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Probably not, but I've gotta ask: Any forum members ever go tubing here in Virginia?
There's no chance for me to make it way out west for the getogether (sigh!), but perhaps I can work something out this summer/fall in the region.
I'm out every Saturday morning and on other days as well, yet I've never seen another tuber here in Virginia. Only saw two all the time I was in Texas. People say they love the idea and ask a lot of questions, but I don't see them taking the plunge. I do enjoy overhearing the flattering conversations of passing boaters, especially remarks about how they "never could do that." I remember a fall morning when a bundled-up boater told me he admired my courage for braving the frosty waters. Maybe it's because I began as a wader and got used to full-contact fishing, but I don't think I'm any more courageous or manly to fish from a tube. But if they want to think that way ...
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[cool][#0000ff]We have had tubers pop in on the board from time to time who were from that part of the country. But, as you have observed, tubing is not nearly as popular there as elsewhere. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Float tubes were developed and used mostly in two areas of the country back in the early days. First was the West, for fishing remote mountain lakes for trout. Second was in the south for fishing farm ponds for bass and bluegills. Other parts of the country have been a bit slow in catching on, but it is only a matter of time. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I was one of the first to put a tube on many lakes in the Utah area...especially for non-trout species. Nowadays you sometimes see more tubes and toons on some lakes than you do boats. It is a matter of education and people getting used to the idea of all that goes into the sport. It is sometimes hard to convince them that tubing is a serious fishing system. In fact, that is the second chapter in my book.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You might check in with some of the local tackle shops and see if there are many registered "tube offenders"...and maybe try to start up a local club. If not, you can do what I used to do...hold seminars in conjuction with some of the outlets and have people show up and try out equipment. In most cases they wrote a check for the outfit because they did not want to get out of it and give it up once they tried it.[/#0000ff]
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I seen pictures from virginia and it looks very nice and green. I think that is a perfect place to float tube.
Just be happy that YOU are the one that is enjoying
all the nice lakes and places.
I started float tubing only this year (been out about
20-25 times) and I love it and dont want to fish
any other way.
Just my 2c.
Oh yeah, and please remember to share some float tubing pictures, we would love that.
Peter
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Hummm, such as a seminar at Dick's Sporting Goods? Or work as a rep for, say, ODC 420? The only other place around here is Wal-Mart for tackle. I used to love Academy down in Texas. I get most of my gear from annual trips to Bass Pro or off eBay, especially Bassdozer, but I digress.
I've learned so much over the years that I would love to do a seminar to correct common misconceptions: No, I've never been attacked by a snake or a beaver. No, tree limbs don't puncture the float or draw blood. No, fish don't bite you (but perch might kiss your bare legs). No, you don't catch a disese from soaking your legs in lake water. I think I've developed a good system that people can adopt with similar gear that a store might sell.
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[quote peter805]I seen pictures from virginia and it looks very nice and green. I think that is a perfect place to float tube. Just be happy that YOU are the one that is enjoying
all the nice lakes and places.
Peter[/quote]
You got that right. Often, fishless with an hour or so left of fishing time on a Saturday morning, I'll start to get frustrated. Then I'll look around at the green trees and mountain slopes, or the cardinals or deer or squirls or even beavers along the lush shoreline and start prasing God for just being out in His beautiful creation.
As for pictures ...
[inline clear_lake.jpg]
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[cool][#0000ff]You are not likely to get much going with any large national chain. The local managers seldom have either the clout or the knowledge to help put something like that together. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Ideally you need a strong local fishing outlet that wants to promote float tubing. Unfortunately, a lot of tackle shops sell only what the local goobers use the most...worms, spincast outfits, cane poles, rope stringers, etc. To try to talk them into giving up valuable shelf space in their stores for something as wacko as float tubing...well, good luck.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Even where float tubing is well known I still hear things coming across the water that make me laugh...or cringe.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"Yeah, he's walkin' on the bottom (in 30 feet of water)"[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They got little waders and motors built into 'em."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They are fun, but you can't ketch much with 'em."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]"My gawd, lookit all them fishin' poles. How's he gonna fish with all of them?"[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No matter where we go, there will always be those who simply don't understand...or don't want to. That leaves us to enjoy our superior form of fishing in quiet tranquility.[/#0000ff]
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Hey, funny comments below gave me a chuckle and made my day. Thanks, TD.
As far as linking up with other tubers, try working the internet, Rev. I was able to find a couple of guys from Austin and one even had a pontoon! But he is a recent transplant from - California! Try google for kayaks or local area fishing clubs- that's how I found "Austin Bass Fishing". http://www.austinbassfishing.com/forum/ See last post by fishmonger.
These craft are still mostly undiscovered in Texas. But reactions to my rig have ALWAYS been way positive! Where can I get one just like that? How much does that cost? How are you able to move that thing around so well? I sometimes tell them to think of a duck on water, calm and serene on the surface, but pedalling like heck underneath! That applies to both propulsion and all the "tricked out" parts which often take a long time to plan out for me. I'm just not a PhD in PVC like TD and albino...
