up duck decoys to tie to them as a marker so people wouldn't run over the lights with their boats.

If you are using it on a dock, underwater green is the way to go for sure. Just the reduction in insects attracted is more than enough to make it worth it. However, as was stated above, using an above the water light, you lose a large portion of the light to refraction and diffusion in the top few feet. Having a green light underwater will reach deeper and pull in more bait. I would just make sure that you protect it from being hooked as mentioned above, and make sure it is convenient to pull it out and clean it fairly regularly. Since you are on a dock, both of those should be easy to accomplish.

Talking to the lady at UWGL, I think we're going to go back with the overhead light Blaze 2000. The question now is color.

UWGL says the light is just to replicate moon light and that both colors should work equally. Is there any science behind the green color?

Towns03 said:

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Talking to the lady at UWGL, I think we're going to go back with the overhead light Blaze 2000. The question now is color.

UWGL says the light is just to replicate moon light and that both colors should work equally. Is there any science behind the green color?

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Green wavelength light travels further underwater than red, yellow, or orange. So for the same # of lumens, a green light is going to penetrate alot further than a white light where a large portion of the spectrum is red, yellow, or orange.

txags92 said:

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Towns03 said:

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Talking to the lady at UWGL, I think we're going to go back with the overhead light Blaze 2000. The question now is color.

UWGL says the light is just to replicate moon light and that both colors should work equally. Is there any science behind the green color?

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Green wavelength light travels further underwater than red, yellow, or orange. So for the same # of lumens, a green light is going to penetrate alot further than a white light where a large portion of the spectrum is red, yellow, or orange.

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good info.

any idea how much further? 1%? 10%? 100%?

My sister has a place on the backside of Galveston. She said when they put in green lights there, they didn't really do much. They had to have them replaced with white and then the fish came in nightly. Seems odd to me, but that's what she said....

Towns03 said:

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txags92 said:

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Towns03 said:

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Talking to the lady at UWGL, I think we're going to go back with the overhead light Blaze 2000. The question now is color.

UWGL says the light is just to replicate moon light and that both colors should work equally. Is there any science behind the green color?

---

Green wavelength light travels further underwater than red, yellow, or orange. So for the same # of lumens, a green light is going to penetrate alot further than a white light where a large portion of the spectrum is red, yellow, or orange.

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good info.

any idea how much further? 1%? 10%? 100%?

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Based on the info below, I would say green is going to go at least 50% farther.

From: underwater lighting fundamentals and color temperature - Underwater Photography Guide (uwphotographyguide.com)

Loss of Color Underwater At Depth
What color disappears first underwater?
Water absorbs different wavelengths of light to different degrees. The longest wavelengths, with the lowest energy, are absorbed first. Red is the first to be absorbed, followed by orange & yellow. The colors disappear underwater in the same order as they appear in the color spectrum. Even water at 5ft depth will have a noticeable loss of red. For this reason, strobes are usually used to add color back to subjects.

At What Depth Underwater Does Color Disappear?

• Red - 15ft
• orange - 25ft
• Yellow - 35-45ft
• Green - 70-75ft

Aggieangler93 said:

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My sister has a place on the backside of Galveston. She said when they put in green lights there, they didn't really do much. They had to have them replaced with white and then the fish came in nightly. Seems odd to me, but that's what she said....

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Were they above water or below water? I don't have any real experience with above water green versus white. We used to go out to the North Jetty overnight and hang a green light under the boat. Within about 1/2 hour, we would have a thriving bait community of shrimp, minnows, krill, ribbon fish, etc. hanging around under the boat. When we would turn the light off to get ready to leave, about half of the time, there would be this instantaneous violent frothing of the water around the boat as the bait all scrambled to get away from the sudden darkness.

txags92 said:

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Aggieangler93 said:

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My sister has a place on the backside of Galveston. She said when they put in green lights there, they didn't really do much. They had to have them replaced with white and then the fish came in nightly. Seems odd to me, but that's what she said....

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Were they above water or below water? I don't have any real experience with above water green versus white. We used to go out to the North Jetty overnight and hang a green light under the boat. Within about 1/2 hour, we would have a thriving bait community of shrimp, minnows, krill, ribbon fish, etc. hanging around under the boat. When we would turn the light off to get ready to leave, about half of the time, there would be this instantaneous violent frothing of the water around the boat as the bait all scrambled to get away from the sudden darkness.

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I think above water. I have also used green lights in many places on the Texas coast and never had an issue with lots of bait coming in.

The lights definitely attract all sorts of things.

So why not violet lights then? They have the shortest wavelength and thus highest energy.

In my personal experience salt water night fishing under the lights, the above water white lights draw shrimp way better than the under water green lights. I have never experienced trout popping the top of the water chasing shrimp under green lights. Conversely, the under water green lights seem to draw the bait fish better, and allow you to see the fish swim over the lights. My suggestion would be a combination of both.

Googled "best saltwater fishing lights" and a TexAgs thread popped up. My go to site for the truth!

Unfortunately it's a few years old.

If anyone has any recent experiences with lights please fill me in.

Looking to do a combo of underwater and top side lights. New to the LED, greenlight trend. We were old school with railroad lights hooked up in series.