Tube Fishing = Stealth Fishing

When I started tube fishing, almost immediately I started catching larger fish. I think the reason is the stealth nature on fishing form a tube. Smaller fish hit just about anything that comes along. To catch the larger, more wary fish you need to pay more attention to not being there.

I see people talking loudly while fishing. I have been guilty of this, but I notice when I am talking I am not catching. Some wear brightly colored fins. I doubt that is a good idea. Neither is thrashing the surface when kicking. When fishing clear, shallow water, long casts are in order.

Maybe some of you can add ideas to improve stealth.

fisheromen wrote:When I started tube fishing, almost immediately I started catching larger fish.  I think the reason is the stealth nature on fishing form a tube.  Smaller fish hit just about anything that comes along. To catch the larger, more wary fish you need to pay more attention to not being there.  

I see people talking loudly while fishing.  I have been guilty of this, but I notice when I am talking I am not catching.  Some wear brightly colored fins.  I doubt that is a good idea. Neither is thrashing the surface when kicking.  When fishing clear, shallow water, long casts are in order.  

Maybe some of you can add ideas to improve stealth.

I myself have been doing a bit more tube fishing alone. Fish do become spooked by the noise and if fishing in marinas being too close to the docks does minimize my hook ups. I have learned to stay away further from the docks and try to paddle a bit more stealthy.

Yup.

Tubing fresh I seem to hook more fish when staying a far distance away from the shoreline and making long casts. Lost many lures learning this technique.

Works well when dragging ds for trout and/or bass.

Minimal movement is the key to success. I jig and slip float at the 8' to 10' depth. Talking is a no-no. Minimal movement while fishing over the school of fishes is critical. I have fishes literally swim under my float tube and pontoon many times during calm days, while I fished. Easy on the cell phone and blaring musics while fishing. The watercrafts are doing fine in discouraging the fishes as it is.

Couple of things I noticed in the past that promotes stealth:

1. When kicking as you troll (during calm days), rather than making large kicks, perform small kicks, with fins lined up side by side without too much separation of your legs. Mini kicks, pretending your two knees are tied together. It appears like you're an agitated floating log, being pushed by the wind.

2. Minimize rubbing sounds between your body and the float tube body. The sounds travel quite well in water. It will spook the fish easily. I've learned that adding a few spinners below the float tube as you travel masks your human generated sounds above. It attracts the fishes that are swimming more than 20ft away from you, giving you a chance to catch them during trolling. Works very well with shellcracker (redear sunfish) and catfish.

This is a cool thread, I agree on the noise guys, you need to stay as quite as you can, I am guilty of making to much noise will kicking. I try to stay conscious of this as much as I can. I have found that for me in the saltwater this can be hard with current and trying to stay on your spot. Maybe I should in these cases start doing longer casts. I don't feel that in freshwater on a none windy day this should be a issue. But I also no that when I get tired I start kicking out of the water more, noise factor is going up. Stealth is important and I feel on certain day the key to a good day. Thanks for the thread this is cool, keep it coming

Current for both salt and fresh water are the same on windy days. Salt gets more influence with tidal movement on top of the wind. However, wind in the inland area, where I am, can be wicked. Lake Perris is known for its constant wind shifts, and gale effects, going from a dead calm, into a 35mph gale type wind within 20 minutes, to where the wind will flip boats as the wind direction changes.

Same thing noted for most of the fresh waters. The one that doesn't seem to get the most impact is water that get surrounded by tall trees and mountain ridges. Lake Gregory, Jenks Lake, and 7-Oak Dam are the only ones.

TheAsianGuy wrote:
.... I've learned that adding a few spinners below the float tube as you travel masks your human generated sounds above. It attracts the fishes that are swimming more than 20ft away from you, giving you a chance to catch them during trolling. Works very well with shellcracker (redear sunfish) and catfish.

Hey Leo this is sublime! Great idea. Care to elaborate on size and type of spinner?

Sounds production carried by having various blade sizes on different segment of the same branch of the spinner. Example:

Large - Small - Medium - Small - Large

or

Small - medium - small - medium - large

Sounds waves percussion/oscillation by multiple leaves sizes, similar to school of different size fishes breaking the water tension with their tails, attract different predation species. Shimmering of the blades under the float, similar to a floating log, attract protection from above, while feeding on insects at the water surfaces during early and late hours.

I rigged this up using my old framed pontoon, just right below the seat area, with the design like this, spacing out 6" per pair of blades:

Sizes 5/5 Colorado - 4/3 Willow - 5/5 Colorado - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

Sizes 4/4 Willow - 2/2 Colorado - 3/3 Willow - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

Sizes 5/5 Colorado - 4/3 Willow - 5/5 Colorado - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

And, to throw things into a frenzy, toss in a few metal ball bearings into a hollow glass crystal jar, dangling just about 6" below the water surface near the anchor line. You may only hear a small chime above water, but below, it's a noise fest.

TheAsianGuy wrote:Sounds production carried by having various blade sizes on different segment of the same branch of the spinner. Example:

Large - Small - Medium - Small - Large

or

Small - medium - small - medium - large

Sounds waves percussion/oscillation by multiple leaves sizes, similar to school of different size fishes breaking the water tension with their tails, attract different predation species. Shimmering of the blades under the float, similar to a floating log, attract protection from above, while feeding on insects at the water surfaces during early and late hours.

I rigged this up using my old framed pontoon, just right below the seat area, with the design like this, spacing out 6" per pair of blades:

Sizes 5/5 Colorado - 4/3 Willow - 5/5 Colorado - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

Sizes 4/4 Willow - 2/2 Colorado - 3/3 Willow - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

Sizes 5/5 Colorado - 4/3 Willow - 5/5 Colorado - 2/2 Willow - 5/5 Colorado

And, to throw things into a frenzy, toss in a few metal ball bearings into a hollow glass crystal jar, dangling just about 6" below the water surface near the anchor line. You may only hear a small chime above water, but below, it's a noise fest.

That is awesome Leo.
Your tube is like an aquatic gypsy wagon!

Ive got a mess of vintage spinners I could dehook and dangle under the seat. I like the bottle of ball bearings idea, too.

The stuff you come up with.

Now, do you think this stuff helps?

The high end tech sound system helped anglers on so many different levels, of course, at a nice price tag. I simply use a more traditional approach of a poor man's tech. It worked, and gave me a few edges during slow days. It gave me a heck of an edge during spawning seasons. It will surely help you.

@TheAsianGuy I am gonna have to try dragging a spinnerbait one day. That's great info  

fatboy531 wrote:@TheAsianGuy I am gonna have to try dragging a spinnerbait one day. That's great info  

Typical Leo.
He's just got it like that.