Float Tubes

[Woolybugger]

Anybody use them for warmwater / coldwater fish? In the Susquehanna, many times I've fished in a jet and a prop boat........ great for spin or casting, but terrible for a fly rod!

I'm thinking a float tube would be "Nirvana" with a fly rod. Especially with two or more longrodders! A car could be left at the takeout while another car could go upstream a couple miles to start the wonderful long rod journey.

Also lakes, Pinchoh or Opossum, would be nice to fish from a float tube.

I like to fish slow with a flyrod. I'm thinking the slow downstream drift and stopping where you want would be wonderful with a float tube.

I've never got a thrill out of tossing a big heavy tube or spinnerbait with heavy tackle and heavy line while sitting in a bass boat. LOL

What do you guys think? Anybody float tube?

PS - "Sicko" is now available on a DVD! Maybe the best movie I ever saw...... great insight on what's going on!

 

[jayL]

I'm not a conservative, but Michael Moore is a scumbag propaganda artist. I swear, if he could change his views a bit, he'd be perfect for the Bush administration. That is the only comment I'm willing to make on that.

Otherwise, I've been considering getting a float tube and look forward to hearing the comments!

 

[RLeeP]

IMO, Michael Moore is to Ann Coulter as Bill O'Reilly is to Randi Rhodes is to Clarabell is to Ernie The Armpit Flatulence Simulator, who I went to high school with. All part of a general and ongoing coarsening of the culture where making fart noises has replaced meaningful political dialogue.

A pox on the whole bamn dunch of them..

I don't float tube and I don't plan to, although it certainly is a way to reach water you can't get to by wading and without having to buy a boat. Back in the mid-80's (I think..) I won a float tube at a TU banquet, so I ran over to Eaton Reservoir to use it to fish for smallies. I had to stop to blow the thing up, so I stopped at a self serve air nozzle at a gas station in North East. I didn't have an air gauge and neither did the air station. But the instructions said to inflate to 3 psi, which I took to mean don't put a lot of air in it. So, I didn't.

I got over to Eaton, put the fins and all that crap on and crawled in the harness. I paddled out a ways into about 10 feet of water and made for the near shoreline to start casting. Over the next minute or so, I noticed that in order to look at what should be straight ahead, I had to look down. And when I actually looked straight ahead, all I could see was sky.

It was then that I figured out that there was water running into the unfilled space between the tube and the nylon case and that all in all, this was not good... I was being slowly tipped backwards to eventually better allow water to run into my nostrils..

I started working the fins as fast as I could towards the bank. It was a very near thing, but I finally got to a place where I could stick the fins straight down and catch the bottom. I kind of stilt walked my way in until I could travel flat foot. Then I crawled out of the harness and took off the fins and put both of them in the convenient trash barrels provided by the North East JCs.

Like I say, I think in the right hands, a float tube could be way cool and very useful. I just don't think I have enough common sense to be trusted with one...

 

[tomgamber]

I have two and I love them...I have fished them in the middle of winter with neoprenes and would not do that with my newer kayak because I know I will get wet. There is now beeter way to fish a lake than with a tube. You don;t spook fish and I have had trout swim between my legs in complete ignorance of the tube. If you want to work the bank you just float along, accurately casting across your body and could do a complete circumference this way if you wished. Feeling lazy, strip out as much line as you wish, put on a big bugger and just troll, you'll pick up fish. While not very fast they are extremely maneuverable and you can just spin around and fish the other direction immediately. I rehabbed a surgically repaired knee in on a few years back. Light enough to carry a couple hundred yard to secret pond or just bungi it to the roof and be off.

As far a sRLees comments, he did not inflate it properly and had no idea what he was doing in my opinion.

I own 2 bucks bags tubes. I lived 2 block from where the little old ladies in Boise used to stitch them together and got them for a song. You can pick up a decent tube for less than a 100 now. In PA you must wear a life jacket which (while never a BAD idea) is kind of cumbersome. They do not need registered or even a launch permit. There were places in Idaho such as silver creek where no boats were allowed but tubes were which I believe speaks to their minimal impact. Even places where wading was prohibited, they were allowed. I would NOT use one in moving water. The are extremely comfortable. I sit in mine as i would sit at the dinner table. Leaning forward and working of the stripping apron.

Hooking into large fish will take you for a short ride but its kind of neat. My buddy and I were fishing about 25yards apart on a lake when we hooked into several 20 inch plus rainbows. On my first strike I turned around to yell one of those thing you yell when you hook a fish to find that he was over 100 yds away being dragged aroud by his own fish. Had another friend who used to duck hunt out of his. The birds didn;t seem to mind him being ther on the water in the tube and flew right in. He said th best part was the tube and the water absorbed nearly all the recoil of the shotgun and he said it was the firs time he had duck hunted without a sore shoulder.

Just remember you will always be traveling backward. when fishing, when entering and exiting the water. You do have to peek over your should er occasionally when other boats with electric motors are around because they can sneak up on you.

The one thing you will learn and it comes in handy later is to get your backcast up high and off the water.

They are great for fishing flies or spinning.

