bout to buy a new boat and was wondering if anyone has any insight on what would be best for mostly lakes.figured i will go with halogens,im gonna mount under shooting deck,and i also need what size of generator...Gonna get a honda gen.since they are very quiet.....i havent got a boat picked out yet,but im probaly gonna get no less than a 18footer....any pics would be helpfull as well....
I dont know if they sell them in your location, but some of the best bay and lake boats around my way are Carolina Skiff's. Flat bottom Fiberglass
Check out BPS they have prices and descriptions of all the johnboats(aluminum). I had an 13ft JB for duck hunting and I had lights and decked the front third with 3/4 plywood.The best boat I ever owned.
As far as the generator size goes, you need to figure out how many lights you want first and add up the wattage. Example, A typical quartz halogen bulb burns 150 watts, 10 of those is 1500 watts. Personally I would oversize the generator at least 25% so with the above example I would recommend at least an 1875 watt generator. Hope this helps
Another thing on generators. If you want to quiet it down even more, route the exhaust (noise) into a stack going straight up, at least past your head level. It doesn't have to be permanently mounted, but you'd be surprised how quickly the sound dissipates when you send it skyward.
Am I on the right website ? :dunno:
Another word on generators. Honda makes some of the quietest generators I've ever heard. They make a 5,000 watt generator that is so quiet you can sit next to it while it's running and have a normal conversation. It makes about as much noise as a small new car at idle. It's water-cooled, so it's heavy, but if you can afford it, you won't be disappointed.
QuoteOriginally posted by stevewills:
bout to buy a new boat and was wondering if anyone has any insight on what would be best for mostly lakes.figured i will go with halogens,im gonna mount under shooting deck,and i also need what size of generator...Gonna get a honda gen.since they are very quiet.....i havent got a boat picked out yet,but im probaly gonna get no less than a 18footer....any pics would be helpfull as well....
Depends on how many watts of light you use, you might want to consider using a combination of quartz and high pressure sodium, the sodium will give more light for less watts. you can size your Gen. accordingly. Don't over load your gen. ie if you have a 2000 watt gen it would be wise to have no more than 1500 watts on it. Also for the critic, this is a trad topic I myself enjoy bowfishing with my old Bear Grizzly as do many others.
i use a trad bow to bowfish with,i dont use anything but recurves for any archery related outings...isnt bowfishing in terms bowhunting,stalk,make a good shot and retrieve game...huh
QuoteOriginally posted by Bel007:
Am I on the right website ? :dunno:
What's that supposed to mean????
I guess if you don't think bowfishing is trad enough for ya then, no, I reckon you aren't on the "right" website. Jeez!
And, stevewills, don't rule out using batteries for your power for the lights either. It just depends on how long you wanna stay out on the water at a time.
With lights and generators, you are going to run out of amps before you run out of watts! Tons of guys over look that basic fact. Personally, I went with 4 High Pressure Soduim(HPF ballast) 150 watt lights. They put out double the lumens that a 500 watt halogen does and only draw 1.5 amps per light. I run these lights comfortably on a Honda EU2000i. Wisper quiet on the deck. :)
Do different lights make it easier to see fish or rays at night when shooting??
QuoteOriginally posted by FerretWYO:
Do different lights make it easier to see fish or rays at night when shooting??
Underwater lights don't reflect the surface back to your eyes.
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/bowfishing/IMG_0299.jpg)
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/bowfishing/IMG_0298.jpg)
16' SeaArk 3 work lights, 2000W gas generator. Lots of fun.
That might be KHALVERSON's boat!
i like the looks of those high sodium lights,looked at lots of generators and think im gonna get a 10,000watt gen,my question is how do you run them....
10,000 watt ! where ya gonna PUT it ?
ChuckC
ya i really didnt pay attention to the weight they weigh over 300 lbs....think that much juice would be an overkill
I ran a mixture of 300 & 500W halogens on my first rig, hooked to a Champion 3500W genny.
The general rule of thumb is to keep your running watts to around 80% of the rated running watts of the generator.
Since I built my new boat, I've switched over to running HPS lights. I've got 8, 150W HPS on there & I get roughly 5 times the lumen output of Halogens, for 1/3 the watt consumption. I also have amps to spare by hooking up to the 20A RV socket of the generator. I still have enough power to run my 750W IOTA inverter to power the trolling motor, which increases my fishing time & lets me get away with not having to constantly charge batteries.
The initial expense can be a little daunting (around $70 per fixture, compared to $5 for halos) but the benefits far outweigh the cost.
Here she is in daylight.....
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/boat001.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/boat005.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/boat002.jpg)
And a night-shot.....
