I had one similar for checking beaver traps... I would pull up on the bridge and shine it down at my set location. It was bright enough to illuminate the trap under the water. If the trap was there and undisturbed I went on. If it was gone you could shine out along the path of the drowner rod and sometimes see the dark shape of a dead beaver underwater.
Didn't work with ice on the water though... You would have to walk down and break the ice and check. But our beaver don't move much with hard water and usually waited a day or 3 till it would thaw out.
Mike
That's a chargeable offense in Alabama. Illegal to shine a light from a roadway.
Might possibly be here too... But I would take the ticket and fight it.
Can't see much difference between that and angling my vehicle to shine my headlights at a set location. Heck, I've left the truck running and used the headlights to illuminate a set while I checked it.
I get the reasoning... But there's a difference between catching poachers and finding retarded reasons to issue citations... of course we are talking about government employees. So there's that to consider.
Mike