Hi All, Just found you guys. I'm from the NEast coast and do quite allot of fresh and SW fishing from about anything that floats. ( Canoes, yaks, skiffs and tubes.)I'm hooked!
Anyway, my tubing( specific) experience has been limited to small ponds and a couple trips to a local estuary in my round tubes. I'm pretty happy with the round tubes for this type of fishing but have run into a new problem. I've stumbled onto some mile square flats that are bone dry at the begining of the tide and 4-6' deep by the end. Worst of all, when the tide is 1/2 up, there is a trench between the beach and the flat that drops another 2' and forces me off the flat prematurely. No surf, just deep water.
I'm thinking I need a new front entry tube that can be easily gotten into/out of while butt deep on the flat. ( fish it where it's deep, drag it where the water is less than 2') It's also got to be light/ portable enough ( maybe w a sholder harnes) to carry out the mile to the deeper water in the AM/ slack low tide. ( Otherwise I'd use a SOT yak.) Tracking /ease of propulsion is a ( small) consideration but I figure I'd only be kicking 1 mile or less all day anyway. ( 5-10K winds and mild currents the norm.)
Any suggestions /thoughts on acceptable design/models would be appreciated. I'm thinking about one of the newer foam seated/sit higher teardrop designs( like fatcat 4) or similar pontoon type. More specificly at the Cadis teardrop and TU boats in both designs as wellas the FC 4 but am open. I'm hoping to keep the experiment under $150.
Thanks in advance
Dave