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/boat015.jpg)
Incedentaly, the $12 Walmart ropelights around the interior gunwales are THE best addition I've made! I have them switched separately from the fishing lights to make driving on the big motor easier, but for unhooking fish, de-tangling line & finding the beer I just dropped, they're amazing.
By the way, that's an 18' boat, 50" wide across the bottom of the transom. The deck is 6'x6' aluminum & only weighs 70lb. I do wish, however, that I hadn't put the fuel tank under the deck. A full tank really makes the boat plow water badly!
Robtattoo covered it well- nice rig.
I might add that the HPS fixtures which are much higher lumens/watt need a ballast which can be inside the fixture or built into a separate ballast box. The ballasts can be heavy so it helps with weight distribution in a small boat. You can substitute digital ballast which is much lighter but more expensive.
Many guys claim the HPS is easier on the eyes [less glare] and helps you to see fish in murky water- both of which I would agree with.
Fishing all night next to a noisy generator can be a pain. Small Honda and Yamaha are pretty quiet but still they drone on. Many guys are going to the LED fixtures which can be run off your batteries without a generator.
robtatto, great rig! Who built the boat? I would like to find one just like it.
I switched out my 300watt Halogens for 150watt MH 2 years ago and really like them. Was able to drop down to a smaller, ligher and quiter Invertor generator.
I am running 12 lights on my custom 2080 SD boat with 8 on the deck, 2 in the middle on the video deck and 2 in back by the fan stand. I can definitely light up everything all around me.
Went from about 72,000 lumens to 168,000 lumens of light and from 3600watts to about 2200 watts of power. No problem running those lights with power to spare on my boat.
Some guys are starting to use alot of the new LED lights so you might want to check into that on some of the bowfishing forums, they claim to be able to run all night on 2 batteries and the quiet sure would be nice!
With my fuel injected belt drive fan, it makes too much noise to mess with going to the LED's so I am not planning on that anytime soon, but sure would be nice for those trolling motor trips or shooting bigheads I imagine.
I am getting back into bowfishing.. In the 1990s we used aircraft landing light bulbs attached to hardhats and 12 volt batterys.. I now have a 238 Carolina skiff with a 80 thrust trolling motor and will use lite weight 12 volt head lights, have only used boat in day time so far ..will look at the LEDs.. I used a 20 ft seark in the 90s, it was a nice stable boat. (http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt46/Robertfishes/carolinaskiff238.jpg)
QuoteOriginally posted by snufer:
robtatto, great rig! Who built the boat? I would like to find one just like it.
I honestly couldn't tell you who built the hull, it dates back to the late '60s as far as I can tell.
The rest was done by me. I put about 80 hours into it over 4 months or so.
Rob, is that for bow fishing or pimpen with those blue party lights...LOL
Ya Robs boat is ready to go. I'm still tweaking mine.
Rob, The new rig looks great bud!
I can see where having the deck, fuel tank, and then adding shooters would make it plow pretty bad.
How hard would it be to switch tank to the back to try and off-set some of the weight? Must be a pain if you haven't done it.
If you cant move the tank you can move the deck back about 1-2ft and that would balance it out and keep the nose up.You can also add trim tabs in the rear for when you are motored up a bit,they will bring the nose up .
QuoteOriginally posted by lpcjon2:
If you cant move the tank you can move the deck back about 1-2ft and that would balance it out and keep the nose up.You can also add trim tabs in the rear for when you are motored up a bit,they will bring the nose up .
If you moved the deck back it would make it hard to shoot off the front. That's where alot of the shooting is done and a good pecentage of the shooting is about straight down. Deck needs to stay flush with the front at least.
Good point,I never bow fished of a boat didnt know that. last resort get a bigger motor.
Many guys using the smaller aluminum john boats build those platforms from Aluminum and shift as much weight back as possible. Get 2 big guys plus lights, ballast, troller and platform in the front of a 14 footer and you could be plowing big time
Yeah, the problem I have with this rig is that there's very little room between the rear bulkhead & the transom & I really didn't want the red, portable, 6 gallon tanks. The only other option was a custom built aluminum tank, but I didn't have the $800 that everyone wanted!
I was trying to keep as much floor space as possible & the only room I had was under the deck. A 25gal tank was possibly a bit of overkill, but I've run out of gas before & trying to get 5 or 6 miles upstream on a trolling motor with 2 or 3 guys + gear + fish is a complete nightmare! :D
I have as much weight as possible at the back of the boat, the only thing forward of center is the deck & tank & unfortunately, due to the age & design of the transom I can't go bigger on the motor. I had a 70 to start with, but it was bowing the transom out so I dropped down to a 45. It's slow (around 20 knotts unloaded) but it'll get me there!
Wish We had some pics to post of Chris Surtees' boat....Larry has it now...and it was really set up let me tell ya.
Mark Land also has a jam up Muzzy boat.