Docking or running head lights

[BigPoppy]

I own a pontoon and I do most of my night fishing on Barren since I know it the best, I learned to fish in the dark using the minnimum amount of light possible. I do not have head lights mounted, I do have a spot and use it sparingly I never operate over half speed even on a full moon and I am on the bay by the dam alone. 1. It makes no sense at all to run fast at night period!! 2. Your safty is your responsiblilty, and my liability, if I am at fault I can be arrested if your neglegent you can be hospitalized. 3. Above all else it is the boater not the boat that makes the difference, if you have been on Barren when the Bowling Green House Boat Party Club opens the bar on weekends then you know what light up the night means. I have had the twin motor ski boats with 6 sets of lights and speakers nearly land on my deck while night fishing on the hogs back with my official lights, black lights and a submerged light all running and a mag light trying to flag him off. We all have our own horror stories about some A--H--- who has done us wrong, while we thought we were in the right but when it comes to the water and night time your safty depends on you, and that is what most of us have said here I* just have a big mouth and want to say it to, also don't get off your boat on the islands with out checking the bank with a light there are a pair of skunks near baily's that do not like night visits for a rest room break, you will leave with more than you brought lol.

[Moose1am]

edited due to faulty formating. Inline responses didn't work right!

[jdkd]

I think both partys have good points. But the main point is missing. Use "GOOD" judgement. When running at night everyone needs to be on top of everything that is going on around them, a little common courtesy, and common sense goes a long way. I dont post much on here, but this light or no light thing sets me off. I love to fish at night in the warmer months, and have been blinded by spotlights, and headlights plenty of times, but you can bet that I always have my navigation lights on while running, and my anchor light on while I am fishing, its just makes sense.

[kyradman]

Bob,

I agree with you completely! Good points. Also, laws can change. Speed limit used to be 55mph, but now we can go 65 mph on the same roads. Just b/c there is a law about lights now doesn't mean it makes sense or won't change in the future. I think you have valid points.

[crazyfishinnut]

Most of the arguments are garbage.
1 It is against the law
2 I wasn't going fast and by the lights i had no question as to which way he was going (apparently this confused you) but it turns out I was mistaken because the head lights over powered the colored lights it is like looking at a oncoming car in the rain and asking for the drivers hair color... You just cant see it
3 Spot lights are not fixed and are easily recognised unless you are doing some serious stunt driving
4 If you don't know the water well enough to drive at night you shouldn't be out there.
5 The brakes on a slow pontoon aren't good enough to prevent you from hitting anything just maybe IDing what you hit
6 On barren up the river the channel is narrow in a few spots and you have to pass close sometimes
7 I grew up fishing the Ohio and i have never saw head lights on a barge BUT You can always see the red and green because they have no other lights in front to over shadow them.
8 The problem is that the safety lights design does not allow for any lights other than red and green. this was put in place to keep every one safe. running with head lights on is as bad as running with out lights a all. I know it is illegal and since this post there have been hundreds of emails to the kdfw
9 My boat doesn't run fast top maybe 45 but I run just fast enough to stay on plane at night. If you want to see how dangerous they are show up at barren the 4th and when the fire works are over if everyone has not been ticketed by then. look around at the head lights and white lights and you dont know what is coming and what is going
10 Lastly my dash dont light up while I am driving so you wont be mistaken

[fishincreek]

Take a deep breath- everything will be ok. Plenty good arguments given. Most CAN tell the difference between boats coming and going and most slow down BEFORE a dangerous situation is out of hand. Just because one person chokes on a hotdog doesn't mean the rest of the world should go without hotdogs. I really doubt there will many accidents caused by headlights, but many prevented by using them.

[crazyfishinnut]

use of head lights are easy to defend if you fish big water like the Ohio or Barkley. but if you are fish in nolin barren or most creeks they are dangerous and if you don't think so then you are behind the head lights and not looking at them. although speed is a factor it is not illegal. lights are!!!
i have 2 friends that were involved in an accident on nolin last weekend because a pontoon didn't have any lights on. where this happened,. in a narrow area like this reaction is important and if the lights give the wrong info then lives are in danger, you can argue this but I hope it is never you are your kids or grand kids that pay for the miss use . ultimately if I hit you at night and i am doing 100 mph and you have head lights on it is your fault cause I didn't break any laws you did.

[buzzking]

Why don't you all just fish at day and that way we don't have to sit here and see who gets the last word, both sides have great opinions which are NOT GOING TO CHANGE. Law or not people are going to use headlights, I flip mine on for 5 seconds every 30 seconds or so to keep oriented, if there is a lot of debris I will keep it on all the time, the game warden can follow me around writing tickets constantly its not going to change my opinion, just as its not going to change your 'cfn'. Let this rest, we beat this dead horse about a year ago, guess it was about time to poke the nest again.

[SuperSprint007]

Why don't you all just fish at day and that way we don't have to sit here and see who gets the last word, both sides have great opinions which are NOT GOING TO CHANGE. Law or not people are going to use headlights, I flip mine on for 5 seconds every 30 seconds or so to keep oriented, if there is a lot of debris I will keep it on all the time, the game warden can follow me around writing tickets constantly its not going to change my opinion, just as its not going to change your 'cfn'. Let this rest, we beat this dead horse about a year ago, guess it was about time to poke the nest again.

Lights so easy to understand even a caveman can figure it out.....

[KyBass1]

I have a question. Why are they called docking lights, when they are used mostly for headlights running on the water. Good luck to all and be safe, Tom.

[crazyfishinnut]

That is because head lights are illegal on a water craft. Docking lights are not.
for saftey when coming in to a marina or you private dock they are allowed . Since they were on there some seem to think it is ok to use them for running.
It would be like putting your head lights in the back of your car and brake lights in front and driving down the interstate