Float tube could prove good substitute for boat

At some point in their fishing careers, most anglers will find themselves dreaming of owning a fishing boat. This usually occurs on those days when fishing from the shoreline is slow, when the honey hole they want to fish is just out of reach or the rock they are sitting on comes up short on the comfort scale.

This sense of longing is made worse when some smart-alecky boat owner flashes his stringer of plump fish or boasts about all the fish he caught and released before calling it a day. It’s then you might find yourself saying, “Gee, if I only had a boat …”

You don’t have to be an adult to have a “gee-if-I-only-had-a-boat” moment. I can still remember wet-wading with my dad in a frigid mountain lake somewhere in southwestern Idaho. It was the very day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon — July 20, 1969 — but there were fish to catch, and we had no doubt there would be reruns. I was only 8 years old, but standing waste deep in water provided by the melting snow gave just cause for my first “gee-if-I-only-had-a-boat” moment.

Obviously, a boat provides access to a lot more water than an angler will reach while fishing from the shoreline, but it also comes with a large price tag and ongoing maintenance costs. Then there is the rising cost of fuel and storage issues. In this day of home lots the size of postage stamps and homeowner association rules, there is little room for most boats, and taking over a spouse’s parking space in the garage isn’t always an option, let alone a smart decision.

One option is to find a friend who owns a boat and chip in for gas. Another option is to find a quality float tube, no doubt the invention of a rather creative angler who one day wished he had a boat but had only a truck tire inner tube to work with.

While float tubes long have been an accepted mode of on-the-water transportation for trout fishermen, most bass anglers have ignored them. Doing so, however, just might be a mistake. Yes, it’s true that you can’t cover as much water in a float tube as you can in a boat, but you can thoroughly fish a given section of water. Probably much more thoroughly than you can from a boat, and there is less noise to scare the fish.

The float tube extends your fishing reach, making it possible to fish your baits from the water side back toward the shoreline. You can also fish the lake side of a grass bed or submerged brush, something that is difficult to do from the shoreline.

Another benefit of the float tube is portability. Most come with backpacking straps, so you can easily carry your tube into remote waters. This is especially beneficial at such places as Lake Mead and Lake Mohave, where vehicle access to the shoreline is limited. For example, with a float tube, you can park at Cottonwood Cove and hike to some of the bass-holding coves north or south of the marina.

With float tubes, there are no fuel costs, little maintenance and, with few exceptions, storage is not an issue. As with anything else, you get what you pay for, but the price of a float tube starts at less than $100 and tops out at around $400. As with a bass boat, the price of a float tube depends on the make, model and selected options.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.