Where to get gigs

[Wayne SW/MO]

Can I run any type of good light off a battery for a night?

Can't run the lights they are talking about. Your best bet is to go to a salvage yard and get the reflector from a late model vehicle that uses halogen bulbs. You'll then have to do some shade tree engineering to mount and aim it.

[riverman]

I have never seen car halogens used for a gigging light I would be worried that it would cast to narrow a beam. I have used 55 watt halogen bulbs mounted on a piece of polished stainless similar to the ones used with propane lights. depending on the size of boat you are in 4 bulbs will usually get the job done. I have also seen guys take 100 watt halogens and warm them up on a 12 volt and then jump it up to 18 volts and nearly double the amount of light out-put.

[Wildside88]

Currently I have 3 500 watt halogens, running off of my generator. With this system I have plenty of light, but I am wanting to run the HID with a few batteries to cut down of the noise. I am thinking of either putting 3 200 watt or 3 150 watt HID lights running off of 3 12 volt batteries, have been told that I will need to by a converter to run the lights off of the batteries. Kind of an expensive upgrade venture guess I will have to save my pennies for a month or two.

As far as my results this season I have only been able to go twice this year, I went once to the Gasconade and we limited mostly with hog suckers, not many yellows. And I have went once to Beaver creek, we killed about 25 pretty hard gigging, water was dingy, not many fish and they where fast as hell. Needing the temperature to drop and clear the water and slow the fish down.

[riverman]

I was getting tired of the noise from my old generator saved my pennies and got a Honda EU2000 We don't even notice it running now. It puts out around 60 decibles of sound the human voice speaks at around 86

[MoCarp]

you must gig a lot to pony up the cost of a generator just for gigging

how often do you go?

[Wildside88]

The Honda EU models are pretty sweet, I was thinking of getting one but would hate to see that nice of a unit in the river if something happened. I expect that I will use my current system this year and maybe upgrade next year. To answer MO Carps Question I normally go about a dozen to fifteen times a year, only went twice so far this year, but am going tonight if I can find out where some fish are that is within 50 miles of Springfield. So if anyone has any suggestions let em rip.

[riverman]

MoCarp, I figure we usually gig 50-60 times a year. that number is way down so far this year for a couple of reasons. The first one is that I totaled my boat on the Niangua the day before season opened, I just got a new one in a week or so ago. The second reason is lack of water this year. The place we usually go on the Big Sac has about an 18" drop from the end of the ramp to the water, not many gravel bars to launch from around here. sometimes when we are feeling energetic we will travel down to Noel and gig the Elk.

[polock]

Can I run any type of good light off a battery for a night? I don't have the budget for a generator and wondering if that would work better than propane. Thanks

we run a 2 battery, 6 halogen light set up... we have two things of lights with 3 bulbs each in them... the lights are the halogen lights with the rope wire and male connector if that makes any since.. any way there are 3 per side and each side is ran to a heavy duty marine battery... we get 5+ hours of giggin a night out of them and it is great... very quiet and if you pick your lights wisely you can see just as well as the generators.

[MoCarp]

MoCarp, I figure we usually gig 50-60 times a year. that number is way down so far this year

thats a LOT of gigging!--do you guide?--how many suckers can you take in a night?

[Wildside88]

Do any of you live in the Springfield area, I have about 6 to 7 giggin holes and am always looking for new ones. I don't expect that most will tell me the directions to their honey holes. But am wondering what waters people are gigging in this area. I gig James River a little don't much like it due to the pollution, Dry Creek, Beaver Creak, and Bennett Springs. I also gig the Gasconade but it is a pretty good drive for me from my house. Always wondered about the waters that run off of or into Stockton on the South side. Just looking for any other waters that are close to Springfield.