Try to use a flashlight to tie a fishing knot at night and you’ve got a problem.

The light must go in your mouth, under your chin, between your legs, perched on a rock or some such place to free both hands.

Or turn on a flashlight and start shining it around a popular nighttime fishing haunt, and you’re likely to get an earful.

“Hey, you newbie!” nearby anglers might yell. “You’re scaring away all the fish!”

And they’ll have a point.

So headlamps became popular with nighttime anglers a long time ago, because the anglers needed to free both hands.

And they started using red lenses to cut down on the amount of light, both to help avoid scaring fish and to retain night vision.

Petzl, a company that began making caving equipment and then expanded its products to other outdoor sports, industrial uses and rescue gear, manufactures a number of different headlamps, including ones with red lenses, that are handy for fishing.

The headlamps, with LED lights, come with a modular mounting system for mounting on a headband, jacket or a special clip to attach to a rigid surface like a boat helm.

Some of the more useful models for fishing include these two:

Tactikka XP

The Tactikka XP’s features include:

• Transparent, red, green, and blue lenses that are interchangeable
• A self-contained carrier for the unused lenses
• Three lighting levels: maximum, optimum and economic
• A flood beam or wide-angle lens to help make lighting discreet
• A spot beam to shine up to
  35 feet
• Boost mode that shines 50 meters for 20 seconds
• Strobe mode
• A battery level indicator, warning when the batteries are 70 percent and 90 percent discharged

The headband is available in forest-camouflage or desert color. Powered by three AAA lithium batteries--lighter weight and longer lasting than alkaline batteries--the lamp is water resistant for all-weather use. It weighs 95 grams with the batteries and comes with a 3-year guarantee.

Tactikka Plus

The Tactikka Plus includes:

• A flip filter for easy switching between white and red light
• A flood beam for discreet lighting and a long burn time
• A beam that can be easily aimed where needed
• And strobe mode

The headband is available in black or camouflage. Operating on three AAA lithium batteries, the lamp is water resistant for all-weather use. The Tactikka Plus weighs 78 grams including batteries and comes with a 3-year guarantee.

Petzl Headlamps are available at a number of stores throughout New Jersey or through various mail-order catalogs.

For more info, including about more headlamps, or to locate a dealer, visit the Petzl web site.