Can You Tell I Love My Tube?

[smallmouth89]

From a recent camping/fishing trip, check out "The Beast".
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[peter805]

WOW man, I never seen anything like it ! I tought that
only I do crazy stuff but......................[]
Hey, what ever it takes. Good job.

Peter
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[flygoddess]

So, you load up the tube and tow it with your Kayak to a bay that looks very shallow....right?[crazy][laugh]
Next question...why? Or is it that little trailer thingy...LOL
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]And they say that mixed marriages don't work out.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]All I have to say is pray for calm weather.[/#0000ff]
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[smallmouth89]

No, I don't tow it. I love to paddle and towing the tube creates to much drag. Instead I bungee it to the tankwell of the yak and it doesn't slow me down at all.

That picture shows the setup at the culvert for a creek that gives access to a semi wilderness lake with great smallmouth fishing. I caught a 6 pound "smallie" on that trip.

God Bless,
Don
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[flygoddess]

NICE!
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[MaDFisher55]

Finally.... a stable Kayak! []

[fishon]
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[smallmouth89]

Joni,
To answer the why.......... I was a kayak fisherman long before becoming a "tuber". The tube is hands down the best platform to fish from. You can hold position and have hands free fishing. Can't beat that. The only problem is you can't cover distance with a float tube. I was going into a back lake accessed from a creek. It would have been a heck of a long kick with just the tube. the kayak is my "mother ship". Next I'm going to lash on my pontoon boat. Don't worry just kidding!!!

God Bless,
Don
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[flygoddess]

Why a kayak and tube instead of a pontoon?
I know there is a difference in Paddling and rowing, but both accomplish the same thing.
Plus you can go in allot more shallow waters with a pontoon like a Kayak.

Just asking[]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Once a yakker, always a yakker. Trying to talk a yakker into something else is like trying to talk a dry fly purist into fishing worms. Not likely to happen.[/#0000ff]
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[smallmouth89]

Guys,

I have a 10 foot Outcast pontoon and I really like it. It gives the same advantages as the float tube but is a little more work. Once I swallowed my pride and used a 1 stroke oar assist to make quick turns I fell in love with it. I had originally rejected the whole pontoon concept because I couldn't turn it with the fins like I can my tube. I really like the pontoon for drifting rivers with a buddy but with the kayak I can solo by paddling upstream and fishing my way back to the car.

The kayak as Pat alluded to gets into your soul. It responds so beautifully to the paddle, is a great solo vessel and if I were limited to one vessel it would be a kayak. Not quite as easy to fish from (except for trolling where it is probably the most efficient human powered vessel) but man does it go. I pass all the electric motor powered aluminum boats on the local reservoir.
Speaking of electrics I finally put to rest the notion of ever becoming motorized on my "toon". The other day I asked a friend of mine who had brought his electric motor to fish from one of the trout club's aluminum jonboats, to pull alongside me so i could compare my pontoon's rowing speed to him going full throttle. The result was revealing. I actually left him behind. So much for the 30 to 40 pound thrust motors that are suitable for pontoon boats. I can do well without the extra hassle and with the physical benefits of rowing.
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[flygoddess]

Rowing is definitely faster. The motor is killer for holding possition in the wind, trolling and like this last Monday, the wind was so bad, I was rowing with one oar in the cross wind, because the minute I put the other one down, the boat wanted to turn. The motor was AWESOME.

I have used a Kayak, and they are fast, but fast and fishing don't actually go together.
I prefer the Pontoon because it will do whatever the Kayak will, PLUS hands free...Just my feelings and I have been down both roads[]
To each their own...LOL
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[pontoonman]

[quote smallmouth89]Guys,

I have a 10 foot Outcast pontoon and I really like it. It gives the same advantages as the float tube but is a little more work. Once I swallowed my pride and used a 1 stroke oar assist to make quick turns I fell in love with it. I had originally rejected the whole pontoon concept because I couldn't turn it with the fins like I can my tube. I really like the pontoon for drifting rivers with a buddy but with the kayak I can solo by paddling upstream and fishing my way back to the car.

