Whether you are camping out overnight or just setting up your rods early in the morning or late at night, you must invest in a good quality bivvy light. The last thing you want is to miss that opportunity to land that elusive catch because you couldn’t get up and out of your shelter quick enough because the light you choose let you down.
That is why we felt it was important to help make the decision of which light you are going to choose from the literally thousands of products there are out there. Below we have picked out 8 bivvy lights that we would happily recommend to you for all your fishing bivvy illumination needs and to make sure you have the best bivvy setup.
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Best Bivvy Lights
1. Ridge Monkey Bivvy Light Pro IR Lite Li-ion Battery
First up on our best bivvy light list, we have this very practical and stylish Ridgemonkey bivvy lite. The brand has already established itself as an innovator when it comes to tackle options. Therefore, it should come as no real surprise that their lighting options for bivvies would be to the same standard with regards to the design, battery light and reliability.
The Pro IR is one of the best on the market and certainly a popular item. Unlike many traditional bivvy lights, that are often just white light and a red light, you have the choice of three different colours, including the rather fetching green.
Everything on this light can be controlled at the touch of a button, on the handy remote control. This means that you can switch the light on or off as need be even when it’s out of arm’s reach when you are relaxing in your bed chair.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery that powers the Elite IR provides 180 hours of battery life, which means you will get a full week out of it before needing to recharge it. given that it is dust and waterproof to a high standard and features magnetic fittings for versatile and flexible setup wherever you need it in your bivvy, it’s hard to argue with the many industry experts and anglers who consider the Ridgemonkey bivvy lite to be the best option.
2. Fox Halo Bivvy Light
Second, on our best bivvy light list is a light from Fox, who is another well-known brand in the carping and angling community and their Halo bivvy light is another shining example of their commitment to designing and producing accessories that are as easy to use as they are effective. With it, you get the benefit of four adjustable brightness settings and incredibly compact design.
As it comes with a magnetic base plate and a hook you can hang it up where you need it inside your carp fishing bivvy, keeping it off the ground and out of your way. One of its best qualities is in the illumination it provides. Thanks to the 9 x Samsung LED lights housed inside it, you will get the benefit of exceptionally bright light, especially from such a small accessory.
It is particularly useful on the outside of your bivvy when you need to have as clear a view as the surrounding area. When you are about to land a beautiful carp, for instance. Although it has been designed for around 7-hours on a single charge, you may be able to get more time out of it if you are careful to only use it when you really need it.
3. New Direction Tackle Bluetooth Smart Bivvy Light and Power Cell
If you are looking for something as equally compact and lightweight as the two, we’ve already covered, but with a more cutting-edge and technologically advanced edge, then look no further than the New Direction Tackle Bluetooth smart bivvy light. This connects up to your smartphone using Bluetooth and allows you full control over it via the easy to use a smartphone app which means you won’t need a separate remote control.
From the app, you can alter the colour of the light and the mode you need to use. It is reported by the manufacturer that the light offers more than 16-million colours. We are sceptical, but there is definitely a wide range of shades and hues to choose from.
The best mode is reading mode as that provides a consistent and bright light which is ideal when you are trying to tie rigs up at the darkest point in the night or morning. Do you have a K9 bite alarm from New Direction Tackle? This light can be linked up to that particular alarm to illuminate when you get a bite, making it much easier to deal with those tense moments.
As well as providing all the light you need inside your bivvy, this light also provides a practical solution to the problem of your smartphone losing its charge during a busy night.
As you’d expect and hope, this light is also waterproof, to the IP-65 rating.
4. Mergerled 2-in-1 USB Rechargeable Camping Lantern
Next on our best bivvy light, we have from a company called Mergerled, a waterproof rechargeable LED lantern that also doubles as a power bar for charging your devices when they start to run low. It features a handy hook that allows you to attach it anywhere you need it and only weighs 280g so is unlikely to affect the structural integrity of your carp fishing bivvy.
When you use the light with a brightness of just 200-lumens it will last for up to 100 hours. Even if you have the light settings set to 280 or 440 lumens, it will still last a respectable 88 or 28 hours respectively. Easy to use and features a strobe light function that’s perfect if you find yourself in a spot of bother.
