First off let me tell you that I wasn’t thinking about a new headlamp for my lure fishing for bass at night (or running or early morning winter dog walks etc.). A few years ago I found what to me is the perfect headlamp in the Nitecore NU25 which I see is now up to around the £50 pricepoint here in the UK (review here). This little thing is so small and light that it permanently lives in my fishing rucksack and I only take it out to use it or charge it. I know it’s always there so I don’t need to think about taking a headlamp if I might need one. I also have a second Nitecore NU25 which I use for running and dog walking.
But when a good angler I know and who does a lot of night fishing tells me about a very good little headlamp that he has and loves, and which offers a few different features to the little Nitecore NU25, I had to check it out. So here we have the slightly larger Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp at roughly double the price of my Nitecore NU25. The Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp is a rechargeable headlamp that offers various red and white light settings, and in fact it’s the red light settings which are arguably the most interesting thing about it. For comparison purposes the Nitecore NU25 weighs a miserable 57g and the Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp weighs a still pretty miserly 146g with the removable rechargeable battery in it. I literally do not realise I am wearing the Nitecore, whereas I do know when I am wearing this Fenix - albeit it’s not in the least bit bothersome. I only really notice the little bit of extra weight/bulk because I am so used to the minimalist design of the Nitecore NU25 I might add. Here a bunch of details from the Fenix website:
Spotlight mode:
Eco: 50 lumens (40 hrs) - 34m beam
Low: 150 lumens (14 hrs) - 58m beam
Med: 400 lumens (6 hrs) - 95m beam
High: 600 lumens (3 hrs) - 117m beam
Turbo: 1200 lumens (2 hrs) - 168m beam
Red floodlight mode:
Low: 5 lumens (120 hrs) - 6m beam
Med: 25 lumens (28 hrs) - 12m beam
High: 85 lumens (10 hrs) - 22m beam
Turbo: 150 lumens (4.5 hrs) - 30m beam
Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp features:
4 non dimming brightness levels of 50 lm (40 hrs), 150 lm (14 hrs), 400 lm (6 hrs), 600 lm (3 hrs)
Continuous Turbo output: 1200 lm (20 mins) dropping to 800 lm (1 hr 40 mins)
4 Red Floodlight non dimming brightness levels of 5 lm (120 hrs), 25 lm (28 hrs), 85 lm (10 hrs) and 150 lm (4.5 hrs)
Individual switches for each beam control on / off and brightness
Charges in just 3 hours from a 5v 2A mains USB adapter (not supplied)
Ergonomic headlamp holder for comfort during long periods of use
Hollow headband structure - breathable for comfort during long periods of use
Headband silicon strips keep sweat out of your eyes during intense activity
Low level main beam and Mid level red flood output can be used whilst charging
Fits into Fenix compact APB-20 headlamp storage case (only just) and APB-30 headlamp storage case
What I am not going to get into here is whether bass spook or don’t spook with white or red lights at night. The simple fact is that I don’t have the answers and literally every single angler thinks differently about it, or can come up with various scenarios that completely contradict what the next angler says. Let’s come at it from our point of view then, as in what’s this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp like to use. My experiences with it so far are based upon knowing the little Nitecore NU25 so well, a lot of early morning dog walks in the dark, and then some night and early morning fishing we did in Guernsey the other day. I know enough about this Fenix headlamp by now to give you my thoughts.
There are five different white light modes/intensities and four different red light modes/intensities on this Fenix. I wouldn’t even entertain using a headlamp which used only the one button for both red and white lights, so I really like how the red light button is on the left and the separate white light button is on the right on top of the unit - which I might add is very adjustable and sits perfectly on my big head with or without a hat. A short press on either button gives you the battery level, a long press on both buttons simultaneously locks the headlamp so it can’t turn on accidentally in your rucksack for example (do the same to unlock it), and when the headlamp is unlocked you need to press and hold either the red or white light buttons for what feels like one second to get your chosen light to turn on. And the same to turn the light off - press and hold for a second.
