This subject has been addressed on this forum before. Now I know what you are thinking. This guy is nuts :shock:. It shouldn’t be a surprise because I am a kook anyway . You don’t see float tubes in Florida for a reason even though you do see inner tubes and body boards pulled by boats, skiers, and swimmers. Maybe I’m not such a kook after all. But when we fish we all take risks. The level of the risks that we take depends on the person I guess. I have lived with gators my entire life and know their aggressive times (territoriality, mating and nesting) and docile times as well as their “natural” behavior as opposed to “unnatural” (being fed) behavior. You folks that can float tube and have no gators to worry about are lucky folks when your waters aren’t frozen over. I want to float tube so bad I can taste it on some local ponds. Blame Bill Dance for float tubing on Versus. But he is from Tennessee, not Florida. A larger gator population combined with a larger human population in Florida means encroachment and more encounters. Apprehensive? You bet. When I was younger we thought nothing of floating down a river on an old inner tube “with the gators.” But those times are gone when there were only native folks that knew better and did not feed gators. In those times past I would not even feel the need to be asking for opinions and just go. It is against the law to feed gators in the State of Florida with a penalty of both a heavy fine and jail time “if caught.” Now I know these local ponds and that is probably key as Jack Ellis once of California and now of Texas would say. Here is what he had to say about it in his book The Sunfishes on page 65. I guess I’m not the only kook around to think about it.
Now Jack doesn’t mention natural gators (unfed) as opposed to unnatural (fed) gators. Do I know if the gators in the ponds have been fed? No, I don’t and that is the worry. Very few people get that far back to those two ponds. But the one or two gators that may be there (there may or may not be others) are small and are not aggressive and also leave or go into the water at my approach. They don’t like me any more than I do them as that is the natural behavior of gators. If there was a large population of them, then I would not even consider (think about) it. Of course the natural apprehension is still there regardless. A common myth that gators are mindless brutes attacking unseen from below is a “Hollywood” misconception by folks more concerned with sensationalism than about facts. Don’t believe everything you see, read, or hear without studying it for yourself first. Gators attack on the surface in the rare event that they do attack. At least I have never seen or heard of a gator attacking from below because that would not be natural for them (they need to be able to breathe while exerting effort even though they can stay fully submerged for hours without air). It probably takes a lot of cattle egrets, shore birds, and other shore critters for a gator to get real big. I am still mulling it over (vacillating, indecisive) since the only way to go way back there and get on those ponds other than limited bank fishing (scrub oaks along the shoreline prevent unlimited bank fishing) is with a float tube (no vehicle access). I can’t get my personal pontoon boat back there either (the metal frame would add protection) as its too large to carry that far even being fairly lightweight (I’m not in the water and gators never mess with me on the little boat anyway). Now after reading all this dribble, what are your thoughts on the subject? Maybe with a tubing buddy? Too risky to get a float tube and try it or not? Wait until I get a two-seat canoe and have a buddy help carry it back there? Thanks.
Maybe I’m not making myself clear. No vehicles are allowed. Vehicles are prohibited. Trails only so any craft must be carried in to ponds. I have no intention of getting bit.
Robert,
In my opinion, it isn’t a matter of whether you should use a float tube, it is you should have a fishing partner with you.
You still have to carry your float tube, waders on, fins, rod/reel, vest, so maybe it wouldn’t be that difficult for you and a buddy to carry a canoe instead.
Don’t forget a CO2 life vest also.
Doug
How far must a boat be carried? Could two of you manage a 41 lb, 14 ft. canoe. SportsPal/Radisson make such a unit. I bought one last spring and my wife and I use it regularly when the trout streams warm up too much to fish safely. We don’t have to carry it far - from car top to access - usually a matter of a few yards. It’s worked very well for us. I’m sure you know far more about 'gators than I, but please be careful. They scare me all the way up in Michigan!
or a yak I would think you could get a good SOT yak back there a long way if need be or even go with a sit in and the weight is reduced slightly. Well to be exact Heritage makes a recreational sit in model that sells for 449.00 that is 9’5" long and 30" wide and weighs only 38lbs called the featherlight classic or you could go a bit bigger and get the featherlight 14 that I currently use and it is 14’5" long 25" wide with rear dry storage and weighs n at 56lbs plenty easy to transport and big enough to look like a giant gator in the water so the little ones leave you alone. I understand how you feel about not having access I use my float tube when i have to hike more than a couple miles but given the choice to float tube with gators or yak i would yak even if I had to carry the thing fifty miles.
