Ok, I was fishing the OP this weekend, the Bog to be specific. I was float fishing in the morning and it was still dark out. I had one of those head lamps on and was fishing about 20-25 feet off the shore. I shined my light on the float to see it when one guy across the river said I was spooking the fish. I disagree with this, since there was only 2-3 feet of vis in a hole 10-12 feet deep. Hey, I agree with him if the water is gin clear. I DID turn off the light so there would be no trouble and he thanked me. Curious what others think on this matter.

Light is attracting to some fish. When you used to be able to fish of some of the old boat docks they would have underwater lights there to attract the fish. Also some streams have night closures. Yes lights do attract fish and I think it is illegal to use them in fresh water.

I was fishing at a legal time. I was using the light simply to see my float. Not as an attractor. Besides this guy said the light was spooking the fish. My head lamp is not powerul enough penetrate the water at that distance. So I guess I should have kept the light on and maybe I would of caught something. LOL

Hard to see in the dark without a light. How was this other guy able to see his line?.
I've never fished any rivers in the dark, had to wait till I could see my line and where I'm casting. I wouldn't think a head light would spook the fish but what do I know.

My thoughts exactly...

about to get a ultra violet led light. my friend who makes them gets the bulbs from korea and they are not bright so they dont scare fish but they can make your glow in the dark baits real bright real fast without the fish scarin camera flash. just dont look into the light its not good for your eyes.

lights small enough to wear around your neck on a chain, try a led light in your head lamp. it doesn't scare fish away.

Thats a great idea. Like the ones they use in cars headlights now?

I don't think that the light spooks the fish. Night fishing for trout in small creeks we would shine the light on the creek were I bait is and watch the fish swarm it.
Just my 2 cents

when i was a kid we used to put a shoplite on the river, i mean like on a rock shinning in the river and watch the fall fish at night shoot buy, it never stopped them or looked like it bothered them, and it seemed every other night a steelhead would come to rest in the light until it got railroaded by some chinook shooting buy. The best night my fishing buddy had at a night fishery for steelhead is when he dropped his maglite overboard and it shinned straight up at him all night, he caught 4 fish???

Well, I know a flashlight sure spooks the hell out of a hooked fish I used to glowball the Cow a lot and, and whenever one of us would wear a fish down enough to bring it to the net we would get out the flashlight so we could see what we were doing, and when that light would hit the fish he would just go ape shait

I used to fish close to a guy that said "light's, white hats, light colored shirts", will scare the fish and stop them from biting........have found that NOT to be true....we even have a jet boat go thur the hole to "stir" the steelhead up. Many times someone will have a fish in just a few minutes...

"worse day sport fishing, still better that the best day working"

While I've never tried to see how they react here, while we're on vacation, we're often checking water levels at night on our camp gauge and it so happens that a lot of fish like to lay near the gauge after coming throiugh a riffle below. From their reaction of having a light hit the water suddenly ... they don't like it, long gone!