# Ruining it for the rest of us



## robmc0 (Oct 12, 2010)

Morning all,

There's no trip report for Saturday, with the exception of whatever it was the completely destroyed my crab net, there was little happening up the back of Cowan creek on Saturday morning. But I want to mention one thing I saw which really got me annoyed.

I pushed off at 6am from Apple tree bay. As you can see from the photo, both dark and foggy:










By the time I hit Waratah bay, it was starting to look better, well there was at least more light:










After I'd been in the bay for about 20minutes I heard voices. Not the usual ones that tell me to "ignore the significant other, go fishing" in this oddly disconnected voice that sounds like my own, but genuine other human beings. I swung my yak around, and there out of the mists paddle 4 kayakers, and then again they dissappeared again back into the mists. Now, what had me really annoyed? Not a single light or other hi-vis device amongst the lot of them, and they were only visible within about 50M from me. What's worse, they had to have pushed out not long after me, meaning it was still dark and it was still really foggy, and there were boats about also heading off to fish for the sunrise.

Now we can rage about the inconsiderate jerks in their stink boats making our lives difficult, but bloody hell, when there are people like this pack out in really poor vis conditions with no markers, even I was tempted to say "[email protected]#*&!% kayakers". A stink boat would have had no chance to avoid them if they came up on them in those conditions and it would have been the kayakers crying foul. People like this give the rest of us a bad name. :-x

Not a fishing rod amongst them, so clearly they don't keep fine company such as the members of this forum.

Well, that's the end of my rant. Moral of the story, of course, is if you don't have a light in your kit, get one, or don't go out in conditions such as these. That was really dangerous. For the record, that light in the bottom right quadrant in the first photo is the light on my yak. If nothing else, this forum has helped me prepare for a lot of things including having a suitable light in my kit to hang from my broom handle above the yak 

Hope everyone else had better luck with the fish this weekend.

Tight lines.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Having right of way or whatever is small comfort if you're getting forced under a hull. Do you, or anyone else reading, have a recommendation for a water resistant LED 360 light that takes AAs/AAAs and is attached, or can be attached, to a lightweight pole?
edit: that doesn't cost $90


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## robmc0 (Oct 12, 2010)

Squidley said:


> Having right of way or whatever is small comfort if you're getting forced under a hull. Do you, or anyone else reading, have a recommendation for a water resistant LED 360 light that takes AAs/AAAs and is attached, or can be attached, to a lightweight pole?
> edit: that doesn't cost $90


theumage and I bought some "weather resistant" LED camping lights a while back that are powered by 3 x AAA's. Some stupid price of $3 ea or somesuch from one of those multi-buy websites. Sadly I lost most of them in the insterstate move, but I always carry a D-cell lantern in my fishing kit for all occasions and even though it's on the heavy side, the loop at the top of the broom stick was designed to hold it in emergency situations like where I'm out later than anticipated or unexpected fog on that early morning start 

That said, it is heavy and I'm looking to make something up for the broom stick that's nice and lightweight so it doesn't knock around as much as the lantern does.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

robmc0

Have to agree that they were crazy yakkers.



Squidley said:


> Having right of way or whatever is small comfort if you're getting forced under a hull. Do you, or anyone else reading, have a recommendation for a water resistant LED 360 light that takes AAs/AAAs and is attached, or can be attached, to a lightweight pole?
> edit: that doesn't cost $90


Cheap life...only worth $ 90.

Yakattack, but if you're really stretched for budget, there was an excellent home made one here not long ago for peanuts. Do a search..

Trevor


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## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

I got a "proper" anchor light (360 degree white) from my local marine shop. c cell batteries. Pole mount. Cost me about $35.
A fella I know uses a cheap LED solar garden light! Anything is better than nothing.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

"Here's a tent pole with a water resistant LED torch on it and the flag is the bag! Only ninety dollars."
"Ninety do-"
"PSSHT. CHEAP LIFE."

I'll run that search though


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## robmc0 (Oct 12, 2010)

spork said:


> I got a "proper" anchor light (360 degree white) from my local marine shop. c cell batteries. Pole mount. Cost me about $35.
> A fella I know uses a cheap LED solar garden light! Anything is better than nothing.


K-mart in victoria had a very nice marine anchor light that was detachable. needed to be wired to the sounder's battery, but all round seemed like a good light. Only problem was the pole was too short making it impossible to see if you were coming at me front on.

