The Guide to Buying Overhead (Above Water) Green Fishing Lights

Underwater fishing lights come with a maintenance nightmare due to continuous barnacle build up and growth, which is leading more and more people to looking at above water (overhead) fishing light options.

The primary reason people are making this switch is because the fishing lights simply last longer when they are above water and can be essentially forgotten about in terms of on-going maintenance. This especially goes for people who are considering renting their waterfront home on AirBnB or a similar service, where regular maintenance is more difficult to accomplish. It also serves home owners well who simply do not want to maintain their fishing lights. 

Types of Overhead Fishing Lights

There are two types of overhead fishing lights which are mounted above water: spot style and flood style fishing lights. Each style of overhead fishing light has it benefits and shortcomings, so here's what we've found to be true about each type:

Overhead Spot Lights 

Overhead spotlights are commonly used for fishing in areas where you want to minimize the light spread (example - neighbors across the canal or next door to you). They are also commonly used in situations where you have deep waters (over 8 ft deep) and want to penetrate all the way through the water column to imitate the lighting effect of an underwater fishing light. 

Above water spot lights also work great for reaching out long distances to light up a spot on the water. This is ideal if the light has to be mounted high up off the water (15-20 ft or more) or the area you want to illuminate is far away (20-30 ft) from where the light is being mounted. 

• Better option than flood style for waterfront homes on a canal to minimize light spread to neighboring houses.
• Capable of penetrating deep into the water column, ideal for water depths over 8 ft deep.
• Ideal for situations where light is mounted high up off the water (15-20 ft or more) or the target area of illumination is far away (20-30 ft or more) from where the light is mounted.  
• Light spread is not as wide as the flood light

Overhead Flood Lights

Overhead flood lights are commonly used for fishing in areas where you want to maximize the light spread and illuminate as much water surface area as possible. This is ideal for shallower areas (less than 8 ft deep).

Here's a customer with above water green fishing lights mounted to a pier:

Here's an above water green fishing flood light setup for temporary use on a customers pond:

The overhead green fishing light pictured is the Outrigger Outdoors Above Water Green Fishing Light

When using flood style above water green fishing lights in deeper water (over 8 ft deep), they can still prove to be effective in bringing bait fish to the water surface, which in turn attracts the larger fish and brings them to the water surface. The flood style light is not going to penetrate deep into the water column like a spot light would, but they are still very effective in attracting fish. 

• Ideal for illuminating large surface area of water
• Brings fish to the surface rather than allowing them to stay deep. 
• Commonly mounted 1 to 10 ft above water surface level. 
• Light spread is extremely wide, but will not travel as far as the spot light.