 

[RLeeP]

>>As far a sRLees comments, he did not inflate it properly and had no idea what he was doing in my opinion. >>

That would be his view as well..

 

[tomgamber]

Yeah, If you hadn't said it first, I wouldn't have noted it...But you were not the first person I've ever heard tell that same story.

 

[Woolybugger]

"I'm not a conservative, but Michael Moore is a scumbag propaganda artist. I swear, if he could change his views a bit, he'd be perfect for the Bush administration. That is the only comment I'm willing to make on that."

"IMO, Michael Moore is to Ann Coulter as Bill O'Reilly is to Randi Rhodes is to Clarabell is to Ernie The Armpit Flatulence Simulator, who I went to high school with. All part of a general and ongoing coarsening of the culture where making fart noises has replaced meaningful political dialogue."

I guess you guys don't want "socialized medicine" LOL looks like you don't mind paying for your health insurance!! if 1% owns 80% of everything that's OK with you? we're the only western advanced country that doesn't have socialized health care! and everyone else in the world has at least 5 weeks paid vacation and works a 35hr week!

But you choose to "obey orders" and hope for the best!! Don't upset the rich man or you might be living worse than you already are!

No big deal, my flyrodding friends, some of my best friends were afraid to watch "Fahrenheit 911" they were afraid that the movie might make Bush look like a idiot!! Instead they watched "Fahren-hype 911" put out by the right wing Bible bumping Spin Masters!!

We should call French Fries..... Freedom Fries, those cowards don't want to work more than 35 hrs a week and want free college and free health care, LOL why can't they just follow orders like we do here in the states? why do other countries want things for the middle class? we are happy working 50 hours a week just to make ends meet......... how else is the rich man going to be a billionaire?
First time ever the US dollar is lower than third world countries!! Something to think about! and the downfall of the housing market!

Different strokes for different folks!

 

[jayL]

I figured you'd put that spin on it. You and Moore would get along fine.

For what it's worth, I don't know who I dislike more. The far right bible thumpers such as coulter and o'reilly, or moore. So go ahead and push my views into your binary mold if that's what it means to dislike that fat liar.

Again, I'm not a conservative (registered libertarian, if you want to know), so don't say I'm all for what the current administration is doing. Quite far from it, in fact.

 

[RLeeP]

>>"IMO, Michael Moore is to Ann Coulter as Bill O'Reilly is to Randi Rhodes is to Clarabell is to Ernie The Armpit Flatulence Simulator, who I went to high school with. All part of a general and ongoing coarsening of the culture where making fart noises has replaced meaningful political dialogue."

I guess you guys don't want "socialized medicine" LOL looks like you don't mind paying for your health insurance!! if 1% owns 80% of everything that's OK with you? we're the only western advanced country that doesn't have socialized health care! and everyone else in the world has at least 5 weeks paid vacation and works a 35hr week!

But you choose to "obey orders" and hope for the best!! Don't upset the rich man or you might be living worse than you already are!>

And so forth, etc. etc...

Since you quoted my post, I feel I should point out to you that I wasn't complaining about whether the fart noises were coming from the left or the right, but rather that they were so loud and being provided by people who are allegedly grown up.

I'm not entirely clear as to whether that registered with you the first time through..

Thanks.

 

[tomgamber]

If you fill your float tube with too much hot air from the Right it will explode....if you don't fill it with enough hot air it will list Left and probably sink. The key is to find the right amount of equal pressure to keep it afloat. Then you just keep kicking to get it moving. Just remember, you be going backwards and getting in and out can be tricky.

 

[beeber2]

You should try both a float tube and a pontoon boat. I have a 'toon and love it. You are higher out of the water and can float downstream in comfort.

beeber

 

[tomgamber]

I have a sit on top 'yak for getting up and it faster than both the tube and 'toon. But I have to figure out something to wear in the cold.

If I was planning on doing a lot of moving water, the 'toon would be the way to go.

 

[Woolybugger]

Jay and RL,

I'm also a independent. I know that Michael Moore is fat! LOL but the fat man pointed out how broken our health care system is. I thought Sicko was a excellent movie. I can watch all kinds of movies and formulate my own opinion........ I wouldn't watch something because the film maker is fat!

Anyway, I'm not a Bush basher!....... well maybe a little! LOL

About the float tubes. If you fill a float tube at a gas station, will it fit in the back seat of a mid size car, or in a normal trunk? Or do you have to fill each time at the lake and then take the air out when done fishing?

On YouTube I saw a guy with a tiny battery on a tiny pump...... it filled the tube up in a couple seconds. He walked way into the woods and backpacked everything.

 

[jayL]

We can agree then. I watch movies and formulate my own opinions as well.

I just don't like anything that's too strongly slanted in one direction or another. Smells like propaganda to me.

 

[tomgamber]

Woolybugger wrote:


About the float tubes. If you fill a float tube at a gas station, will it fit in the back seat of a mid size car, or in a normal trunk? Or do you have to fill each time at the lake and then take the air out when done fishing?

I used to bungie mine to the roof before I had my pick up..when I got rid of that I bungied it to the top of my cherokee. It take about 5 minutes using one of cheap little compressors that plug into the lighter though.