Best Underwater Boat Lights ⁠— Attract Your Trophy Fish

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Some people never actually experience a need for boat lights. Some do. But those who do need underwater lights for a few very different reasons.

Reason 1: Night fishing. This is probably the reason most of my subscribers are looking for underwater lights. Indeed, an underwater light is invaluable when you’re fishing at night and need to attract fish. It is an old and reliable method.

Reason 2: A diver’s beacon. If you like diving, especially diving in the dead of night, underwater boat lights can be literally a lifesaver. You don’t want to miss your boat by a couple of hundred feet when you’re rising back to the surface, and to find it after you’ve hit the surface again is not very reliable, because your watercraft can be concealed by waves or even other boats. However, if you have underwater boat lights installed, that will no longer be a problem for you.

Reason 3: It just looks good. And it does. It’s like a LED lighting for the bottom of your car, only way cooler because of how light propagates underwater. If you want your boat stand out at night, nothing can be better than good underwater lighting.Reason 4: You want your boat highlighted when it’s docked. One of the reasonings for such an idea is being neat, again, and the other is that it makes finding the boat much more comfortable. Even if there’s no mistaking it for other docked vessels, the lighting will highlight its outlines and make boarding somewhat safer at night.But no matter what reason you want underwater boat lights for, only the best lights are going to cut it. Some of them are better for one purpose than they are for the others, some are equally fit for all possible purposes but rather mediocre, you will definitely find something that you want and need.

Top 5 Underwater Boat Lights ⁠ in 2019

1
Partsam Underwater Lights — Low Heat Profile

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These underwater lights come in a pack of four. But that, of course, is not their main advantage. Their real strength is light intensity, power consumption, and a wide aperture. These boat lights meet all IP68 requirements and draw as little as 250 mA. The working voltage is from 10V to 30V. At the same time, the Partsam lights emit very low heat.

Installation is super easy, but you have to drill holes for screws and wires. The lights will endure any tests of time and weather.

If you want, you can install these lights above the waterline, but installing them below it is the real thing. The lights work great at attracting fish and highlight a boat’s wake like it’s made of liquid green fire.

Pros
  • Wide aperture
  • Light intensity
  • IP68 protection
  • Draws 250 mA
  • Installation is super easy
  • Low heat emission
Cons
  • You have to drill holes for screws and wires
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2
Tidal Wake Drain Plug LED Light — Most Beautiful Lights

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If drilling holes to install underwater lights is too much for you, I advise that you try this Tidal Wake LED light. Just as the name suggests, this light will add some glow to your tidal wake, but it’s not the only thing it can do.

The IP68-protected Tidal Wake light comes in 4 colors, and it is designed to replace the standard ½” drain plug. That limits your options as to where to install the light, of course, but on the upside, no mechanical work is needed.

It is not without drawbacks. Heat removal is a problem for this light. However, you won’t come into this problem face to face unless you install this light out of water. I strongly suggest that you don’t do that. If you want to test the light, limit its work out of the water to no more than 60 seconds. Otherwise, it’s going to overheat. The Tidal Wake light does come with overheating protection, but every time it’s triggered the life cycle of the light is decreased significantly.

On the bright side, the light is super bright and has a light intensity of 1800 lumen and a life cycle of 50k hours. That’s perfect for all sorts of activities, including fishing, swimming, and diving. On top of that, it also makes your boat look way greater.

I can’t promise super-low power consumption, but it does draw only 27W. Perhaps, you will find many cheaper lights, but they will offer you a lower light intensity in return for the low price.

Pros
  • Designed to replace the standard ½” drain plug
  • IP68-protected
  • No mechanical work is needed
  • Light intensity of 1800 Lumens
  • Life cycle of 50k hours
Cons
  • Limits your options as to where to install the light
  • Heat removal is a problem for this light
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3
Lumitec SeaBlazeX Underwater Light — Best Overall

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If 1800 lumen isn’t going to cut it, how about four thousand lumens? That’s what you get with this Lumitec underwater light.

Actually, Lumitec lights are some of the best, and that is also true for their underwater lights. Not just SeaBlazeX but also others. Still, why Lumitec?

Because they use naval grade bronze in their products and do quite aggressive tests on them. And yet, here is a light that endured all of them.

The light is available in 4 colors, all with strobe mode and crossfade mode. The light makes a terrific decoration for the bottom of your boat, but thanks to the sheer light intensity, it is one of the best lights for fishing on the market. 

Unlike the Tidal Wake, the SeaBlazeX can operate above the waterline thanks to its low heat emission. Of course, that comes at a price.

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Pros
  • Four thousand Lumens
  • Can operate above the waterline thanks to its low heat emission
Cons
  • Price
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4
Y-knot Typhon Triple Head 3000 Lumen Blue Underwater LED transom Light — Most Intricate Design

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How to light up the water under your boat in three directions simultaneously? You can use three lights. You can make a very complex system of semi-transparent mirrors (and that’s going to be such a pain in the neck to operate). Or, you can just get a triple-head light. The Y-knot Typhon is what you need exactly, as long as you don’t mind the color blue.

It’s not as powerful as some other lights, but it does flash 3000 lumens in three directions. Its primary purpose is to make your boat stand out, but it’s suitable for fishing and for divers.