Pon
[quote TubeDude][cool] [#0000ff]You are not likely to get much going with any large national chain. The local managers seldom have either the clout or the knowledge to help put something like that together. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Ideally you need a strong local fishing outlet that wants to promote float tubing. Unfortunately, a lot of tackle shops sell only what the local goobers use the most...worms, spincast outfits, cane poles, rope stringers, etc. To try to talk them into giving up valuable shelf space in their stores for something as wacko as float tubing...well, good luck.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Even where float tubing is well known I still hear things coming across the water that make me laugh...or cringe.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"Yeah, he's walkin' on the bottom (in 30 feet of water)"[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They got little waders and motors built into 'em."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They are fun, but you can't ketch much with 'em."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"My gawd, lookit all them fishin' poles. How's he gonna fish with all of them?"[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]No matter where we go, there will always be those who simply don't understand...or don't want to. That leaves us to enjoy our superior form of fishing in quiet tranquility.[/#0000ff][/quote]
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[quote TubeDude]
[#0000ff]"Yeah, he's walkin' on the bottom (in 30 feet of water)"[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They got little waders and motors built into 'em."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"They are fun, but you can't ketch much with 'em."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]"My gawd, lookit all them fishin' poles. How's he gonna fish with all of them?"[/#0000ff] [/quote]
Just last weekend a couple of yuppies in kayaks coasted up to me, well off shore, and asked: "Are you walking on the bottom?" I shook my head no. "Then how are you moving?" I raised the tip of one fin and made another cast.
My wife worries about me, mainly because of boats, but many women immediately see the inexpensive aspect to getting their husbands to tube instead of haul and maintain a big ol' bass boat. "I gotta go tell my husband about your rig -- he's out looking for a boat right now," one told me.
I guess I just get lonesome all by myself. Sure, I love the solitude, but I'd like to speed my trip along the learning curve. You know, each place I've lived has a different type of lake that, to catch fish, I've had to learn. I look back to where I started tubing -- bountiful Toledo Bend -- and how I missed out in a major way by not knowing how to fish grass or laydowns or points or coves. All I had in my arsenal back then, being a displaced saltwater wader, was a Texas-rig worm and one crank, which I didn't dare use near timber for fear of snagging and losing it. I'd love to fish with and learn from someone who has other experiences.
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[cool][#0000ff]I am fortunate to have a spouse (TubeBabe) who really likes to float tube with me. We always take our walkie talkies and when we are not close enough for regular conversation we keep up a constant communication. Not only do we point out the wonders of nature going on around us (nude water skiers?) but also anything new we discover as far as depth, lure, presentation, etc. On most trips this results in both of us catching more fish and having a better time than if we each independently had to work everything out by our lonesome. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whenever you fish a new water or go after a new species, it is great to have someone along who can fill you in or guide you to success. Heck, just having someone else to share the experience is a big part of most fishing trips. Sometimes you need a backup when you try to tell someone else about the biggun you lost at the tube...and didn't have your camera.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, back to basics. As I stated before, float tube fishing is a serious way to fish...not just a poor man's boat. Unfortunately that is still the way tubes and toons are looked at by many...especially boaters who do not think we are serious enough to deserve respect and good sportsmanship.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am attaching the second chapter of my book, that deals with this subject...by comparing tubing with boating and banking...and the advantages offered by "floatation fishing". One of the big things I believe I have gained over the years is the benefit of HAVING to work each stretch of water more diligently and to focus more on the total picture. I compare float tube fishing to hunting with a bow. You have to be a better overall angler, and more in tune with what is going on in the water around you when you fish from a tube. Just like an archer has to be able to get closer to the game and make good shots to be successful.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Enjoy[/#0000ff]
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Many thanks, TD. I'm reading it now...
... and got to the part where you mention sonar allows dropping a lure to the right depth. Hummmmm. You know, only once have I ever caught a fish as a direct result of a fishfinder. My Eagle Cuda (242, I think, not a newer 300) will show a fish at, say, five feet. Almost invariably I'm just starting a long retrieve, so I hurry it back, then slow and try my best to position it five feet down when it gets close to me. Nothing. Then I'll lower whatever I've got on my other three poles -- spinnerbait, crank, swimbait or t-rig crawdad. Still nothing. So to me, the fishfinder shows me depth, temp and somewhat bottom structure. Maybe I should launch a new thread to ask this, but what better should I do?
