On occasion I’ll fish in early morning, or late nights, when it is quite dark. Flashlights and LED head lamps help, but I’ve always wanted to have better lighting installed inside the boat. So this year I finally went and installed some.
I saw these LED strip lights for sale at a local store for about $5, and thought they would be perfect. I went with red lights, because red is supposed to leave your night vision intact, while still letting you see.
I wanted to hook the lights into the switch panel, so the first thing I did was attach connectors on the end. After inserting the wire and crimping it down, I injected some hot glue to help waterproof it and provide better support.
I then unscrewed the switch panel so I could access the back where the connections go. I connected the red wire to the bottom switch, and the black wire to the ground bus.
I then remounted the switch panel.
The LED strip had an adhesive back, so I was able to easily stick it on underneath the rod tray.
Now when I flip the switch it lights on up perfectly. The flooring helps reflect it for a nice indirect light.
Overall this project took maybe 10 minutes and was much easier than I expected when I first thought about installing lights.
I can’t wait to go fishing in the dark again and see how well this works in practice.
Since doing the install I found out that the LED strips can be bought in really long lengths for a cheap price. So I may wind up redoing this with 20 or more feet of lighting.