I love how the headlamp “remembers” your previous setting whichever colour light you go for. I like the LOW white light setting for example when I am dog walking and the headlamp remembers this which means I am not having to cycle through the five different white light modes. The TURBO white light setting is ridiculously bright and I could see it being useful if something went wrong and your mate ended up in the water or something terrible like that, but for everyday fishing I can’t see the need for the brightest two white light settings. My wife and I hear a lot of tawny owls when we are walking Storm early in the morning, and I actually managed to spot one in the trees the other day with the TURBO white light setting. It’s seriously bright!
It’s the different red light settings on this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp which are of most interest to me, and especially because the red light on my little Nitecore NU25 headlamp is not very bright and all I really use it for is changing lures when I am fishing. I don’t feel particularly safe moving across rough ground with the Nitecore’s red light so I will tend to turn to the dimmest white light setting for moving around on rocks especially. On a beach or some flat surface like that it’s fine I might add.
I am not getting into a discussion on red and white lights for ninja bass fishing and potentially spooking fish etc., but I am going to assume that most bass anglers are going to be actually doing their fishing with no headlamp on. For sure you might turn it on for changing lures or landing fish or moving around, but when you are actually casting and retrieving I assume you are like me - ninja. Which in turn means that your eyes are really adjusting to the dark as you gain as much night vision as possible.
And what happens the moment you turn a white light on at night? You kill your accumulated night vision therefore your eyes have to start readjusting all over again when you turn the headlamp off and get back to fishing. For some reason a red light doesn’t ruin your night vision though, but with my perfect little Nitecore NU25 I can’t actually do a huge amount with the (pretty dim) red light on it. I hadn’t thought that much about this until the angler I know was raving about how bright the brighter red light settings are on this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp.
So bass spooking or not spooking aside, you can actually do everything you need to do when you are lure fishing at night with the four different red light settings on this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp. The TURBO red light setting is properly bright and I can very easily move around over the sort of properly treacherous ground we were fishing at times over in Guernsey for example. This TURBO red light setting is only giving you a quoted 4.5 hours of run time, but you’re not going to have your headlamp on all the time when you are bass fishing anyway - not like I tended to do when I was bait fishing - and you could always buy a spare Fenix 18650 rechargeable battery and keep it in your rucksack or bag or indeed jacket pocket. If you go the spare battery route, I like how you can buy a couple of different Fenix 18650 rechargeable batteries with inbuilt USB-C charging ports. This saves you needing to buy their battery charger. If I am going to switch over to using this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp more and more for any night fishing I might do, to be honest I will continue to leave my little Nitecore NU25 headlamp in my rucksack just in case I had forgotten to charge the Fenix and I ran out of light. Very unlikely I might add, but it’s no hassle to keep the Nitecore in the rucksack. Handy as well when your mate hasn’t clicked that you might be fishing into dark and didn’t bring a headlamp.
To be honest I can do what I need to do when I am night fishing on the third red light setting - HIGH - and the second MED setting is fine for changing lures and so on. But I am really liking the TURBO red light setting because it’s so good for moving around and I am not having to use the different white light settings when I am actually fishing (bass spooking or not spooking aside again). By all means get to and from your fishing spot on the white light(s) if you want to, but why not then start building up your night vision AND protect it while you are fishing by using only the different red light settings on this rather clever Fenix?
Which in turn is leading me down the road of seriously falling for this rather awesome Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp. For sure it’s a little bit heavier and bulkier than my beloved little Nitecore NU25, but give me five minutes of wearing this Fenix and it feels completely normal. I think back to the days of those great big headlamps and batteries with the expensive halogen bulbs which blew if you simply looked at them wrong, and now I look at headlamps like this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp and I can’t believe how much things have come on. Around £100 might seem like a decent bit of money to spend on a headlamp, but if you are into night lure fishing, or indeed any kind of night fishing, I can’t do it without a headlamp - and I would rather that headlamp be something pretty damn good like this Fenix HM65R ShadowMaster headlamp. You all have a good weekend, let’s hope that this storm passes through without doing too much damage…………
Disclosure - if you buy anything using links found in this blog post or around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.