I have the broom stick to be able to push off things/etc and more recently it now has an attachment to hang the crab nets off, because I don't want to be trying to detangle one of those suckers over the yak I'm sitting in and drop it in with me :lol:, but I digress. the top of the stick sits a good 2ft over my head making the light visible from all directions


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Tektite 4 LED Mark III Marker light delivered in Australia for $45. Bright, very waterproof, 3AA batteries, fits inside PVC tube to get it above your head, same as the Visicarbon light without the flag mount (or pole).

http://www.rowingboatlights.com/generallights.html


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## GetSharkd (Feb 1, 2012)

Squidley said:


> Having right of way or whatever is small comfort if you're getting forced under a hull. Do you, or anyone else reading, have a recommendation for a water resistant LED 360 light that takes AAs/AAAs and is attached, or can be attached, to a lightweight pole?
> edit: that doesn't cost $90


viewtopic.php?f=12&t=53164


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Thanks sbd, that's just the thing. And thanks Shark'd, I might make one up for my mate.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Thanks Dave X 2 (Yakattack won't ship the tall pole international).

Thanks GetSharkd. That's the one. Might give that a go....certainly not technical.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

sbd said:


> Tektite 4 LED Mark III Marker light delivered in Australia for $45. Bright, very waterproof, 3AA batteries, fits inside PVC tube to get it above your head, same as the Visicarbon light without the flag mount (or pole).
> 
> http://www.rowingboatlights.com/generallights.html


Dropped a rechargeable into it. Must've been fractionally fatter than a regular AA because now I can't get the damn thing out of it! I tested it with some batteries it came with and it was very bright and lasted for something like 24 hours, and the seal and switching mechanism seemed robust, but be careful putting in rechargeables.

Now I gotta figure out how to extract the battery from this $45 mailorder light. No luck shaking it or teasing it out with a magnet and I don't want to tap the thread end too hard. Maybe I can pinch the positive terminal of the battery hard enough with a pair of the skinniest pliers I can find and pull.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Got it fixed Chris ? What is your review of it. Any good ?


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Yeah I managed to get the rechargeables out by tapping the open end on a table. I had it running for about 24 hours on the batteries it shipped with (I'd say it was noticeably dimmer about 12 hours in), so I feel OK about using disposeables on this. It's compact, lightweight and bright and the sealing/switch mechanism seems pretty robust though I haven't tested it with a full dunk. I've gaffa'd it up to a rod butt for the time being, here's a video with it in use:





Ideally I'd be able to fit rechargeable batteries into the holder but other than that it's better than a peanut butter jar with a headlamp inside


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## NickoCairns (Aug 25, 2013)

Hey guys, I got a 20mm x 1.5m PVC pipe, fits in my scupper holes. On top i put a t-piece so that it has one opening up and one horizontal opening, into the top hole I shoved a $2 led light, similar to this white one, runs on 4 x aa batts.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bike-5-8-Whi ... 502&_uhb=1

I had to remove the black casing, put a rubber band holding it in the T piece, then a clear plastic bag for waterproofing sealed with another rubber band. Supercheap and will run for days (exactly how many hours I'll let you know, good quality 2000 rechargeable batts in it).

So cheap as chips all round white light with very minimal light on water (not that barra mind a bit of light). Soon I will paint it bright orange or something and put reflective tape on it. I bought some reflective tape which I have on both sides and front and back of my kayak, wear a reflective vest and have an led lenser head torch as I do mainly night fishing. I'll do a flag sometime for daytime though and the light only takes 10 sec to remove if I don,t want it on. Pics sometime soon but it looks pretty povo but works a treat!

New sounder goes on when it arrives and two ecogear rod holders to get more height, also some 12v lighting that a local barra fisho uses and he cleans up, thinks the lights attract the barra. So, should be fun! Pics when done.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Th PVC pipe light seems to be the way to go, cheap, flexible, tough. I'm not familiar with the design of your kayak but you might even be able to shove it down into the hull and leave it there when not required.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2014)

Squidley said:


> Having right of way or whatever is small comfort if you're getting forced under a hull. Do you, or anyone else reading, have a recommendation for a water resistant LED 360 light that takes AAs/AAAs and is attached, or can be attached, to a lightweight pole?
> edit: that doesn't cost $90


2 years late I know but I got this from ebay and it's pretty good!
already has a 360 light , has strobe function, 4x AAA and just need to attach a yakult bottle or similar on the top,
and best of all costs next to nothing.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Black-Bike-B ... 3a8173d022


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## crazychenski (Aug 12, 2013)

I made up my own light pole.

- bought 5m waterproof LEd strip($10) only used 1m.
- 1m of PVC pipe, $3
- 1 1am/h battery ($15. small enough to place into a waterproof bag and just clip onto my trolley. Battery lasted 5 trips before I need to recharge again).
- Place a cheap $2 orange flag from bunning ontop of PVC pipe.....
Total costs, $20-25

The picture is my old picture. I have changed my bucket behind me, and now the PVC pipe light pole has its own dedicated bracket. But the concept is the same.


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