Econolight 150hps and a champion Genny..
Bout the cheapest (NEW) way to go..
Champion inverter is around $500
Champion 3500 is around $299 at TSC

 

Do I need the champion inverter or is there a cheaper one that will work, if I put 6. 150 watt hps lights then I will only need a 1000 watt inverter right

 

SOOG is dead on. I ran 6 of the Econolight 150 watt HPS lights with caps off a Champion 1200/1500 genny with no problems. Its not a Honda, but it was still pretty quiet and always starts on the first pull. I picked it up from Blain's Farm and Fleet on sale for $150. Where are you on the Potomac?

 

I live in king George, va so I go anywhere from cob island to aquia creek, I know of a few places LOADED with nice gar an carp. But I was hoping to get a complete starter setup for around 800

 

I'm stationed at Ft. Meade, MD so I'm not far from ya. Once I get back I can help you get rigged up if you need a hand. You could get set up for under $800 easily. I'm sending you a PM with a link to some lights bud.

 

1000w genny ain't enough to run 6-150's

 

It's a 1500 watt it 1200 continuous running, and that would be awesome carp, I only know one other person that bowfishes around here but it has grown a lot lately

 

SOOG is right, a 1k won't push it safely. If it ran them at all, you would burn up your genny in no time. The 1200/1500 got it done for me tho. You just have to start them up one or two at a time and let em warm up before you start the next ones.

 

Are u gonna run iota's on your troller?

 

What are iota's

 

Converters.. (chargers) so u never run out of battery.
If u are or ever plan to, I would get the bigger genny

 

Yep, I was just sayin the same thing in the PM bud. Converters are definitely the way to go! The bigger generator is heavier, but my total boat weight is lower because I'm only running 2 batteries instead of lugging 5 around all night. Cheaper in the long run too.

 

Wasn't planning on it, a trolling motor will last over 5 hours on 2 29 Walmart battery's and that is long enought for me

 

We are in Delaware and shot the Potomac and our rivers on our side the bay are just like the Potomac,we run (8) 50w leds and love them with no problems.Used to run 500 watt halos and leds are plenty of lite to shoot with.

 

when shooting stained water there is no comparison at all to HPS, on a budget-cant beat halos, harbor freight has some pretty cheap gennys to look into also, i ran the predator 3200 running watts with 6 halos on my last rig and its pretty quiet, i run 8 hps on a eu2000i now and if at all possible, i would highly recommend that setup, im originally from west virginia so im very familiar with the potomac,shenandoah,etc and i think you could get away with halos...until it rains. my .02

 

Only in this place is does physics not apply. lol
Just FYI, you could get 2 more batteries($200), 4 x 50w Leds(less than $400) or 6 27w(less than $300) and you can run silent for the 5 hours you say is more than enough. If you want HPS preformance put yellow signal tape over them. HPS penetrates no better, its just easier on the eyes with the yellow glow.
No genny, no gasoline, no oil, no noise.
just sayin

 

yea, whatever you say bud :co:

 

I believe the problem with led's is stained water though..

 

Ive killed barrel fulls of fish in stained water, muddy water with 3" of vis, algea filled water, we get all kinda of water here. I know some tourneis here a LED boat kicked the crap out of the HPS or halo boats, it all goes back to guys vehmenently defending whatever they use lest they become insecure. JHMO YMMV

 

Buy the lights you want to buy. Whatever will work best for you. Whatever you can afford..
Trial and error.. Buy one, if u don't like em, sell em and try the other.. Or buy 1 of each put one on one side of the boat and the other on the opposite side..

 

exactly, Im not knockin HPS, if I ran a fan, airboat or maybe even a kicker all the time Id run 8 x 400watters cause noise is already there.

 

Ya, I was originally going to do led so I could go silent all night but the creeks here can get extremely murky, and I sounded Ike hps was better for that, so if I put some yellow tape on an led it will penetrate in stained water as good as hps? If that's the case I might go led, and 3 31 series Walmart batteries. I was planning on buying a 1500 watt genny and throwing 4 150 hps on for now and adding 2 later.

 

I talked to a guy from Seelite and he said he made amber lenses for some led's.
He told me that they penetrated "better" but not as well as a hps.
If your not in a huge rush I would buy 1 or 2 of each and run em on opposite sides of your boat..
Fish it like that a few times. Play with it a little,try your amber covers out..
See what u like. That's the only way you will really know what u (need/want) you will have no problems selling either on here..
You can rent a genny from home depot for like $30.00
Doing that will give you the answer you are looking for..

When I was building this boat I wanted to run hps.. On my old boat I ran 6 400w hps but my genny was big and loud..
For this boat OBG rigged me up a 2x8 with 3 ballast on it a 400,250, and 150
I ran those 3 lights a couple trips to see what I wanted..very glad I did.
Everyone on here has great info and opinions but lots of people from all over the world fishing different waters..

 

Im going to do that, I'm going to put 2 27 watt on one side and 150 hps on other, if I like the hps better I'm going to use the LEDs for deck lights since they barely draw any power, thanks for all the info, but how do you make the amber lenses

 

Not real sure.. U prob will need to make them

 

Double this up maybe