First off this could pertain to literally any kind of night fishing. Catfishing, crappie, bass, trout and walleye. I just see it the most on the Mississippi because it’s a popular place to fish.
You notice flashes of light from another fishing boat, could be close, could be on the other side of the river. The intermittent flashes alternate between mildly distracting to nearly blinding at times. And then you realize, the boat full of greenhorns is fishing near you 
. In their excitement to gear up the entire boat bought matching ultra high power headlamps that run on one point twenty one jigawatts! Sometimes fish in the vicinity of their boat actually switch back to a daytime pattern due to increased light-levels. When someone hooks a fish watch out! The entire boat turns into a strobe light that has the possibility of inducing an epileptic seizure. How they don’t blind each other remains a mystery to all the seasoned night fishermen. Apparently they haven’t figured out that many headlamps have a red or green light feature that allows you to see what you’re doing and not cause blindness to anyone in the near vicinity. One last thing, I’ve seen nights where the moon is so bright you could read a newspaper by it or tie up a new jig, but this has no deterrence on the gung-ho river rookie. Often he leaves his headlamp on the entire night regardless. Don’t worry you nighttime novice, there’s still hope. Tone down your headlamp, it’ll be good for everyone, you most of all.
