MacDaddy LED Shrimping Light Review

MacDaddy “Mega” Shrimp Light

MacDaddy LED shrimping Light Review has been written because this light has been bootlegged, ripped off and copied in 2013, 8 months after this light went viral in the market place.

It is important you understand the features innovated by LumaSea Underwater lighting. The first company to engineer the 3 mode hybrid green and white shrimping light.

The knock-off light has a solid black cord, and does not have the in line fuses, their LED’s are stock parts, the MacDaddy LED strips have been custom made for the reasons you will read about.

The highest tech shrimp light on the market. This light came on the market in Feb 2013, and changed the sport by giving us several different light modes built into a single light. The consumers embraced this light and this light set the bar with features that resulted in higher pulls.

This was the first hybrid shrimp light which gave you 3 light modes (all white, all green or fire off the green and white LED’s at the same time). First light to be constructed giving us 3 battery terminal clips (2 positives, 1 negative). Beware, this two color LED strip light has been copied by other light builders, the MacDaddy is so superior other builders have copied this light. The MacDaddy has built in-line fuses, the copycats do not. The MacDaddy has over 2 years of immersed water testing, the copycats have no saltwater time.

Background:

The founding of the Academy in 2010 became a bridge to bring people and innovation under one roof. Over the last decade and a half we have evolved our shrimp light from:

Halogen
Fluorescent
LED

History Of Shrimplights

ISAA.CC is a shrimping club in Central Florida ($35/yr) and was founded in 2000. The Nelson Brothers (Don and Ron) developed the 4 foot long fluorescent green light. It stood 5 foot tall. Pete Wehner joined this ISAA club and went on to improve this fluorescent light. In 2010, Mr. Wehner innovated the first LED shrimp light with 60 green LED’s (14.4 watt, 1.2 amps) . This light known as the LEDGreenie set the bar and changed the world of shrimping. The Academy awarded Pete Wehner, a life time achievement award for bringing the shrimp light into the world of LED technology. However, his light failed to evolve once released in 2010 and in 2013 a new company (LumaSea Underwater Lighting) came on the market and advanced the LED light into a new generation. The first hybrid shrimping light to offer 3 modes (all green, all white or fire off both strips for a green/white color). The light is designed NOT to wash out the green color when the white strip is fired off in combo.

LumaSea will be awarded the coveted Academy Of Shrimping 2014 Lifetime Achievement award for advancing the shrimp light to the next generation light (hybrid) using a white and green LED strip together in 1 light.

Why does LED have advantages?

Battery friendly
No bulb to break
Rated for tens of thousands of hours of illumination
Manipulate/herding shrimp into your nets using light (winter shrimp hate light)
Rugged and able to with stand impacts when deployed

The LED light was game changing when we could use physics and and take a fact “shrimp hate light” and use light to manipulate the shrimp. As we dialed into the perfect technique, we have shared the “How To’s” with thousands of anglers so that they can go home with their lion share of the shrimp. Capt Lee went on tour all through Central Florida teaching how to get the highest harvest using the science & physics behind LED spiral designed lights.

Bottom Light Compact

The LEDgreenie light (larger one in photo) dominated the market as the King of lights from March 2010 – Feb 2013. The LEDGreenie light over 3 years did not evolve after the initial launch in 2010, the innovation and advancement of this technology went stale.

Feb 2013 LumaSea introduced the 2nd generation of shrimp lights known as the MacDaddy series, a series of 4 products to choose from. The MacDaddy value light (60 green led) is the smaller one in the picture to the right. The picture is meant to show you how slim and compact the MacDaddy light is compared to the first generation LED light LEDGreenie. MacDaddy line being more compact with perfect balance of buoyancy and visibility.

The emergence of the MacDaddy light in Feb 2013 caused the LEDGreenie builder to discontinue their old flagship green only light as seen on the right. They went on to study the MacDaddy light and adopt the MacDaddy as their model for their new product line which has disappointed the industry. We expected them to innovate and not imitate.

