Float Tubes

[btree]

I like my tube for many of the same reasons as Btree, and I have also experimented, successfully, and not so successfully with whizzing mid-lake. I do prefer my 10 foot inflatable though.

hehehe, nice. I too have taken the mid-lake wizz...kinda peed on my boat a bit...ok a lot, but it was well worth it! I also am adept at getting out of my belly boat mid lake and getting into a 12' tin boat for a ride home, or visa versa, getting dropped off at a good spot and dropping into my belly boat mid lake out of a tin boat.

Very handy to have a brother who likes to troll the hardware to drop me off at a remote shoal for the evening, and he usually remembers to pick me up after too

Certainly there are draw backs to the tube, but in water that I know well, I'd pick my tube ~90% of the time, unless I knew sight fishing was required.

In new water, or if it's a fishing/drinking with my buddies trip, I'd go with a boat.

[Doubletap]

I started with a float tube (the venerable Trophy XL) and loved it - though I had nothing to compare it to. It sure was a slow mode of transport, though! And didn't it always seem that the wind would come up at your back when you finally got down to the far end of the lake?

A few tin boats were added over the years - though I found I don't really like fly fishing from an aluminum boat. They're handy when I'm taking a non-fisher out, though - and for those times I would rather drop a big Tomic on a downrigger for big winter trout (heresy, I know - ha ha!). There are now two 12' tinnys and a skookum 14 footer in the sideyard ('cause can one really have too many boats?).

I bought one of the first Fishcat 8' pontoon boats, when they first came out. Wow - that was an upgrade! I rigged it with a couple of fly rod holders and thought nothing of rowing it 5 or more miles to get where I wanted to fish.
However, I came to realize that I preferred to cast, rather than troll (difficult to do while using oars) - so the search for the right boat continued.

Two years ago I picked up a secondhand FishCat V boat - and have found it to be as close to the perfect fly fishing boat as I have yet tried. It can cover water quickly and with a minimum of effort (using Force fins) - yet still be slowed down and maneuvered precisely, even in a brisk wind. I really like it - and use it for 90% of the stillwater fishing I do, now.


But yeah - I remember those first few seasons in the Trophy float tube fondly.

[crazy_fishcreature]

i have a fishcat v boat and i love it.

[Zane]

I have a super fat cat v boat and it is the cats ass for ease of access, portability and storage, not to mention that it is extremely maneuverable. I take it with me all the time as a backup for my pontoon. I mostly use it for hike in lakes or for buddies who happen to be gearless. I had a belly boat once (in fact I still have it) and the comparison to a vee boat is like a bike to a car. All that being said, anything that gets you out on the water is going to improve your fishing experience. When we were kids we used to build rafts and then we experimented with inner tubes, but that's another story.

[b_man360]

i got a gift card to get a float tube with for christmas and ended up getting this

it was cheep but it seems to be pretty good quality. its got lots of clips on it that i can clip stuff to like my net, and lots of storrage.
i also picked up a cheep canoe so i can use the canoe for travling on bigger lakes and the float tube for fishing once i get to my destination.

[bobert]

Float tubes are my favorite method of fishing, bar none. Something about not only being "on" the water, but "in" the water, and silent stalking the shoals and shorelines with a leach or scud right on the edge of an underwater weed bed just gets to me. You don't cover as much water as trolling with an electric motor and boat for sure, but the water you do cover, you cover extremely well.

I prefer the older and cheaper "tube" boats versus the U/V style boats. I find that having most of my body right in the water and a low profile really keeps me from being blown about by the wind, and I like having the tube in front of me, I can lean forward and rest on my elbows while fishing, or lean forward, bend my knees kick, and go forward while facing forwards while fishing. At a hare over 5lbs, the cheap-o dragonfly float tube is just about the lightest and inexpensive personal fishing watercraft you can buy; it's light weight and small packed size make it a breeze to hike in to lakes.

Once I was night fishing on a large lake near Smithers with another angler in a canoe. It was a full, bright moon on a very clear calm night, as the night wore on, a layer of mist settled on the lake and I lost sight of the canoe and camp; it was very eerie. I started to fish my way back to camp when suddenly, KERSPLASH! a huge splash 3 meters besides me. It was a beaver that I had startled and I slapped it's tail on the water. Did I ever high tail it out of there.

Last summer on a small lake in the interior, was fishing, catching mainly small rainbows, when a large loon wanted in on the fun and torpedoed the fish I was landing by swimming between my feet and popping up right in front of me. The loon did that maneuver a few times, always staying behind me in my blind spot, and then coming out of nowhere between my legs. Sure did scare me every time it happened, I am probably not the first angler he has snaked a few easy meals from.

[Zane]

Almost had the crap scared outa me last year when 3 loons all decided that they wanted my fish, at the SAME time. While i was watching 2 come from the 10 and 2 oclock positions the 3rd one went between my legs from behind, and I could feel him go by. Nervy buggers.

[Dostegrar]

I just bought a bucks bag hi & dri II belly boat. I have not used it yet. I have never been in one. I had an outcast prowler float tube but sold it when i got my pontoon boat. I liked it, but felt the pontoon was a good replacement for big and small lakes, because i could also row when i need too. Problem is its too hard too pack in, which is why i got the belly boat. I am really looking forward to trying it. Any suggestions from experienced belly boaters on what i should and shouldn't do to make the belly boating experience a good one??
PEE-ESS; Pontoon boat #1 emergencies- Feet on stirrups, arch your back against seat to pull down your pants and waders far enough, then grab your section of tubing you bought from Home depot, one end over the water...you get the picture. Comes in many different diameters, and they will cut it to length.(be honest when sizing).