Why can’t I shine my headlamp on the water?
Many people think, “Some people keep shining a light on the surface of the water, but how much of a hindrance can a lighted headlamp have on fishing?” This time, we will learn about the effects of light and headlamp on fishing.
In fact, since fishing is a hobby that involves dealing with nature, there are many aspects of it that can be easily understood with just a little thought about natural phenomena and ecosystems. The same goes for the lighting used in night fishing.
The biggest reason fish gather is because there is food there, and the relationship between plankton, which is at the bottom of the marine food chain, and light (illumination) can be said to be the most important factor that determines the success of fishing.
You’ve probably heard people say that the best fishing times are just before sunrise or sunset. Of course, it’s even better if these times and the tides are perfectly aligned. However, since we’re talking about night fishing lighting here, let’s focus on the sun-related aspects.
There are phytoplankton and animal plankton in the ocean. Just before the sun rises in the morning, phytoplankton start to move for photosynthesis, and in the evening, nocturnal animal plankton start to move actively. Fish also increase their feeding activity to eat this plankton, which is why it is said that early morning is good.
So now you understand the principle that fishing at night with lights on attracts plankton, which attracts smaller fish to eat them, allowing you to target larger species.
However, these types of lights can continuously collect plankton by shining for a long time at night, but lights such as headlamps are not used for a long time, so if they suddenly shine on the water surface, it only increases the fish’s alertness, so it is not good to shine the light toward the water surface, so you will hear voices saying, “Please turn off the light!”
If you turn on the fishing lights at night and observe carefully, you will see that even though the light from the lights illuminates the sea surface, the fish that are flocking gather at the point where light and dark are separated, that is, the dark part rather than the center of the light. This is because the fish are accustomed to the darkness.
Experiments on color transmission underwater at night have shown that at depths of 5 meters, red appears black, pink appears gray, and green appears blue. Below 10 meters, fish perceive only varying degrees of brightness for colors other than blue. This explains why some anglers use red as their cap lights or headlamps.
Lastly, although it is said that there are fish species that like light, strictly speaking, it is not that they like light itself and gather around the light, but rather that various fish species gather around the place where the light shines because prey gathers there.
Therefore, I hope you understand that shining a headlamp on the water surface, which is only used for a short time, is one of the manners that anglers should avoid, as it does not attract plankton and only increases the fish’s alertness.
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