Float Tube Advice

[Thunderthumbs]

I'm sure a float tube would work pretty well, but I think you'd do a lot better with a pontoon boat in a shallower river like the Ausable.

TT.

[CrookedRiverMike]

I would agree that a pontoon is the way to go. I sold my U-Boat by Caddis to purchase an Outcast 8' pontoon and love it on moving and still water.
MW

[Fly Goddess]

I thought I preferred the open front like on SFC, FC and pontoons but I got the NFO ASSAULT this year. I love the stability of this thing. I can actually stand on the seat area with ease. I thought landing fish to the side would be a challenge but it isn't. Something about the design is very secure feeling. The rockers give the boat a foot print of two pontoons. NO DRAG like other models. The inflatable seat area rocks with pressure valve. I got the Apron for mine and have all sorts of storage. $1300. and weighs 23 lbs. There is an Ultra light version (no bags or D rings) that weighs around 18 lbs. It rolls up into a rolling duffle.

I have added sonar and the motor mount and motor to mine, plus two Scotty glue on rod holders although the side bags have rod holders built in.



It is 8 1/2 feet long.

Stripped down



Packed up:

[John_N]

I was just up there a few weeks ago for three days of fishing. As I always do when fishing up there, I fished long stretches on foot each day, and on at least two of the days that I recall, I saw guys floating the river in float tubes. Maybe it's me, but over the last ten years or so of visiting up there, I've seen a progressively wider variety of watercraft on that river. Where it seems like it used to be almost exclusively the traditional Au Sable river boats and occasional canoes, I started seeing pontoons some years back with more frequency than ever before. Now more recently I've seen float tubes too. Especially on the mainstream, it's such a slow flow and shallow water in most cases, I can see where that would be a practical means to get around. I think I'd still want a pontoon or something with oars to be better able to make a radical course adjustment if I was coming up on a sweeper or something, but I guess if you were keeping your eyes far enough downstream, you could navigate effectively even with a tube. Either way, I'd only use it for navigation between points that I'd fish while wading, but that's just me...