# Float Tubes



## byuduckhunter (Dec 2, 2008)

I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever tried hunting out of a float tube? I am also wondering what is the best way to go as far as concealment. Is it best to get some fabric or what? I am pretty new to waterfowling so any help would be great.
Thanks


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

I asked and was pretty much told there was no way it'd work.... I think it works a lot better than folks give it credit for, especially if you have something that you can lean the seat back in. Apparently folks think ducks aren't stupid enough to fall for that.... ummmm their brain is about the size of a pea and they don't have the ability to reason. They, like all the other critters are creatures of habit so if you were able to create a cover that would match your surroundings, you shouldn't have any issues as long as you're not disruptive (too much) of their daily habit or their environment. For example, don't take a red or orange tube and expect to blend in out on Utah Lake or Farmington. If you could get some sort of gray cover for open water or a camo cloth cover for the marshy areas, I think you'd really do better than most would expect. 

I have yet to attempt my hunts out of a V boat (Fishcat 4) but I've had ducks land around me on Utah Lake and in some other smaller ponds as well while in my tube and thats not really that well concealed. Round tubes would be a little awkward I think but might lower your profile a little more... don't really know. Its probably a bit dangerous/foolhardy but if you deflate your tube just a little, it'll sit you lower, you'll still float and you'll have more "dead mass" to help absorb recoil from your shotgun so that your tube won't be as apt to flip on you. Thats just my thought anyway. I would imagine doing such a thing would mean a life jacket and a wader belt to keep water out would be a must in case of a mishap. The hard thing I came up with in all this is the depth of the water you could hunt. I know out at Farmington, the water isn't real deep on Unit 2 so you'd have to take into consideration the depth you'd be able to use your flippers. I haven't kicked out around the rest area on Unit 1 yet but a boat ride may be in order so I don't waste leg power. 

In some of the areas on Ogden Bay, Public, Bear River, Utah Lake, Strawberry, Scofield or any of the other reservoirs/WMA's I think it would give you a distinct low profile mobility advantage over shore bound folks or those locked into big, bulky duck boats. It'd probably take you a while to get to where you want to be but it just might pay off in spades once you get there. Most of the tubes come with pack straps or D rings for attaching them as well so you could pack your tube into isolated potholes if you needed a way to retrieve in deep water. Something else to consider is if you have a dog.... is it worth leaving your pal at home? For me... thats a tough one because I love having my dog with me. Anyway, these are just some of the musings I've had while sitting and thinking of ways to get way back in or get closer to some of the loafing flocks we see and wish we could get closer to without dropping a ton of money for a specialized craft to accomplish that.


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

non of are wma are deep enought for float tubes. youa re only in nee deep water if that. but hunting the berry or any big lake s like late it would work pretty great. good luck with it. it would be alot easyer to hide a duck boat then a float tube in nee deep or less water.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

I have wondered the same thing, but like dkhntrdstn said, most of the WMA's are too shallow. The WMA's haven't been all that great either, so maybe it would be worth your while to try out Strawberry, or another hunt-able reservoir, where you can get your tube out there. Just be careful! The water is really cold this time of year, and if you get into trouble in an area that is far away from others, you may end up in deep crap, unable to save yourself. I bet you could get some ghillie material to drape over yourself if you did. Give it a shot, let us know how it goes!


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## huntinfool (Nov 1, 2007)

i have never tried the float tube idea i have used a pontoon boat many times on fb, brbr, ogden bay ect and it worked out very well


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

If I were to do it at Ogden, PSG or Salt Creek, I'd walk dikes until you get to where you want to be, launch the tube, cross the boat channels to whereever you wanted to go and then, sitting in that tube you're way lower than anything else out there, especially in knee deep water, unless somebody was in a kayak or something. I can think of at least one place you could access with a tube at most of the places I listed (I'm sure there are more) and if you had a pontoon.... oh man.... :shock:  You might kick bottom occasionally but it would be very doable. If you walk the dikes there are some channels you can get into that are very floatable... I've waded a few of them so I know they're deeper than most folks knees. Some of em, I couldn't cross because they were just too deep. Even if you didn't use your float tube as a main hunting platform, you can use them to cross deeper water or hunt flowing channels where big boats can't go and in spots that would make a really long walk for folks on foot. Can you imagine?? Jumpshooting out of a tube? The possibilities are endless if you're willing to be creative. 8)


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## dkhntrdstn (Sep 7, 2007)

I will tell you right now some of those place that have been said it wount work., the water is lower then normale this year and even if it was up it still would not be deep enought. Ogden bay You might be able just to sit in it. But the ducks wount come in to you. I have seen people try seting up out there..Salt creek the boats are having a hard enought time getting out there. Like said befor are wma are not deep enought for it. Im not trying to tell you not to try it. if you do hope it works out for you and be safey and have fun.