The LEDgreenie (larger one inpicture) was basically a 60 green strip light (14.4 watts) that weighed 3lbs. The price never fell below $130. Consumers wanted more from this product and were promised a LEDGreenie Pro hybrid model which never came to market. Consumers wanted the ability to have both green and white LED’s in the same light. LEDgreenie sent out emails to some Academy members stating this type of light was not coming to market. They stated they did not believe in the green and white mode and recommended we save our money. Now, October 2013, LEDGreenie are selling their version of the MacDaddy light sporting both green and white LED’s. BUT, this light went from work bench to consumer without extensive testing of their 43 watt light strip.

There comes a point where you can over power the water with TOO MUCH light. Their needs to be a balance between light and productivity.

MacDaddy has and remains in testing research and development. LumaSea is weekly monitoring lights they have had submerged for over 2 years, burning the LED 12 hours a day. Extensive testing is what lead to the design of the MacDaddy which is roughly 2″ by 10″ or 2″ by 12″ depending on the model, and does not exceed 26 watts in the GW 60/60 model (120 LED), and 36 watts for those who want the strongest light LumaSea mass produces. LumaSea built these lights with a balance of strong LED performance within manufacture recommendations (LED makers/Japan) and keeping the light battery friendly. The white strip was designed to be weaker so as to not overpower the green.

LEDGreenie’s 43 watt light is almost as strong as a halogen star fire sold at Walmart for $20 (50 watts). This is a case where more is NOT better in my opinion, and our sport does not need to be buying dimmer accessories $100 which this light offers to tone down the 43 watts. LumaSea has submerged lights that are high watt, and in year 2, these high watt lights are burning out LED’s. There is not enough testing available on a 43 watt light to risk spending $150. The light has seen NO saltwater, and is being sold without months of extensive testing. As I mentioned, a shrimp light has to find balance, and this is where the MacDaddy shines over all competition.

MacDaddy Shrimp Lights

LumaSea Underwater Lighting LLC, a Florida corporation has decades of experience in electrical engineering. Their specialty is LED build outs for emergency response vehicles (ambulance etc).

LumaSea gave me 4 different MacDaddy lights to try. Remember, I came from the shrimping world where we had 1 green 14.4 watt 60 LED light to choose from (LEDGreenie) to now be given 4 different LED shrimp lights built for different applications (3 modes, 120-150 LED). I could make the MacDaddy a 14.4 watt Green light, or 13 watt white light, or fire off both colors at the same time (28 watt light)

Capt Lee Takes MacDaddy Light Shrimping

MacDaddy Shrimp Light

From Feb to May, 2013, Oak Hill was exceptionally dirty water….visibility plagued the members of my website and it complicated our evenings where we could not see very deep. There were tons of grass and all kinds of debris. The water temp was running warmer and the bait fish were swirling the lights causing a black out.

These are throw the towel in conditions. I cannot remember a year as “dirty” as this year was with the water temperatures to warm for this time of year. I threw my LEDGreenie (Old Faithful) and I felt the deployment failed probably due to my battery not performing well, the water was dim and not bright enough to dip.

Pulled in the LEDGreenie shrimp light to find the light was totally functional and all 60 LED’s were lit. I deployed the light higher in the water column and the water was still dim. Tonight was not going to be a night I am going to stay and tough it out.The water is to dirty, and I cannot set a light deep enough, I am calling it quits and leaving.

Changed my mind, and decided to throw the MacDaddy GW 60/60 light (6o white led, 60 green led). The MacDaddy all green mode casted the same dim issues I had with the LEDGreenie and I could not see the shrimp well. I switched the MacDaddy to the 60 led all white mode, and it was a better but still irritated me because it was a white light syndrome. What the heck, I piggy backed the two positives and fired off both the led strips and OMG…I could see! I was able to see shrimp in the filthiest of water using the green and white strip at the same time for a total of 120 LED’s. This combo I could stare at and it quite soothing on the eyes. It was a greenie white color.

