If you’re fishing at night from a boat, pier, or shore and you don’t have considerable light around you it’s a good idea to bring a good headlamp to help you see what you’re doing.
Nothing like a hook in the hand because you’re fumbling around blindly at night!
These are headlamps I own and love and highly recommend for you based on price and features.
Budget Headlamp – Petzl Actik (450 lumens)
Petzl has put out a few iterations of this headlamp calling them Actik and Actik Core and changing the amount of lumens (brightness).
Currently the 450 lumens headlamp with the red light is the one I recommend. It’s on the cheaper side, but prices have gone up since the war and shipping fiasco. It is still a good deal because it’s bright enough, simple enough to operate easily with one hand, and has a red light.
See if the ACTIK is in stock at Amazon >
RED BEAM – Red lights are helpful for stealth use when you don’t want to be seen at night. When using the headlamp at night for fishing, you can use the red light. When you want to shine the light on the water to attract fish, use the white-light beams.
WEIGHT + WATER RESISTANCE – The Petzl Actik is very lightweight and waterproof in a light rain. In heavy rain, wear a hat over it or wrap it in a plastic bag to ensure you can continue using it. I have never had one quit in heavy rain, but it is not rated for heavy rainfall.
HOURS OF USE – Two hours at max power and seven hours at 100 lumens provides a lot of light for most uses as long as you’re not constantly burning the light for hours at a time.
BATTERIES – Buying extra batteries is not expensive, you can often find them around $25.
The 450 lumens rating is quite bright and can help in almost all instances. The low and medium settings are fine as well and will last for hours more. You can also use this headlamp for running or slow cycling at night on the street, camping, hiking, etc.
Not Too Expensive Headlamp (and amazing) – AceBeam H30 (4000 lumens)
This is my ‘ultimate’ headlamp for fishing. Super long battery life and many options including safety light, red light, green light, and strobes. Shop for it at Amazon >
RED BEAM – Yes, and Green.
WEIGHT + WATER RESISTANCE – This is another very lightweight headlamp you can take anywhere and wear for hours at a time while fishing.
HOURS OF USE – On lower settings you can use this headlamp for dozens of hours.
BATTERIES – These are new batteries the company devised to pack more power into them for longer use. The good news is you can buy extras at a reasonable price – around $35. If you need long battery life for an extended stay camping/fishing or hiking over the course of days, this headlamp will be great for you.
The 4,000 lumens you have available are mostly wasted on fishing, unless you’re on a boat and need to search for someone overboard!
The battery is proprietary and provides lots of energy to run at lower lumen settings that are still bright enough for almost anything you could possibly need it for. This headlamp is great for fishing on boats of any size and for emergency signaling. It has a strobe as well.
Does It All Headlamp – Petzl DUO RL (2800 lumens)
Drop and crush proof, this is a heavy and tough headlamp. This is the headlamp you get when you have a real nice boat and you can easily afford it, or a handful of them for the crew. They’re expensive.
RED BEAM – The only negative feature of this headlamp is no red light. Sure, you can put a plastic photographic gel filter on the front of your headlamp, but to not have a red light and spend this money – might not be ideal for some people.
WEIGHT + WATER RESISTANCE – This is the heaviest headlamp that we’re aware of.
HOURS OF USE – More than six hours of use with Reactive Lighting – an automatic light-dimming tech that saves battery, giving up to 24 hours of use and MORE.
BATTERIES – Buying extra batteries is quite expensive. I’ve seen batteries for over $100. The batteries are large and heavy but they do last a very long time. I have some just like them from Petzl that have lasted more than 5 years.
This headlamp has not been released yet in 2022, here is the previous version which has many of the same specs and is lower priced. DUO S >