The Great Float-Tube Race

Chip Chipman

I have had a float tube for a while but never have gotten around to using it.  You may know them as belly boats, which is what some people call them.  They are an air-filled tube (originally an inner-tube for an automobile tire), housed in a cloth cover that provides a seat for the angler.

You put your legs through two holes in the seat, pick up the tube, and enter the water as gracefully as you can.  When you are afloat, the tube surrounds your belly and you propel yourself around the lake by kicking your feet, which are improved by duck-like swim fins.  If you don't want your lower half to get wet, you wear chest-high waders.

On land, the swim fins make it easier to walk if you go backwards and you look like a cartoon character.  Well, Rich Dickson from Tucson caught me at a weak moment and I agreed to go float-tube fishing on a nearby lake.  The night before, we pulled my unused tube out of the box and aired it up.  When we arrived at the lake the trout were rising, I'm thinking this may not be so bad after all.  So, I put on my chest waders and wading shoes.  Rich showed me how to attach the fins and, after much struggling and grunting, I was finally ready to get started.

I waddled to my tube.  The fins on my feet were longer than the diameter of the holes for my legs.  Somehow, I got into the thing, backed into the water and sat.  Not only do you go backwards on land, you go backwards on the water, which means I couldn't see where I was going and I was not going in the direction I wanted.  Rich told me how to make a turn and soon we were moving toward the west end of the lake.

It was quite relaxing in the tube and I was getting the hang of it. Neither of us were catching any fish.  Then the coffee I had for breakfast reminded me that I shouldn't have had it.  I made a 180 degree turn and headed for the boat ramp with max effort.  I was plotting the shortest route and debating whether, on land, I should take the time to remove the fins or just hurry backward to the rest room. 

There are moments in life when you hope nobody is watching.  I found another reason why I prefer stream fishing.

Tackle tips:  When tubing or canoeing, a longer flyrod, such as 9 -1/2 feet works better because your casting arm is so close to the surface.  My tube is doughnut shaped.  Better tubes are U shaped and you just lift a bar at the front and back into the seat.

Chip Chipman is a flyfishing guide and lives in Nutrioso, AZ.

**This story has been reprinted with permission from the author.