Steve
If it were me, I’d be looking to avoid:
a) anything in size and shape that made me look like a large waterfoul/animal.
b) dangling anything in the water ( see above).
c) any craft with low enough sides that a snake/gator could attempt a boarding.
While you might get away with it, it’s just not worth the risk.
I’d be MUCH more inclined to a lightweight canoe like the Raddison, SportsPal, OT Pac, Scott Feather, etc. ( With these craft, you’ll also get the advantage of teh unnatural sound that a paddle makes when it touches the wales.) If I HAD to us somethng inflatable ( for transportation reasons), I’d use a toon boat at minimum. At least these tent to be Large, unnatural looking devices that can be rowed while you’re feet are above water. (p.s. I’d also likely carry a firearm just in case.)
Thanks for the replies. I will wait until I can get a buddy to help carry a small canoe in there or just stick to limited bank fishing for the time being back there at those ponds. Not knowing about whether or not any gators in there have been fed or not is the worry. Otherwise if I knew for sure they were not being fed by hikers and bikers and such that may frequent the area, I wouldn’t worry about it at all because gators are as Jack Ellis basically said above, usually timid and not aggressive depending on the time of year and time of day.
I’d take the good advice and go with a canoe or yak and carry it in with a dolly. I built a marshboat for duck hunting. The boat weighed about 100 lbs. I then built a dolly for it and now I can haul it around. Some places I used to hunt didn’t have boat launches so I had to transport the boat 100 yards or so to water, the dolly worked great.
Transporting a canoe or yak that weighs under 50 lbs would be totally easy, even if the ground is a little rough.
Or, buy an old beater john boat and haul it in a leave it back there hidden someplace perhaps? I dunno, there are lots of options. What about an inflatable canoe/yak? Not the safest, but certainly safer than daggling you legs in the water like a couple of meat-sticks.
Plus, what if you did get bit back there? How far is it to safety? Gotta think about that worse case senerio and kinda plan for it ya know.
fWIW, you can build a 12’ x 28" 28# canoe out of doorskin ply and glass tape in a weekend. Several places have plans /instructions for this “stich and glue” boat.). Not a bad little puddle jumper for this sort of thing.
Just whack 'em on the head with your oar if they get too close, Phil :D. But make sure they aren’t under you when you do it :shock:.
You know I will tell you any of my fishing areas you want to go to, good buddy. That is if you want to make the 80 or so mile migration drive from Orlando down here to fish them. I think you would catch more fish on the Big Ditch though. PM coming your way.
ya know - I read the title of the thread - and thought - ummm - yeah - we tube for 'gators … well - northern gators that is … pike.
Then it hits - REAL 'GATORS … :shock:
… I’ve done a few wild and folish things in my life (and likely one or 2 left to go) - but voluntarily entering a watering hole with them green 'gators is way off my list. Besides, I’d pick the wrong time of day and year …
mind you, a good ole 14wt with a size 1 dhalberg … would be one heck of a tussle … THAT I might go for.
We’ve got some gators, at least a few. The TWRA dealt with a problem gator not too long ago. Heck, not too far back, they had to shoot an overly aggressive 8-footer on Bedford Lake not far from where Jack Hise moved… (um, Warren DID tell you about that, didn’t he, Jack?)
Global warming has brought us opossums and we hear armidillos are on the way. I’ll make note to archive this just in case we have gators showing up in the Mille Lacs shallows. JGW
. You don’t see float tubes in Florida for a reason even though you do see inner tubes and body boards pulled by boats, skiers, and swimmers. Maybe I’m not such a kook after all. But when we fish we all take risks. The level of the risks that we take depends on the person I guess. I have lived with gators my entire life and know their aggressive times (territoriality, mating and nesting) and docile times as well as their “natural” behavior as opposed to “unnatural” (being fed) behavior. You folks that can float tube and have no gators to worry about are lucky folks when your waters aren’t frozen over. I want to float tube so bad I can taste it on some local ponds. Blame Bill Dance for float tubing on Versus. But he is from Tennessee, not Florida. A larger gator population combined with a larger human population in Florida means encroachment and more encounters. Apprehensive? You bet. When I was younger we thought nothing of floating down a river on an old inner tube “with the gators.” But those times are gone when there were only native folks that knew better and did not feed gators. In those times past I would not even feel the need to be asking for opinions and just go. It is against the law to feed gators in the State of Florida with a penalty of both a heavy fine and jail time “if caught.” Now I know these local ponds and that is probably key as Jack Ellis once of California and now of Texas would say. Here is what he had to say about it in his book The Sunfishes on page 65. I guess I’m not the only kook around to think about it.