I fished at night last night, and very few boats had thier lights on. Of course, it was a bright full moon and you had pretty good visibility. However, there were quite a few boats on main lake ledges with no lights on that would turn them on when I was motoring to them. I just don't get that out on the main lake. My motor isn't that loud, so I would be within 100 yards of them when they turned them on. I was running on plane, but just fast enough to stay there - and I still had to drop off plane several times. Good thing I didn't have a quiter 4 stroke, I probably would have gotten much closer before they heard me.

I leave my lights on most of the time at night (especially on the main lake, or in bays). The only excepetion - I will flip them off if I am back in a pocket bay.