5. Rolson LED Lamp with Hook and Magnet
While this is hardly the most sophisticated bivvy light in our guide, the price tag is what makes it so attractive. That and the 24 super-bright LEDs contained inside it for an adequate bivvy lighting solution for anglers on a tight budget. We also think it’s worth pointing out that while we would not normally recommend such low priced items, especially when it’s something as crucial as a bivvy light, the fact it’s manufactured by Rolson Tools convinces us that it wouldn’t be throwing good money for bad investing in this.
Easy to use and easy to attach just about anywhere, this is a no-fuss option if you don’t really want or need anything too fancy or need a bargain lighting option.
6. Trakker Nitelife Bivvy Light
From an extremely simplistic design to a more sophisticated light on the market, the next product we want to discuss is the Nitelife Bivvy Light 150. This offers a total of 6 different light settings and provides illumination for a total of 80 hours. As is standard with many of the best bivvy lights we’ve featured, it also doubles up as a power bank, so you will never be caught short if your smartphone or tablet loses charge.
It is relatively simple to use – it has a push button to go through the different brightness levels of the colour lights. The light has been designed to be less attractive to moths and mosquitos, which will make time in your bivvy more comfortable.
To set it up in your bivvy, there is a specially designed and very sturdy steel backing plate that works in conjunction with two very strong magnets. This enables you to fit it directly to the fabric of the bivvy.
7. NGT Rechargeable Bivvy Tent Light and Power Bank with Free Headtorch
This bivvy lighting solution from the company is a relatively low-priced affair that offers a suitable amount of adjustable brightness, has magnetic fittings and functions as a power bank, just as the other more expensive models do.
Although on the basic side, we also love the fact that for the price of some single lights, you also get a free headtorch. Perfect for when you need to leave the comfort of your bivvy to assess the swim and check your rods and baits.
8. ThorFire Mini LED Folding Portable Rechargeable by Crank Lantern and USB
We can’t say we are completely enamoured by the colour, but this portable rechargeable bivvy light is a great product to invest in. Thanks to its ingenious design it can be extended out to function as a camping lantern inside the bivvy or can be folded down into a focused and powerful flashlight for when you need to leave the shelter and check the swim.
We also love the fact it weighs just 5.8-ounces and can fit snugly into any spare pocket you have. Okay, so you might not like the idea of having to turn the crank to start the light, but that’s why it offers the option of recharging it via the USB cable or by hand. It offers two brightness levels, low and high and is one of our favourites of the bivvy lights we have looked at for this post.
Things to Consider (Buyers Guide)
Brightness Settings
Some of the lights above will have different brightness settings and not just have a standard on or off mode.
You want to look for a light that has a few light settings so that you can choose if you want it on full brightness or perhaps slightly dimmed which is especially good for the evening when it’s not fully dark.
Some bivvy lights even come in different colours such as green or red. While we are not sure about this it all depends on your own personal preference.
Something else to consider to adjust the brightness settings is a remote control. Some lights do come with a remote control but this is likely to bump up the cost of the product.
Battery Type and Battery Life
Do you want a rechargeable one? Or do you want one that uses standard AA batteries that you can get in your local supermarket or Poundland. Personally, we prefer the rechargeable ones as it means bringing spare batteries is just one less thing to worry about.
If you have a power bank with you, like many overnight carp anglers will then you can charge up your light. Also, who wants to arrive at their carp fishing venue only to realise their batteries are low or have run out of charge.
Run Time
A bivvy light should be able to last at least one full night without being charged. This means that you can then charge it in the day when its not needed. I prefer to look for one that’s going to last a good few nights as its less thing to think about.
Size
Size matters, right? Well, no, we prefer a smaller light so that its easy to fit inside your bag as you are likely going to already have a ton of gear. However, its a trade off, the smaller the size of the bivvy light, the smaller the battery is likely to be. You also need to think about how space they will take up inside your bivvy.
Water Resistance
You want to check the waterproof rating of each light. Inside the bivvy and being near a lake means that there’s a good chance your light might end up getting covered in water.
Head Torches
Don’t forget that as well as a bivvy light you will need a head torch
Conclusion
There you have it, folks, the choice is yours. Although we wouldn’t like to say which we think is the best, you can be sure that we have been careful when picking out the products so that you only have a selection of high-quality bivvy lights to choose from. There are definitely no duffs here!
If you have any suggestions on the lights we have covered, please leave a comment below.
Mike has over 30 years of fishing experience in carp fishing and general coarse fishing. He is always looking for the latest fishing kit to try out and talk about and needs a bigger shed due to all the fishing tackle he owns. You can read more about him here.