Kayak Lights

Going out at night in a kayak was a goal of mine since flounder gigging as a kid was one of my favorite things. I have tried a number of light setups over the years and I thought I would share a few designs and concepts that may help others out. Lessons learned, etc.

Not so great design #1. I noted some handheld flounder gigging lights that used the MR16 LEDS and thought I could make a 4 light setup for each side of the kayak. From left to right on the light are. 1st MR16 LED, 45 degree elbow, tee with handle pipe, snap on tee with light support body, 2nd light, straight run, 3rd light, snap on tee to other side of support, 45 degree elbow and last light. The wiring was run up through the tee to the vertical pipe(handle) that ran to the battery box. The snap on tees allowed the light assembly to be rotated up or down using the handle as the light assembly was not permanently fixed to the light support. Although this worked, the lights created a bit of drag in the water and the mounting was somewhat awkward. I mainly used the setup for crabbing at night as the collapsible traps are very effective when you are able seek out the blue crabs before dropping the trap. Another downfall of this light setup when using the crab traps is that the traps and line easily snagged the head of the lights when pulling them in.

Other design descriptions still to come.