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At long last I got the Cumbee out for a maiden voyage. It has been cool and rainy here in South Carolina and I’ve made no great haste to get everything together. Waders, fins, boots… I sort of pieced them together over the last few months. But things have finally turned the weather corner, with warming days and near tepid water temps. It was finally time to head to the lake, so last Friday I loaded up.
I picked a small cove I visit on occasion. It is out of the way of wind and boat traffic, and right off a main creek channel; it’s always possible a large fish will be there. I like it because it is easily accessed by road, too. This was a criteria of mine when moving to the float tube from larger vessels.
I half wish I could tell you this first trip was fraught with obstacles and worries, where I suffered from a long learning curve. But nothing is further from the truth. Thanks to some good planning (helped by everyone here!) and a very intuitive process with the tube itself, everything was fine.
I partially inflated the tube at home, and used my hand pump to add the finishing touches right in the back of the SUV. Fins in one hand, my bucket of “stuff” and fly rod in the other, I shouldered the tube and moseyed to the bank. No really, I moseyed. Smooth as pie.
I felt sort of clownish, and hoped no one was watching, but that’s it.
At the water, I stowed my gear, then donned the waders and fins. From there, it was just push the tube backwards a few feet with the rear of my knees, sit down and shove off – that’s it. It was anticlimactic, if I’m to be honest.
No heaving about.
No wobbling shimmies.
No instability.
I actually sat there for several minutes, listening… waiting, for something to go awry. Nothing did.
After listening to all the concerns and safety fears for the last 6 months, I thought the Float Tube Rescue Squad might spring from the woods at any minute. Can’t you see them, helicopters overhead, shouting and pointing?
“Red Alert – Red Alert! It’s a FLOAT TUBE! Someone is in a FLOAT TUBE!
PREPARE FOR ACTION!”
Soon I tired of waiting for them, and I just finned away from shore. I felt as safe in this thing as on shore watching TV.
So, what about the fishing? In a word, it was a breeze; it’s just fishing from a floating lounge chair, after all. Cast, retrieve, change flies, hook up a fish, release, etc, etc. I think float tubes were first adopted by fly anglers, and for good reason. They are easy to maneuver and hands free – perfect for fly fishing.
The biggest trouble for the new fly angler after learning to actually cast is line handling. Your hands are always busy with adjusting line length, looping and coiling, stripping and mending… I know seasoned fly men who STILL manage to get themselves tangled up in their own line. But the float tube leaves your hands free for all that, and puts it right in your lap for easy management! It was glorious!
While the fishing was easy, I didn’t catch a lot of fish, in case you wondered. A couple nice bluegill, and plenty of little ones, per the usual. Usually a bass will crash the party at some point, but not this day. I didn’t see a single largemouth.
I DID see pods of gar swimming around, however, engrossed in what I imagine were mating rituals of some kind. These normally solitary fish gather together in Spring to do whatever procreating they’ve done for the last 160 million years or so. This is only rarely seen by anglers, since gar are normally retiring. But seeing them at rods length, while they were oblivious to me, was awesome.
Some geese were startled to see me and flapped away, honking in anger. A heron was not at all pleased with my presence, either. Usually they fly away at the first sign of a human, but this one seemed genuinely unsure what to do. I even crept up on some sunning turtles – no easy feat, for those who know. Oh, yeah, the usual snake was seen, too, from three feet.
He slept in the branches of a downed tree - I kept moving along.
Im convinced the stealthy approach allowed by the tube made these things possible. I would not have seen half this stuff had I been clunking around in a kayak or sputtering motor boat.
Yeah, I think I’m gonna like this float tube business. Jeff, Lolly, wiseguy, Leo, and all the others - thanks for talking me into it.
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I picked a small cove I visit on occasion. It is out of the way of wind and boat traffic, and right off a main creek channel; it’s always possible a large fish will be there. I like it because it is easily accessed by road, too. This was a criteria of mine when moving to the float tube from larger vessels.
I half wish I could tell you this first trip was fraught with obstacles and worries, where I suffered from a long learning curve. But nothing is further from the truth. Thanks to some good planning (helped by everyone here!) and a very intuitive process with the tube itself, everything was fine.
I partially inflated the tube at home, and used my hand pump to add the finishing touches right in the back of the SUV. Fins in one hand, my bucket of “stuff” and fly rod in the other, I shouldered the tube and moseyed to the bank. No really, I moseyed. Smooth as pie.
I felt sort of clownish, and hoped no one was watching, but that’s it.
At the water, I stowed my gear, then donned the waders and fins. From there, it was just push the tube backwards a few feet with the rear of my knees, sit down and shove off – that’s it. It was anticlimactic, if I’m to be honest.
No heaving about.
No wobbling shimmies.
No instability.
I actually sat there for several minutes, listening… waiting, for something to go awry. Nothing did.
After listening to all the concerns and safety fears for the last 6 months, I thought the Float Tube Rescue Squad might spring from the woods at any minute. Can’t you see them, helicopters overhead, shouting and pointing?
“Red Alert – Red Alert! It’s a FLOAT TUBE! Someone is in a FLOAT TUBE!
PREPARE FOR ACTION!”
Soon I tired of waiting for them, and I just finned away from shore. I felt as safe in this thing as on shore watching TV.
So, what about the fishing? In a word, it was a breeze; it’s just fishing from a floating lounge chair, after all. Cast, retrieve, change flies, hook up a fish, release, etc, etc. I think float tubes were first adopted by fly anglers, and for good reason. They are easy to maneuver and hands free – perfect for fly fishing.
The biggest trouble for the new fly angler after learning to actually cast is line handling. Your hands are always busy with adjusting line length, looping and coiling, stripping and mending… I know seasoned fly men who STILL manage to get themselves tangled up in their own line. But the float tube leaves your hands free for all that, and puts it right in your lap for easy management! It was glorious!
While the fishing was easy, I didn’t catch a lot of fish, in case you wondered. A couple nice bluegill, and plenty of little ones, per the usual. Usually a bass will crash the party at some point, but not this day. I didn’t see a single largemouth.
I DID see pods of gar swimming around, however, engrossed in what I imagine were mating rituals of some kind. These normally solitary fish gather together in Spring to do whatever procreating they’ve done for the last 160 million years or so. This is only rarely seen by anglers, since gar are normally retiring. But seeing them at rods length, while they were oblivious to me, was awesome.
Some geese were startled to see me and flapped away, honking in anger. A heron was not at all pleased with my presence, either. Usually they fly away at the first sign of a human, but this one seemed genuinely unsure what to do. I even crept up on some sunning turtles – no easy feat, for those who know. Oh, yeah, the usual snake was seen, too, from three feet.
He slept in the branches of a downed tree - I kept moving along.
Im convinced the stealthy approach allowed by the tube made these things possible. I would not have seen half this stuff had I been clunking around in a kayak or sputtering motor boat.
Yeah, I think I’m gonna like this float tube business. Jeff, Lolly, wiseguy, Leo, and all the others - thanks for talking me into it.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Congrats on getting out on the water I'm sure you will have lots of great days ahead