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## kingfish (Sep 10, 2007)

my thoughts on this are try it and see. you may have the next best thing in waterfowling. i would say if you can sit on the mud with a float tube around you all grassed up what do you have to loose. sit in the sparse grass with a float tube all grassed up and you could knock them dead. whether its 6" of water or 16'...its worth a try if you want to put in the effort! i dont think water depth has all that much to do with it. whats wrong with sitting on the mud in 6" of water? thats what you have waders for!! grass it up real good and you'll disapear for the most part!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

My tube is comfy enough that I've fallen asleep in it out catfishing... suppose thats something to beware of too if you're out there. The new tubes are pretty comfy and leaning back relaxing in a nice soft seat, warm in your waders is definitely a situation where dozing off becomes a possibility. :lol:


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

byuduckhunter said:


> I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever tried hunting out of a float tube?


i can only assume its a bit like layout hunting...

did it for years out on FB while we were a up and comming family scraping to make ends meet. did pretty darn good to. depending on how much i wanted to paddle -)O(- (god my legs hurt just thinking about this) my tube is a camo blob version with the high back. brand name i dunno, but i could check for you. i found it in a pawn shop for 30 bucks...new and still in the box. i tryed covering with a mat of fast grass but it prooved to be mostly a hassle.

shoot me a pm and ill hook you up on some more LITTLE things i have learned about the subject :wink:


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## 1BandMan (Nov 2, 2007)

Its not a new thing and one that was quite popular for a while a few years back.
Concealment with the guys I knew that did it was a supermag goose shell over your head, kind of like the goose chair concept.
Some of these same guys abandon it due to DWR officers giving them tickets for what they said was using a "sinkbox". I don't know how the DWR officer interpreted a float tube as a sinkbox but.....
I also know some other guys that did it without a hitch or harassment from any wildlife officers with mixed results. It sure couldn't hurt to put another method in your bag of tricks especially if it were an area that you could do it.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

Float tube in deeper water you'll have to long line the deeks. and i would paint the tube gray and wear gray. you would have to have somebody tender you. if you hit a bird there is NO way you could paddle faster than a duck. so some one would have to come in and clean up after you. I think you would need alot of deeks to hide in and you would flare lots of puddlers, due to the fact that they decoy in to high and would pick you out. just my thought. as open water hunting is the new and greatest thing i would like to see someone try it, just not me.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Check it out... the toon looks friggin sweet!!

http://www.coverbonanza.com/7516/255171 ... shing.html

Of course this would only hide you if you were to tube to the edge of a pond or something... not something I could see working in open water unless there was lots of debris on the surface.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Interesting read....

oh, and on a side note, if the wind is right, you can drift to rafts of puddlers if you don't move. Move and they'll be gone but I've had lots of puddlers and even geese within 30 yards or so out on Utah Lake just by letting the wind carry me as I drifted for catfish. On cripples.... I can kick my float tube as fast as I wade in waist deep water.... so if the water is deep enough for your fins to bite and propel you, then you won't have to worry about some bird swimming so fast that it gets out of range before you can finish it.

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/hunting/d ... aa116204a/


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

stuckduck said:


> ...just not me.


...done, both open water and marshy eviorns.... it works fine if you pay attention to the details.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

Riverrat77 said:


> Interesting read....
> 
> On cripples.... I can kick my float tube as fast as I wade in waist deep water.... so if the water is deep enough for your fins to bite and propel you, then you won't have to worry about some bird swimming so fast that it gets out of range before you can finish it.


I call that BS maybe on a puddler like a mallard or pinner but not a goldeneye or redhead....you'll "paddle" in the derection they dove only to find the serfaced 50 yards in the other derection, you'll loose ALOT of cripples.. sometimes when i run the tender boat for the layouts those birds are good at what they do and thats dive and swim...no way can you keep up with that....


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## utahgolf (Sep 8, 2007)

it seems like a much bigger hassle than its worth...unless you use it to retrieve ducks from reservoir hunting and you don't have a dog..have one guys haul the float tube out and the other guy carry dekes and setup on shore and take turns retrieving ducks that drop out past where you can't wade...


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## 1BandMan (Nov 2, 2007)

It's not that tough and I haven't heard that cripples are that difficult to retrieve. I watched an airboat drop guys off on Utah lake in open water in float tubes with the supermag goose deke on thier heads and it worked pretty well. The only problem is tossing the deke off and shooting.
I'm sure it's situational where it works and doesn't work and where it is a beast to pull it off and where it would be a piece of cake to float tube it, but I'm not sure it would work in real shallow water.

In shallow water, I'd also try the monster duck or goose silloutte on a pole trick and hide behind it. You can turn it to keep it faced in front of you and hide behind so the birds don't see you. Kind of weird sounding but this too works if you like/don't mind wading in cold water all day.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

stuckduck said:


> Riverrat77 said:
> 
> 
> > Interesting read....
> ...


You don't have to catch them by hand..... just get close enough to seal the deal.... kinda like a tender boat does chasing down a cripple. Just close enough to hose them one last time and that cuts the chase a lot shorter. For what its worth, I've waded and caught a Goldeneye before in decently deep water... and she was swimming her heart out. Thankfully, the water was clear enough (although it was a full arms length deep) that I was able to cut her off, reach under and yank her to the top. I've got a picture somewhere. If I can kick as fast as I wade, then it shouldn't be an issue. Harry... I think that would be annoying with the deke over the top of you but it sounds like it would be effective, especially since the birds raft way out in the middle on Utah Lake. Don't they call that "body booting" where they hide in waders behind a goose silo with a gun hanger on the back of them? I think that'd be fun to do too.... I wonder if you could get swans in that way?

Nor-tah, thanks for the heads up today... we'll have to rig something for the bikes I'm thinking... looking forward to comparing notes about that pond area we talked about.


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