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[cool][#0000ff]The low wattage line of Eagle Cuda sonars are not the best systems to use for precision vertical jigging. Ideally you will have a sonar capable of showing "real time" display of both fish and lure. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As I and many others have discovered, the Eagle low-end units tend to show a lot of false readings, especially in the upper part of the water column.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of the real vertical presentations I make are in water between 15 to 30 feet deep, and for fish either on or just above the bottom. However, it is good to know when fish are suspending at mid-depth or cruising at some level between the top and bottom. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You don't always catch them but one thing is certain: YOU CAIN'T KETCH 'EM WHERE THEY AIN'T. Finding them is the first step, but not a guarantee that they will hit. That is one of the mixed blessings of sonar. It will tell you where the fish are but it will only make you more frustrated if you can't get them to bite. I think some of us would rather convince ourselves that we were fishing in fishless water than to know there were fish down there but we couldn't catch them.[/#0000ff]
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[quote TubeDude][#0000ff]I think some of us would rather convince ourselves that we were fishing in fishless water than to know there were fish down there but we couldn't catch them.[/#0000ff][/quote]
You got that right! I find it better to think they're somewhere else. But the truth is that, most times, they're just ignoring me. I was reminded of that fact when playing "hide-n-seek" last week with some bass embedded in weed patches. I snuck up to or slightly into the collection of surface weeds and tossed a light swimbait, jiggling it across the top and letting it die into openings. You often can see a bass follow it and, disappointingly, turn away without biting. I use attractants and sometimes it helps. And I read somewhere online how to fish a point so as to collect a school of bass and entice them into biting. I just figured none are there, but the writer says they're just lurking and need the proper herding and coaxing. Of course, I'm not so sure that works on the only point in each of my little Virginia lakes that aren't much bigger than a Texas-size farm pond.
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[cool][#0000ff]You should never beat yourself up because you can't get fish to bite...after you find them. Most adult fish feed on their own schedule. They are seldom like teenagers...always hungry. When larger fish get hungry they find a source of food and then GLUT...stuffing their gut. That may only take a couple of minutes, and then they are in a digesting mode for the next few hours...or for a day or more. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]What a lot of anglers do not realize is that timing is as important as location. If we find the fish at that magical time when they are actively feeding, we can have a fantastic fishing session. If we get there after they are already full, we blame ourselves for being poor fishermen.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, there is the term "reaction bite". Many fish will smack a lure that either aggravates them, piques their curiosity or so closely mimicks helpless prey that they cannot help themselves. They bite first and sort it out afterward. That's what a lot of flashy, bright colored and/or noisy lures are designed to do...provoke a reaction bite.[/#0000ff]
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Just to put my 2c in please.
I was float tubing in eastern sierra on one of the lakes. There were about 20 guys fishing from shore
power baiting. They were getting nothing. I can
hear them saying that there are no fish there now.
I was using black woolly bugger (fly fishing). I was
keeping away from them but it just look so good at the
other side from them. So I made a pass in front of them
and caught 3 trout right in front of them ( thats right).
One guy got very mad ,told the other one that he is
f$%ing tired of watching me catching "all" the fish ,kicked his tackle box and went home.I think
there was a finger as well.[  ]
Im not sure where Im going with this but there it is [ ]
Laters
Peter
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[cool][#0000ff]The point to be made here is that wherever there are fish, some of them are catchable if you use the right stuff the right way. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have experienced many situations in which very few people on a body of water were catching fish, but those people were catching lots of fish. The ones who weren't catching fish were blaming the moon, the barometer, the water conditions, the fish and game department or maybe even the current president. In short, they were blaming everything and everybody but themselves. If they knew more about the water they fished and the species they were after they would have been trying other options.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I can't believe how many people fish the same water, the same way, 12 months of the year and expect to catch fish on every trip. A good example is the bass fisherman who throws spinner baits along shallow shorelines all year. He catches fish about twice a year...spring and fall...when the fish are in that zone. The rest of the year he is just "washing lures" in fishless water...but always with some excuse why he is not catching anything.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]But, getting back to what started this. Fishing quietly and thoroughly in a tube or toon will often allow you to get a better feel for the real conditions and to suggest other ways to fish if your first choice is not working. Take a good assortment of lures and baits on every trip and then work through them systematically until you find a pattern. But, don't always expect that pattern to be a killer because on your next trip you might be back to the drawing board again.[/#0000ff]
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I have been getting the family into the float tubing thing. My wife found she enjoyed bobbing up and down in the lake 10 years ago and now I am loking to upgrade her round tube to a U or V boat. The kids are getting into it and we now have two 16" tubes for them. I even got my nephew into it and he has a blast.
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That's why I like my three-rod holder that allows me to fish four different presentations within seconds of seeing an indication. I know, though, that I have a lot to learn about reaching fish away from the bank. To be honest, I'm on the water before first light, knowing that's when you don't have to be good, just early, to be successful. So, again, that's why I'd like the benefit of what another tuber would bring to a joint effort.
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Well here is a wild idea. Come out and see us in August and have some fun fishin' and learnin.[cool]
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Thats right TD. You have some good pints there. Speking
of quietly- More then ones i had fish (once big BASS)
come under my tube and just chill there.After I moved
a little he swim away.More then once after release
of fish ,they just go under the tube and just sit there.
Kinda cool i think.
Peter
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