Gigging Rails/ Light Setup

I've never been gigging myself, really been wanting to try, deer hunted with a buddy of mine that says I gotta try it. Well the building of a rail and setting up some lights I can handle, but I'd like to see some different setups, so lets see what you got.

Funny that you mention gigging. Just last night, my girlfriend and I were out gigging with a reporter from the local newspaper. Of course, the wind had been blowing yesterday, so, that had the water kinda murky. We didn't see a single flounder, (sometimes it's like that) but we did see about 3 or 4 spot tail bass, and a few other things such as stone crabs and blue crabs moving about, and a good bit of bait fish.


Anyhow, for my gigging light setup, I have a rail design like you mention. (I'll try to remember to get a few pics of it today, and post them on here) Basically, it's 4 pieces of 1 inch x 1/4 aluminum flat bar, with pivot points, with 2 lights on the sides, and one in the center. Because of the way it's designed with flat bar and pivot points, the angle and width is adjustable to fit a wide variety of boats. Each boat may require a different mount, for instance, the War Eagle and the Triton have that internal slot along the inside of the gunwale cap. I have different mounts fabricated for my Triton and my DuraCraft, so I can switch the lights around from boat to boat.

I tried one of the LED deck lights...hoping to cut back on battery power consumption, but, the LED's are horrible, they don't put off as much light as the incandescents, so, I'm probably going to do away with that LED, and go back to an incandescent.

Gigging is sort of a combination of fishing and hunting. In fact, we sometimes use a compound bow, or even a crossbow for gigging, just to add a little more challenge.


Anyhow, here's a few gigging photos, taken about 3 years ago....when we were having some really good nights at it.

Bringing a spot tail bass on board:


A 5 lb 7 oz doormat flounder, taken with a crossbow, in about 6 inches of water:

Another spot tail bass being hauled aboard:

(as you can see, on this night, it was pretty cold outside)

Here's a 7+ pound trout being brought aboard:

(notice my buddy standing there with a landing net, often, when we get a big fish on the gig, or it's not an instant kill-shot, we'll use a net, and scoop the fish into it, so it doesn't thrash and come off the gig....nothing I hate more than a wounded fish getting away)

Here's an 8 pound trout on the scale:


A 7 and a 6.5 pound trout:


And finally, here's a shot of one night's gigging. 6 spot tail bass (the limit is 3 per person in SC) 4 nice trout, and also one black drum:


Well, that's about it. Anyhow, I'll get some pics of my gigging light setup, and post them on here.

OK, here we go:





Here's a shot of the adapter I made for the DuraCraft. Yeah, it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but I wasn't able to find any kind of rail clamp made for DuraCraft, so, this is what I came up with:


As you can see, using a flat bar design allows this entire outfit to fold up and make it compact enough to be stored easily.









A few tools of the trade......

compound bow with reel:


Crossbow:


Here's a closeup of one of the arrow shafts for gigging. To release the fish, you unscrew the tip part way, and the V-shaped wire can be flipped up, which allows the arrow to be pulled from the fish. Then you flip the wire back over, and re-tighten the tip for the next shot.



And finally, the old standby....a 14 foot fiberglass gig pole:

Here is the thread I made a few months back about gigging and I have a couple pics of my rig.
https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=21959

I am running two 400 watt metal halides and a 4000w generator. On my first boat, I ran five 300w halogens I bought at Walmart. They were mounted three across the front and one out to each side. If I ever redo my lights, I am going to try some 27watt LEDs that a lot of guys have been having luck with on Bowtish Country.

Other equipment I have are a rake bucket for putting the suckers in after we stick them. The gigs are just closet rods I get from the hardware store and shaved down to fit the gig handle.

As far as LED's....I tried one for my center light, and it was a waste of money. Doesn't put out nearly the amount of light that the other 2 put off.

Initially, I thought I was going to run all 3 lights as LED's, which would conserve battery power, as we're not allowed to use generators for flounder gigging. (I actually wrote the legislative proposal for that law to be passed in SC, along with bringing the limit on flounder down from 20 per person, to 10 per person....as commercial giggers with high intensity lights and generators were lighting up the whole inlet at night, with noisy generators running, and what's worse, they were raping the resources, leaving nothing for the hook and line fishermen. Honestly, some nights, there would be as many as 25 boats, and we're talking about a body of water that's only 4 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, with only one inlet going into it. I pissed a lot of people off with that law, but a lot of the local hook and line fishermen were very glad to see it passed.)

Anyhow, after testing the LED setup, I'm changing that center light back to a 55 watt incandescent like the other 2. Which is OK with me, as I rarely go out for more than 3-4 hours, and I can run that long off just one battery.

PSG-1 said:

As far as LED's....I tried one for my center light, and it was a waste of money. Doesn't put out nearly the amount of light that the other 2 put off.

Initially, I thought I was going to run all 3 lights as LED's, which would conserve battery power, as we're not allowed to use generators for flounder gigging. (I actually wrote the legislative proposal for that law to be passed in SC, along with bringing the limit on flounder down from 20 per person, to 10 per person....as commercial giggers with high intensity lights and generators were lighting up the whole inlet at night, with noisy generators running, and what's worse, they were raping the resources, leaving nothing for the hook and line fishermen. Honestly, some nights, there would be as many as 25 boats, and we're talking about a body of water that's only 4 miles long and 1/2 mile wide, with only one inlet going into it. I pissed a lot of people off with that law, but a lot of the local hook and line fishermen were very glad to see it passed.)

Anyhow, after testing the LED setup, I'm changing that center light back to a 55 watt incandescent like the other 2. Which is OK with me, as I rarely go out for more than 3-4 hours, and I can run that long off just one battery.

Click to expand...

They look pretty darn bright to me! For gigging suckers in MO, which is what Codeman is referring to, these should work out pretty darn well. The bowfishermen that have used them compare them to a 250w metal halide for brightness even though the lumen count is much lower. Apparently the LED lighting is different and you can't go by just the lumen rating.

Here's a video I found of a boat with those 27w LED's mounted.
https://youtu.be/WLh_KjyJL4Y

Obviously those aren't the same type of LED's that I have....mine are nowhere near as bright as a 250 watt bulb. Heck, I have a "Redline" flashlight that runs off 3 AAA batteries that's probably 3 times brighter than that LED.

I really prefer the underwater gigging lights, especially if the water conditions are the least bit choppy, but the problem I have with them is when I get into shallow water, they bump the bottom. Something you don't want to do with glass globes around oyster rocks.

And I can't raise them up any more, because then they cause turbulence at the surface as the boat is drifting along. So, that's why I use the deck mounted lights.

Those LED's like in the video aren't very cheap. When I last checked they were like $50 each and that's if somebody did a group buy on them. Hopefully they will keep coming down in price and be more affordable within the next year.

That's about how much I paid for the LED light I bought. But again, I'm not impressed with it at all, so, I'm going back to the old incandescents.