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

I'd say the FishCats are pretty much what you're looking for. If I was going to buy a tube for under/around $150, that's what it'd be.

Just so you know, I've owned 2 TU boats in the past. Both were very good boats with the exception of the bladders. The valves are made very poorly. Hope this helps in your decision.

Hi there,

My vote would be for either an original U-boat style or a bladder-pontoon, altered U-boat style float tube. I've got a Woodstream Stealthrider (too expensive) u-boat. The next tube I want would be the pontoon style Outcast (Super) Fat Cat. It's very reasonably priced although the valve hassle is bothersome. Lot's of pro's and con's and quite a number of tube sites' message boards you should surf. Use google.com and throw a few keywords in and see what happens.

Do those little blue fishies nip at your heels? ha ha

Good Luck!

JapanRon