We've all hit the water before dawn, or stayed past sundown when the fishing was good.
And if you've ever tried using your phone to shed light on your lures, knots, and line, you know that any light source that leaves you one-handed is a bad choice.
Instead, what you really want is a bright, light, comfortable headlamp.
Unfortunately, not all headlamps are created equal. Some devour battery life, leaving you with minutes instead of hours of illumination. Other don't provide enough light to navigate a boat through a field of partially submerged stumps at night. And others are heavy or uncomfortable - or both.
But if you know where to look, a great headlamp can be had for a very reasonable price.
Below, you'll find reviews of some of our favorites:
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No products found. | Vont
Weight: 1.83 oz. (without batteries)
Brightness: 200 lumens
Water Resistance: IPX5
The first thing I look for in headlamp is plenty of light.
And whether I'm winding my way through a maze of small trees in the dark, trying to find something small on the deck before moonrise, or just loading my gear into my boat before dawn, I want plenty of illumination.
The Spark delivers 200 lumens of ultra-bright LED light and a 45-degree light throw. For me, that keeps more than enough light on my work, while still providing enough illumination of the area I'm working in that I don't worry about tripping, stepping off a dock, or falling over my stowed trolling motor as I wobble sleepily pre-coffee.
I'm sure plenty of you can feel me there!
As is the case with most modern headlamps, the Spark uses a single button to select low, medium, high, and strobe options, with battery life reflecting those settings. A set of secondary lamps also enable red-light mode, saving your nigh vision as well as battery life.
The Spark comes with rechargeable batteries already installed, and a USB connector to get you charged right away.
I find that recharge times and battery life are reasonable, and with low settings on the LED bulbs, I get hours of useful light. Vont claims 90 hours of battery life, but that seems a bit unrealistic, unless you're using the red secondary lights exclusively.
This headlamp is pretty tough, and with an IPX5 water-resistance rating, anything short of submerging the Vont in water will have no effect.
Light, comfortable, bright, and long-lasting, the Vont Spark is a great headlamp at a very fair price, if you can accept that quality control is subpar and customer service is non-existent.
Is that deal breaker?
It just might be.
Weight: 5.3 oz.
Brightness: 800 lumens
Water Resistance: IPX4
The BioLite 800 Pro headlamp is designed around the needs of outdoorsmen, not necessarily anglers.
But that's not a mark against it - there are substantial overlaps in what hikers, mountaineers, and campers want from a light source and what anglers need to tie knots, attach lures, or navigate a pitch-black boat landing.
Right off the bat, the BioLite 800 Pro impressed me with its 800 lumens of LED light, easily illuminating my work and immediate surroundings. Ideal for navigating a boat through pre-dawn hazards, I really appreciated the 7 light modes actuated by a single button.
My most used modes were white and red flood, and white spot plus white spot and flood.
I used the spot for tying knots and other delicate tasks, switching to flood settings when I was casting or netting fish, moving my boat, or looking for something on deck.
I found that battery life was excellent and recharge times were reasonable. In my use, I had more than 5 hours of battery life.
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No products found. | Danforce
Weight: 10.5 oz.
Brightness: 1,080 lumens
Water Resistance: IPX4
DanForce understands that Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate in your fishing adventures.
I've had a tire go flat on the way to the water, for instance, and needed a bright headlamp to get my spare and tools, change the tire, and put everything away again. And when I was on the water, I needed all the illumination I could get to navigate through a swamp littered with cypress knees, logs, and big, big spider webs.
One thing I came to appreciate about the DanForce right away was its incredible 1,080 Lumen brightness. I had more than enough light to see what I was doing, and for navigating, those powerful LEDs were awesome.
One push of the selector button offers low, medium, high, and strobe options, with reasonable battery life (roughly 3 hours) on bright.
Charging is via a MicroUSB, so expect that to take a while - a nod in the direction of lots of light and batteries that are going to get depleted relatively quickly on high.
I found the straps and fit to be comfortable, but I do have a very large head.
I was not in love with the 10.5 ounce weight - that's simply too much for a headlamp.
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No products found. Black Diamond
Weight: 3 oz.
Brightness: 350 lumens
Water Resistance: IPX8
The Black Diamond Storm is a popular headlamp with outdoorsmen, and anglers looking for a light, durable, no-nonsense headlamp should take a close look at this product.
The Storm packs 350 lumens of LED light, multiple brightness settings, and a useful memory feature that remembers your previous light setting so that you don't need to select your way back to the light level you need.
No, the Storm isn't nearly as bright as the DanForce or even the BioLite, but it is a lot lighter.