MacDaddy Shrimp Light

I put my GW 75/75 MacDaddy together (added a rope and weight) and deployed this as my 2nd light. The difference between the GW 60/60 and the GW 75/75 is the number of LED’s on the strip. The “GW” means the light contains both green and white strips, and the number is how many LED’s are on each strip. The 75/75 also has 3 modes (all white, all green or green/white), you can use just 75 LED’s or fire off both strips for 150 LED’s. What did I do? I fired off 150 LED’s in the green/white mode. The amount of shrimp in my light field was amazing. My 3rd light was GG 75/75 which is 2 green strips with 75 LED per strip, and my 4th light was the MacDaddy Value Mac which was just a 60 LED green strip light that I used to herd the shrimp into my frame net. Just 15 minutes later, I had the 4 MacDaddy lights in the water I was given to try.

My LEDgreenie’s went up for sale in classifieds the next day, I became a MacDaddy girl and went on to pull my 5 gallons on a night I was about to call quits and leave due to filthy water.

The MacDaddy is the new generation shrimp light which will continue to evolve to give us the advantage. Competition is good for the consumer. The MacDaddy shrimp light stepped up and evolved the single function LED shrimp light into a multi mode shrimp light. The consumers no longer wanted a single mode light, and LumaSea went into the history books bringing the first hybrid shrimp light to the market.

MacDaddy Light Features

Light can be all white, all green or fire both green and white strips at same time
Brass clips, and LumaSea will replace if corrode bad & solder on for you!
The MacDaddy size is more compact than the older LEDgreenie light, and half the weight.
The materials are machined vs built from stock parts, hence streamlining the design
MacDaddy is the first light to include in-line 5 amp fuses on the positive wires.
First shrimp light released in the market place giving you 3 lighting options.
Any other light that can make this claim has copied the MacDaddy
5 year warranty, warranty NOT voided if you change the wire terminal clips. LEDgreenie voids warranty
Several shrimplight products in the MacDaddy series. Below are the popular 3 models.
Debuted at March 2013, and took the market by storm at the end of the season.
My official gear after 3 years of of throwing LEDGreenie lights.

UPDATE:

The MacDaddy found the balance between battery friendly and performance (buoyancy and visibility), anyone can install any watt strip but LumaSea chose their specs for a reason. These high watt lights from other light builders create a lot of heat. For 3 years we have been happy with a 14.4 watt green 60 LED light. MacDaddy introduced a light that can be a 14.4 watt all green 60 LED light , a 12.6 watt 60 LED white light only, or a green/white light (26 watts) for 120 LED all in a single light. This 2nd generation light changed our sport last February 2013. Most important, these lights are battery friendly, do not require a $100 dimmer, and give you all the light you need to see the shrimp and NOT drive them away from your boat.

Buyer ware of MacDaddy clones, if there are 3 battery clips on a light your looking at, ask about the watts, if its 43 watts, it is a clone. Ensure the light has a built in 5 amp blade fuses, the clones do not have this feature.

Authenic MacDaddy Light – How To Tell

Brass battery clips as of Oct 2013
Red & Black cord
Call Capt. Lee to purchase direct (386)479-4175
See Capt Lee Oak Hill Flea Market Nov 3-May “Marker 69” Booth, We Accept CC
On NORTH side of the flea market out back, Captain Lee is wearing Fishing shirt with Capt bars.
Marker 69 stocks the MacDaddy series, ships and delivers
Attend FREE shrimping seminars, Follow Capt Lee Tour Schedule dates at LeeNoga.com, Equipment sold at seminars

MacDaddy Shrimp Light Specifications and Details:

Please click this link and go to our Marker 69 local store which will give you all the lumens, watts, prices and details. Click here —> Marker 69 Local Store