The kayak as Pat alluded to gets into your soul. It responds so beautifully to the paddle, is a great solo vessel and if I were limited to one vessel it would be a kayak. Not quite as easy to fish from (except for trolling where it is probably the most efficient human powered vessel) but man does it go.

Kayaks are cool, but there a lot of things they cant do. How do you handle the up part of steep grades, or packing compactly to remote areas? Hovering without constant switching between paddles and poles constantly? Backache discomfort from sitting flat for hours in a thin layer of wet muck tracked in when you mount & dismount. To be honest I've only tried them a couple of times, so there may be ways around these things.


. I pass all the electric motor powered aluminum boats on the local reservoir.
Speaking of electrics I finally put to rest the notion of ever becoming motorized on my "toon". The other day I asked a friend of mine who had brought his electric motor to fish from one of the trout club's aluminum jonboats, to pull alongside me so i could compare my pontoon's rowing speed to him going full throttle. The result was revealing. I actually left him behind. So much for the 30 to 40 pound thrust motors that are suitable for pontoon boats. I can do well without the extra hassle and with the physical benefits of rowing. To be fair, you need to compare rowing a jonboat with the electric jonboat. Or attach a motor to a kayak to fairly compare speed with a rowed one, like this one:
http://www.torqeedo.com/us/hn/products/u...ption.html
Any exercise is better than none, but I'm not sure paddling, kicking or turning your neck works all the essential muscle groups. [][] Pon[/quote]
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[smallmouth89]

Can't hover in a kayak and there is no way you can beat the efficiency of hands free fishing afforded by using fins in a tube or toon. This is exactly how and why the "beast" came to be.

If a float tube could move like a kayak I wouldn't need anything else. There is good reason why Pat has stayed with his tubes and why he is "The Tube Dude". As he will tell you there is no one vessel that can do it all. This is why I have a fleet of vessels to choose from depending on my fishing destination. I'm not even averse to hauling my old sit inside River Runner kayak (34 pounds ) or my cedar canoe out of the rafters. The River Runner is a portager's dream and I can easily stand to flyfish from my canoe.

Modern sit on top yaks do give you much more flexibility in changing position so you don't get a sore back. Side dle postion with feet in the water is almost as comfortable as the pontoon.

For helping to maintain position or for a super stealthy approach in a kayak it's amazing what you can do with a ping pong paddle.

It's all good and variety is the spice of life but I definitely need a two car garage for this and the boats getbpriority over the cars.

God Bless,
Don (The yaktoobtoondude)
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[flygoddess]

I use to think that way. We had a 18 1/2' Rinker, inboard outboard V6 merc. Sold it and bought a 14' Alumicraft with casting deck and everything like the bigger boats, plus a 4 stroke 25 hrs.
Suddenly, ever one wanted to go with us, so we sold the boat and bought a 16' Monarch, fully loaded.

Used it twice and sold.
In the mean time we had Caddis Donuts, Hi Plains U tube, SFC's, Hubby had a Anglers Inn 9' pontoon, I had a 6' Bucks Alpine.
I even had a small tube Float Power for a battery and motor on my donut then carried over to the SFC.
We then bought 4' pontoons (Echo) which we still have.
Got the 11 1/2' Cardiacs in 2001.
Added Freestyle H3, and the Navigator II so we now had at one time four different boats from 4' to 11 1/2'.
This year we sold the Cardiacs and the Navigator II, leaving us with
TWO ECHO's, One H3 (which is in Idaho) and TWO OUTLAWS.
We only use the Outlaws anymore, so YES you can have too many, and there is ONE that will do everything.

As I pointed out to Pat yesterday, My boat will fit in my Suzuki, but I would have to take the frame apart some. Not a big deal, just longer set-up and take down, which is Minutes.

Also, Pat and myself, kick entirely different. He kicks like a scuba swimmer because he sits lower in a tube, I kick like bouncing a child on my foot, I scoop. This is the kick required for sitting out of the water.
I think that is one of the reasons Tube Dude never cared for pontoons.


Oh and we can actually get our cars in the garage, or during the summer months, a flatbed trailer with two pontoons on it. Much nicer.[]
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