At just 3 ounces, it disappears on your head, even with the single strap design. I found it comfortable to wear, and on high, experienced battery life in excess of 3 hours.
For navigating my boat, I found that as long as I crept along, I could see dangers before I encountered them, and on deck, the light was plenty for fishing.
Rated to IPX8, meaning that even a long trip the bottom shouldn't render this headlamp inoperable, I nevertheless found that it didn't like getting banged against trees in the dark or taking a spill from my head onto the dock. The battery compartment opened once on impact, and I taped it back in place just to be sure.
So what's the verdict?
The Black Diamond Storm is bright enough for angling, comfortable to wear, but not as rugged as I'd like.
Weight: 3.24 oz.
Brightness: 300 lumens
Water Resistance: IPX4
Petzl is a legendary name among climbers, hunters, campers, and hikers the world over, and if you want the best headlamps your money can buy, they're the place to start and end your search.
Petzl's Tikkina is built light, offering 300 lumens of night-conquering brightness. Yeah, that's not going to chase off the dark like the eye-gouging brightness of modern gas stations, but it was still enough for me to load and unload my kayak in the dark, drag it down to the water, and load all my fishing gear without losing anything.
On the water, the single-setting Tikkina didn't let me down, and I experienced more than 3 hours of run time on high with the CORE rechargeable battery.
It's worth noting that this headlamp can also accept standard AAA batteries with only a slight loss in performance, making this product more versatile than other options.
I keep a spare set of AAAs in my fishing bag, and if I run too low, I swap out the CORE with the fresh AAAs, and I'm back in business.
A word on that: Petzl uses pretty remarkable tech to provide better brightness at low battery power levels, meaning that the Tikkina provides more light at 50% or lower battery levels than competitors will.
That matters a lot in the real world, and it can be the difference between seeing (or being seen) and missing something important in the dark.
At just 3.24 ounces, the Tikkina is remarkably comfortable, and for a single-strap model, stays in place really well.
If you can deal with just 300 lumens, the Tikkina is probably the best headlamp currently on the market.
Brightness is generally measured in lumens.
The more lumens a headlamp 's bulbs generate, the brighter it’ll be, but the range of lumens available can vary drastically.
Anglers don't typically need to light a trail, avoid tripping over guy lines, or stop themselves short of a deadly tumble down a cliff.
Instead, they need enough light to load up, launch a boat, navigate through the dark, and accomplish tasks like baiting hooks, tying knots, and netting fish.
For most of us, brighter is better.
A headlamp in the neighborhood of 300 lumens should be sufficient for your tasks, although brighter options are better for navigating a boat at speed.
Other than materials and sizing, the biggest issue that affects comfort is weight.
The feather-light Tikinna all but disappears on your head; by comparison, you won't forget that you have the massive DanForce strapped to your forehead.
A headlamp used for fishing needs to be water-resistant.
At a bare minimum, I look for an IPX4 water-resistance rating. A great fishing headlamp should be able to shrug off rain, humidity, and a splashes.
Battery life is generally dependent on the light setting you choose as well as the quality and power of the batteries you're running in your headlamp.
I find that most headlamps have a battery life of about 3 hours on high, though there are exceptions.
Cutting the light down to low, or to red options, can result in VERY long battery life, often in excess of a weekend's fishing at night.
Modern headlamps generally offer at least a few different modes, including both white and red lights, brightness adjustment options, and flashing or strobe effects.
These modes aren’t a requirement for a good headlamp, but many of them make for great additions.
Another great mode that’s often overlooked is the ability to use red light instead of white light. White light is great for maximum brightness, but your night vision won't be ruined by red - and your battery will last much longer.
As the experts at Scandinavian Outdoor explain, "Red light is usually used when you don’t want to lose your night vision. You can use it to look at the map or use it to illuminate things nearby without blinding yourself or those around you."
It's a great option to be sure, but not necessarily a deal breaker.
My own headlamp has high, medium, low, flash, and SOS modes - no red - and I love it.
Petzl knows the needs of outdoorsmen, and while the Tikkina may not be designed specifically for anglers, it's a great choice nonetheless.
Light and comfortable with an acceptable level of brightness, this no-nonsense headlamp has proven its durability in the field, though I'd like to see better water resistance on subsequent offerings.
I like that the Tikkina practically disappears on my head, and while brighter LEDs would be preferable for navigating a boat, I've found that the Petzl gets it done if you're careful and slow - as you should be in the dark!
As always, we hope this article helped you out, and we'd love to hear from you if it did!
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