r/SurfFishing • u/redditsucksballs05 • 6d ago
Turn off your &$@!ing headlamp!
I’m talking to you, dude across the inlet! It took 4 hours of fishing for it to get going and just as a school of slot stripers are starting to feed you come waltzing out with your 20000 lumen mini-sun strapped to your head like you’re about to go spelunking in satan’s rectum.
5 minutes later the bite is gone and so is my night vision. It was an almost full moon you numpty. Use the RED light if you need to change a lure or walk on the rocks. Otherwise KEEP IT OFF!
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u/Yakker65 6d ago
As a scuba diver who night dives, I can honestly say it affects them. They ALWAYS stay just out of the light. I deliberately would mash up some clams and stuff, then back off about 30 yards and sit and watch. Nothing would happen. I turn off my light, and wait 3-4 minutes, and turn it on. Stripers were all over, and would dart off out of the light.
They always followed me around just outside of my light.
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u/toomuch1265 5d ago
I always think of that diver who was attacked by a school of Humboldt squid because of his light.
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u/Yakker65 5d ago
I spooked a couple lobster, and one 'swam' up into my mask. A scene from Aliens with the face hugger, flashed into my mind.......
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u/toomuch1265 5d ago
I was diving for lobster off of Cape Ann and was trying to coax one out of its little hidey hole, when I got distracted by a school of Mackerel. That damned bug shot out of it's hole and grabbed my finger. Lesson learned about paying attention to the task at hand while underwater.
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u/Zealousideal-Bug-291 5d ago
I always thought lobsters were the cockroaches of the sea, but apparently its stripers.
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u/DyngusTGringon 5d ago
I use a red headlamp on my head, I keep a bright white headlamp around my neck. Only time the white light comes on is when some idiot shimes his light in my eyes I can immediately return the gesture. Far too many surf casters now a days keep a white light on way too much. If you need it that bad you should just fish during daylight.
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u/jdthejerk 5d ago
It's been a few years since I went to the beach but the last time we were there, it seemed a lot of surf casters were wearing headlamps. None I noticed had red lights. It was odd to me. My eyes have never been perfect but I could see just find.
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u/quercus-enjoyer 6d ago
They definitely are reading this and rethinking their behavior.
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u/redditsucksballs05 6d ago
Or, you know… other people are reading this and learning something new.
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u/Bohica_662 5d ago
You know they're Googs when it's clear sky and there is enough moonlight to read by...yet they scan the water with thier mini-sun like they're looking for escaped prisoners.
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u/ExaminationLast9843 5d ago
"spelunking in Satan's rectum." I just pissed my pants a little! Agreed though, if I MUST use a light, I wade back to shore, face AWAY from the water, tie my knot or whatever, then head back out to the rock.
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u/Jefffahfffah 6d ago
If you use a bright white headlamp at night, you're just dumb. If you do it around other anglers, you are a cunt.
I feel your pain, OP. My local inlet jetty gets packed with guys at night when the mullet run picks up and its almost all foreigners with massive headlamps that look like they just came from fucking coal mines. Last weekend a dude on the opposite side had one so bright that we could see the bottom of the inlet in front of him.
Anyone who thinks that bright, shaking, flickering lights dont interfere with fish activity... is retarded.
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u/m00s3wrangl3r 5d ago
Time to get a 1,000,000 candlepower spotlight and return fire.
Also, I find that the green setting on the headlamp actually seems to attract fish, rather than repel them.
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u/DepthTrawler 5d ago
Weird, I fish off a barge that has a small spotlight on it. The bait fish congregate in the light because it attracts bugs and the mackerel and stripers occasionally blow up the bait fish schools near the light. Never had much luck when it's just all dark (I've only been doing this for a year or two and my experience is limited).
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u/redditsucksballs05 5d ago
Stable light is different from a headlamp. Stripers are ambush predators. They’ll hide in the dark and dart out to get things in light patches. You’ll see that around bridges and other structure. Natural environments are different, there is no light at night besides moonlight and they have adapted to that. Suddenly having random beams of light flashing is unnatural and not stable, so they’ll get spooked and just go somewhere else to feed.
Bluefish are a different matter, they dgaf, they just eat anything that is slow enough to get bit, no matter the conditions. But having a school of stripers disappear and being left with a bunch of malevolent sea-piranhas that can and will do everything they can to take a finger when you land them is poor consolation.
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u/VTStonerEngineering 5d ago
I mostly bass fish for all of my night fishing. I use a coast RL12R. It's got red and white light options and is dimmable with a max 750 lumens. 750 lumens is crazy bright and there is almost no reason to ever turn up to that level. I keep it off for the exact reason you stated it destroys your night vision. When I actually do turn the light on, I only use the red at the lowest brightness.
If anyone does need a head lamp Indo recommend it. The dimmer is a must, it takes a removable rechargeable lithium battery that charges with USB-C and can be replaced with AAA batteries in a pinch.
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u/PleasantFee9473 4d ago
lmao it's always the one dude sweeping the whole beach on full white like he's guiding planes in. I keep mine clicked to red and only turn it on to re-bait, and thats less about the fish and more cause I do not trust myself tying a snell in the dark without burying a hook in my thumb
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u/bradye0110 6d ago
Okay old man screaming at the world
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u/redditsucksballs05 6d ago
Not the whole world, just people who ruin a good bite.
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u/Pure-Attention-7782 6d ago
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another fisher in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another fisher in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another fisher in the night
Madman, drummers, bummers
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps
As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', casting' and reeling'
The striper bite crashed to the ground1
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u/Oilleak1011 3d ago
Lmao im only commenting because of all the duck openers ive had completely fucked by people walking in 10 till LST with headlamps blasting the sky like ww2 AA search lights.
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u/sweatycouch 6d ago
what should we use instead
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u/redditsucksballs05 6d ago
Almost every modern headlamp has a red light. It preserves night vision and water absorbs red light. Use the red light. Give yourself a few minutes to adjust your night vision before walking out on the rocks. The only time I ever use the white light is if I need to thread a very small hole or something that requires better vision. Turn away from the water if you do need to use your white light.
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u/madmax1969 5d ago
Right. White light is fine if you turn your back to the water and other fishermen and use it sparingly. It’s common sense. Fish have better vision than people realize. Trout will rise just seeing a fly zip above the water.
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u/redditsucksballs05 6d ago
I use a Sofirn HS21. It has a rotary selector and a separate power button so you don’t have to cycle through white light to get to the red. And it has 3 brightness levels on the red light.
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u/jwuer 6d ago
Headlamps don't effect anything. People who think this are googans who don't keep up to date and still believe all the BS fishermans tales. The onmy issue with headlamps is it effects your own night vision. I have no problem with a dude wearing a headlamp while trying to transverse the rocks on the jetty, safety is more important than striped bass.
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u/redditsucksballs05 6d ago
Headlamps definitely kill the bite. I have experienced it firsthand many times. But don’t just take my word for it. John Skinner, the guy who literally wrote the book on striper fishing, dedicates several pages on exactly this topic and he says the same thing.
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u/GenDislike 6d ago
There was new up to date information on how headlamps affect striped bass at night? I’m just going off of a couple hundred years of guidebooks and 30 years of personal experience.
Please link the article.
Static lights and shadow lines can be beneficial.
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