custon bow lights for bass boats

[critter100]

think about having lights made for bass boats on my boats lots ,of them are call docking light,bowlights or custom headlights the are made to be mounted on the from side of the bow , has anyone used or seen them.. lol haveing a hard time seeing at night anyway my light on my dash are so bright then dont go into a night light kind of mode and of course the dash is fully lite when u hit the start switch lol ..just would like info of anyone that are or have used these lights i know tracker boats when i live are or had a run on these custom light for bass boats. thanks for any info

[bassin_bug]

I have docking lights on my boat and they work great. There's just one problem....it's illegal to use them as running lights. Here's how I know.

One night fog was rising from the water and I couldn't see anything. We had used a spotlight to try and find our way but it didn't do the job. I turned on my docking lights and could see well and travel safely. Nobody had mentioned in the TWRA boating handbook that it was illegal to use them as running lights.

I was meeting another boat and my docking lights didn't have a dimmer on them. Suddenly, the other boat lit up with blue flashing lights and a TWRA officer so mad his face was glowing. He started yelling at me to turn off my f 'ing running lights or he would write me a $500 ticket right then. I tried to explain that I was sorry; that I didn't know they were illegal. He said that my lights had blinded him and threatened that if I said another word he would write the ticket right then. I just sat there and he spun his boat around and took off.

I called TWRA the next day and raised some hell of my own and told them that I was on Cherokee Lake when in the incident happened; gave them the date and time of night. The TWRA officer didn't give his name and that's the only way I had of identifying him. I told them that if it was illegal to run with docking lights on they needed to let the public know. Their response was that they didn't know why boatmakers ever started putting them on boats; that they were illegal. The next year the information about the docking lights was in the boating handbook for the first time.

[Dover]

critter --most boat dealers carry the docking lights...... see most pontoon boats with the rectangle ones and bass boats with the round ones.... lot of folks put two up front on their bass boat but depending on your eyesight, only really need one...recommend mounting it on the trolling motor mount to prevent drilling in the boat..... Also, put an on/off swith near the steering wheel so when you run down the lake, you can turn them on/off as you go down the lake as needed...just don't have them on as you approach another boat to prevent blinding the oncoming boat for safety reasons.... PS --- docking lights in the fog make you think your inside of ping-pong ball --really haven't found them useful in fog except to piss off TWRA as bassin_bug found out......I try to usually light up the lake to make sure I don't hit anything floating ..........tight lines.......

[critter100]

thanks bassin bug and dover for the info,, taking it tracker boat tomorrow for some ideas on the lights for my boat,,, lol this is a blind man a fishing lol thanks for the info

[bassin_bug]

My docking lights swivel and I had them turned down toward the water. I found them useful in the fog and that night was the first time I had used them for running. One of the things that prompted me to use them was because, a few nights before, I almost hit a pontoon boat that was sitting in the middle of the lake with its lights off and it was foggy that night, also. I missed him by about ten feet and it scared me so bad I left the lake. As strange as it sounds, it was in the general area where a night time boat collision, last year, killed a Coach's son.