If you do a lot of night fishin’ like we do around here, you’re gonna’ have to have a flashlight that you can depend on. Our choice here at MVF is the Mini-Mag from Maglite. This little flashlight runs on 2 AA batteries that have lasted me an entire year now and utilizes a single LED bulb that, for all intents and purposes, never needs replacing. Not bad for around $25.
The Mini-Mag comes with a sheath that goes on your belt, is shock and water resistant and is just plain bright for how small it is. We have used it many times to survey the lake after sunset for where to put our lures. The Mini’s beam can be focused so that you will be able to see your target 60 to 70 yards out. On top of that, when you’re using it for close in work, it doesn’t distort colors the way some other flashlights do.
If you’ve never used a Mag before, the operation is simple. You just turn the top of the flashlight clockwise to turn it on and change the intensity of the beam, counter-clockwise to turn it off. It’s one of those tools that we all take for granted when we get a good one that performs the way it is supposed to.
We have the Mini-Mag with us every time we plan to fish after dark and I can’t tell you how invaluable it has been. There really isn’t, in my opinion, anything quite like night fishin’. The problem comes because us human critters just seem to function better during the day. This includes doing simple things like taking the hook out of a fishes mouth or changing a lure or tying a knot or finding something that you accidentally dropped. Maybe I’m unique in this area but the fact is that during the day, I’m much better at doing those things than at night.
Besides the aforementioned advantages to having the Mini-Mag, there have been times where it has come in handy for some unexpected surprises. Not the least of which is the night that I managed to catch an owl, or he managed to catch me, whatever the case was. Without my Mini-Mag, things could have ended very differently. I’ll just leave that one to your imagination and if you’ve never heard the full story, or follow that link and read about that adventure!
This is not to say that the only purpose for the Mini-Mag is fishing, but I can’t think of a better one, can you?!
See ya’ on the water …
