Float Tubing Is Awesome!

 

So, I bought a float tube. I wasn't really anticipating wanting one, but after fishing a lot of smaller "hill" lochs for wild brown trout lately, I realised how brilliant it would be to have one for that type of fishing.

Another inspiration was Douglas Heron (YouTube - Piscator UK Fishing), who has been posting about float tube/belly boat fly fishing for a while now. Douglas was kind enough to answer a few questions I had about how the boat would handle drifting with the wind, and that really sealed the deal.

Which Boat Did I Choose?

I had my eye on the Savage Gear High Rider because a high-riding boat is supposed to be better for fly fishing, and on Douglas's recommendation, I opted for the larger 170cm model because it has oars, and rowing is faster than paddling with fins over long distances.

I was planning to buy the Savage Gear fins, but Angling Active, where I bought the boat, was sold out, so I opted for the DAM XXL fins instead.

My new boat loaded and ready to go at Lundavra

First Impressions

I absolutely love fishing from the float tube! It gives you so much freedom, and I like the fact you can manoeuvre easily while continuing to cast, which is not something you can really do from a traditional boat (even if it were legal under the competition rules). This means you can get into really tight spots and hover around productive looking spots like reed beds without being carried away on the drift.

Initial Outings

I've had the boat out four times—twice at Loch Lundavra, once on Loch Lochy, and once on Loch Ba—and I think I've got the hang of the basics. 

Stability and Safety

The boat is really stable. I mean, not just more stable than you'd think, but really stable. The session on Loch Lochy (which is one of Scotland's larger lochs and often gets quite rough) was not productive in a fishing sense, but it was a good test of the boat in bigger waves. I'd say it was about 10mph gusting to 20mph that day, and the waves were about 50 cm. I found it was more than happy in those conditions. In fact, it actually seemed to drift better in a strong wind (more on that later).

That said, I still feel cautious about going out in too rough conditions for safety's sake. I'd also avoid a strong offshore wind on bigger waters because the boat is hard to row into a strong wind, and you'd risk being carried away.

A nice wee brownie - my first from the new boat

Portability

The boat is just about the right size to fit in the back of my car (a medium-sized SUV) if I let a little bit of air out. This is really handy because I can leave it there with everything attached in between sessions if I'm planning to go out a few times in a week. I let a bit more air out than I need to if I'm doing that so that the air can expand without straining the seams that hold the boat together.

The boat, well deflated, in the back of my car

Carrying the Boat

The boat is easy to carry on your back when fully loaded. You use the eye loops on the bottom of the floor section to attach the shoulder straps, and then you can carry the whole boat with the square EVA storage boxes attached on your back. The larger EVA case that sits in the bow must be carried separately, but I find it easy enough to carry along with my rod and net with the boat on my back. I hang my fins on the bar at the front of the boat for carrying.

Weight and Comfort

Although it's easy to carry the boat on your back, it weights over 14kg and the carry straps are not padded so it's not comfortable to carry for more than a short distance. I've carried it maybe half a kilometre, and that was quite enough! 

Some better, more padded shoulder straps might help, but you still wouldn't want to carry it for very long unless you have military levels of fitness, so wilder and more remote hill lochs any more than a short walk from a road are out of reach for me at the moment.

Upgrading the Clips

I also thought that the small accessory clips provided for the shoulder straps were very flimsy and would break pretty quickly, so I swapped them out for a couple of small locking carabiners that should be a bit sturdier.

The carry straps fitted with new clips

Drifting and Finning Technique

Drifting Downwind

I'm been fishing for wild brown trout and I want to drift with the wind in the same way as I would when doing traditional loch-style fishing from a boat.  This turned out to be a bit more tricky than I expected because the float tube really wants to sit with the bow facing downwind while I, of course, want the boat to drift stern-first so I can cast downwind. 

After a bit of practice with the fins, I found I could hold the boat in the orientation I wanted, and it works well in a good breeze. However, in light winds, I found that the course corrections cancelled out the effect of the wind, so I ended up staying in the same place.  I'm not sure if this is down to poor finning technique on my part or if it's something everyone has to deal with and people just fish differently in a float tube.

One approach that sometimes works well is to set a course diagonally across the wind and paddle with the fins in a zig-zag path back and forth across the water, casting as you go. This works quite well in a wide-open area, but it's no use if you want to drift along a shoreline or thread a path between rocks.

I am also wondering if deploying a small drogue might help keep the boat on a straight path.

Rowing

Another minor niggle is that the oars are quite cramped to use, and the crossbar gets in the way if you want to make a longer stroke. Sometimes you can just paddle along using short strokes, but on a longer row, I found it better to just remove the crossbar to make more space. Choking down on the oars also helps you avoid rapping your knuckles off your knees with every stroke.  

Someone online suggested moving the seat back a bit too, which is blindingly obvious, and I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. I've not tried it yet, though.