A float tube puts you at eye level with the water on a lake, which is exactly where a stillwater trout feeds. You sit low, move without a motor, and can park over a weed bed in six feet of water where a boat would drift off and a shore angler could never reach. On the shallow, weedy trophy lakes of the West it is often the best platform there is.
The tube, and the fins that move it
Modern tubes are U- or V-shaped, open at the front, so you step in standing and sit down rather than climbing through a hole. Get one rated for your weight plus gear with room to spare, with a high seat that keeps your chest above the water; the low round tubes are cold and slow. A stripping apron across your lap catches loose line.
Fins are the engine and worth more thought than the tube. You kick backward, and long, stiff fins that strap over wading boots move you faster and with less effort than short flexible ones. Keep them leashed to the tube; a lost fin a quarter mile from the launch is a long one-legged paddle home. Practice kicking in a straight line before you rely on it; most people veer without a reference point.
Safety on a lake is different from a river
You are sitting in cold water. Even in July, high lakes like Henry's Lake pull heat through the waders all day. This is the one place neoprene waders still make sense; breathables with heavy fleece underneath work in summer, and a wading belt goes on either way.
Wear a PFD. An inflatable one is unobtrusive and it is the thing that keeps your head up if the tube loses air. Check the bladders before every launch.
Wind is the real hazard. A float tube has no keel and a lot of windage, and an afternoon breeze on a big reservoir like Strawberry or Hebgen can push you faster than you can kick against it. Start upwind of the launch so the wind brings you home. Get off the water at the first thunder; you are the tallest thing on a flat lake, sitting in it. Tell someone your plan, carry a whistle, and stay out of boat lanes.
Positioning: fishing from a moving seat
The tube drifts and turns constantly, and learning to fish from it is mostly learning to use that. Kick gently to hold position against wind. Kick to turn so the cast goes downwind, which is easier and lands softer. Drop a small folding anchor when you want to sit on a drop-off and fish it thoroughly, especially with chironomids under an indicator, where drift is the enemy.
Fish in a fan. Cast, count the fly down, retrieve, then kick a few feet and cast to the next angle. On a lake without visible structure, a slow wind drift with a sinking line and a leech trailing behind you covers more water than casting. That trolling drift is how a lot of the big rainbows at Georgetown Lake and Crowley are found.
Working weed lines and drop-offs
Stillwater trout live at edges: the outside edge of a weed bed, the drop from a shallow shelf into deeper water, the mouth of an inlet. Weeds hold scuds, damselfly nymphs, and Callibaetis nymphs, and trout cruise the outer edge picking off what drifts or swims out. The tube lets you sit just outside the weed line in deeper water and cast in along it, retrieving your fly out of the weeds the way a nymph would move.
With a floating line and a long leader, fish a damsel or Callibaetis nymph in 12 to 16 along the weed tops with a slow hand-twist retrieve, pausing often. With an intermediate or type III sinking line, count the fly down and swim a leech or scud slowly along the bottom edge. Watch for cruising fish; on clear water like Convict Lake you will see them, and a cast eight feet ahead of a fish is worth ten blind ones.
Chironomids are the biggest food source on most of these lakes, and the tube is the ideal platform for them. Anchor over ten to twenty feet of water near a drop, hang a chironomid pupa in 12 to 16 under an indicator a foot off the bottom, and wait. It fills the net on days when nothing else moves.
Lakes on this site suited to a tube
- Henry's Lake, Idaho. Shallow, weedy, big cutthroat and hybrids. The classic tube water; damsels and leeches along the weed edges in summer.
- Hebgen Lake, Montana. Big water; stay in the arms and near the inlets. Callibaetis and the summer fishing to cruising rainbows are made for a tube.
- Georgetown Lake, Montana. Shallow and weedy across most of its area, with chironomid fishing from an anchored tube.
- Crowley Lake, California. The Eastern Sierra chironomid fishery; tubes and pontoons work the drop-offs and channels.
- Spinney Mountain, Colorado. Gold Medal stillwater, big browns and rainbows on scuds, leeches, and chironomids from a tube.
- Strawberry Reservoir, Utah. Large; fish the bays and inlet areas and respect the wind.
- Scofield Reservoir, Utah. Smaller, less pressured, easy tube launching.
- Pass Lake, Washington. Small, fly-only, rarely ices, and a chironomid lake from March.
- Convict Lake, California. Small alpine water where sight fishing from a tube is realistic.
- Diamond Lake, Oregon and Fish Lake, Utah. Both are shallow enough over much of their area to fish well from a tube.
Pyramid Lake in Nevada is tube water too, but it is enormous, windy, and cold in its winter season; most anglers there wade from shore.
Gear for the tube
A 9 or 10 foot 5 or 6 weight; the longer rod keeps the backcast off the water behind you. Two spools: a floating line and an intermediate or type III sink. Leaders 9 to 15 feet on the floater, 6 to 9 on the sinker. Flies: chironomid pupae in 12 to 16, leeches in olive and black, damsel and Callibaetis nymphs, a scud, a Woolly Bugger. Everything clipped to the tube, because whatever is not clipped will end up on the bottom.
Your first launch
Pick a small lake on a calm morning, put in at a gentle shore with a firm bottom, and walk in backward until the tube floats you. Kick out fifty yards and practice holding position, turning, and coming back. Then fish the nearest weed edge with a leech on a slow retrieve. Come in before the wind does.