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Pros
  • 3000 Lumens in three directions
  • Suitable for fishing and for divers
Cons
  • Not as powerful as some other lights
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5
Bright Night Fishing 15000 Lumens Light — Most Bright Lights

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Want to get serious with your fishing? Here come a 15k Lumens light specially designed for fishers. The light comprises of 300 LEDs and lights everything up in a 35 feet zone. It going to draw all the fish to your boat,  the only thing you still have to think about is how to get that big fish of yours out of the water.

I recommend that you hook it up to a single 12V battery. It’s going to last up to 43 hours. In ideal circumstances, you understand, but even with that caveat, it’s still going to be good for three to four nights on a single charge. Or, you can buy a 120V AC power adapter that is sold separately.

It is not a mountable light, unlike every other light on this list. No, it is made for fishing, and it is meant to be thrown overboard. Don’t worry, the light is self sinking, and its durable cord is suitable for 25 feet.

Pros
  • A 15k Lumens light
  • Lights everything up in a 35 feet zone
  • Up to 43 hours
  • Self sinking
  • 300 LEDs
Cons
  • Not a mountable light
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Buyer’s Guide

Before you start making your choice, you need to weigh all the reasons for buying underwater lights carefully. Ask yourself some questions and answer them. Don’t try to give the “right” answer, any answer is going to be the right answer as long as you provide it without trying to look good or more of an expert in your own eyes.Do you want those underwater lights for fishing? Do you want them to make your boat look cool? Or are you going to do some night diving? Or maybe you want your boat to be easy to notice when it’s docked?If you answered “yes” to more than one of those questions, ask yourself yet another question: do you really need all of that or some of the future uses sees to be more relevant than others.
If you do need all that, some of the boat lights on the list will give you that, but you must realize that they won’t satisfy all of your needs fully an in a way that pleases you completely. That’s just not happening.Here are a few the most essential factors you must consider before making the final decision

The color of the lights

If you’re buying the underwater lights to make your boat stand out, or simply highlight its outlines, the color is not something you should account for. It’s just a matter of personal preference at that point.But if you want those lights for diving or fishing in the dead of night, the color or the lights matters.As you probably know, shorter wavelengths disperse faster. That’s why the sky is blue, blue light is dispersed in the air. In water, that happens even more quickly.Blue light cannot penetrate through water deep enough. Additionally, when it does penetrate, the human eye is not very good at perceiving blue. Blue light is ideal when you want to attract fish that does not dwell too deep, but it’s a poor tool for a diver.Red light has the longest wavelength of all the visible spectrum. Red light reaches as far as no other light does. If you want to fish some really deep-dwelling species, red lights are some of the best choices. As for divers, red lights are definitely acceptable, but they are far from the best. Why? Because while the human eye does perceive red light good enough, it is not the color we perceive best.Which brings us to another color: green.Green light does not reach as deep as red light, but it definitely reaches deeper than blue light. Unlike both of the other colors, the human eye perceives the blue color better than any other. Blue lights make a terrific beacon for divers and are also practical as a source of light for underwater works.White. It would be wrong to omit this color, or rather, the absence of any color. It is probably the best solution both for fishing and diving, but it’s also easy to notice for unintended observers.

Ease of Installation

Even if you have to install the lights just one time, you are still going to install them. That’s why you cannot ignore that particular aspect.Thankfully, underwater lights are easy to mount these days. That said, some are easier to install than others. Ideally, a set of underwater lights should not require you to get help from a boat detailer or a mechanic.

Corrosion

Underwater lights will be watertight. That’s a given, and there is no point in bringing that up. However, there is another issue commonly associated with water regardless of permeability: corrosion.Saltwater eats materials like some ever-hungry crab. But if the material is corrosion-proof, it’s not going your set of boat lights for at least a few years. Or even longer.Remember, sea water finds its way into the guts of any electronic device that is not adequately protected from corrosion, even if its’ 100% watertight.

The Looks

It’s not something you should think of if you’re buying underwater lights for fishing only, but in any other scenario, aesthetically appealing underwater lights have some merits.If you’re buying the lights for lighting up the bottom of the boat, get colored lights. I recommend blue or green, but red can look just as impressive if a little pretentious.

Light Intensity

A distinct parameter, but it’s still something that you should consider, and that is the reason I’m bringing it up.You’re probably not familiar with light intensity units, but I can tell you that 15k lumen make pretty powerful underwater lights. Anything more powerful is excessive for most real-life scenarios, and you would only need that kind of power in particular situations.Still, you can find underwater lights that score 30k lumens, you don’t have to give up on buying them just because they are too powerful. The more, the better, those words ring entirely true when it comes to purchasing underwater lights.As for the lower margin, it all depends on the purpose you’re buying those lights. As a rule, anything above 5k lumens is good enough for fishing. Anything less than that is not entirely unusable, but I’d recommend using those underwater lights for highlighting the bottom of the boat rather than some more practical application.

Quality

When you think about it, something like quality is not something that needs to be told about. And that’s real. However, some products are more or less tolerant of low quality. Well, boat lights are not.To put it bluntly, they are not cheap. Underwater boat lights never are. But if they all will cost you a pretty penny, you have to make sure you choose the best of the best. You want those boat lights to last you at least several seasons before they break or otherwise stop functioning.That is why you need to choose only the most robust of underwater lights.

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