Float Tube Fly Fishing

What Is A Float Tube?
Fly-fishing lakes can be done successfully using a variety of different water craft and one of the more popular crafts is a float tube (also known as a belly boat). A float tube is a small personal watercraft in a "donut", "U" or "V" shape that is usually made up of a rubber inner tube or vinyl bladder with a nylon shell. You maneuver backward through the water using only fins and your own leg power. There are many advantages to using a float tube over a regular boat. You can pack the float tube up with your other gear when hiking into a lake or use the shoulder straps that come with most float tubes and carry your tube fully inflated like you would a backpack. This allows you to fish water that doesn't get a lot of pressure, getting back into smaller lakes and ponds that dont have any boat ramps or roads, or for fishing water where conventional boats aren't allowed. Storage is another advantage. With a lot of float tubes fully deflated, you can store your tube without taking up very much space, not much more room than a couple pairs of waders.

Fly Fishing From A Tube
There are more than a few methods to consider when using a float tube, some of these can include: 

Troll-Casting
The most common method of fly fishing from a float tube is what I like to call troll-casting. This method is quite easy and affective. Simply kick your way parallel to the shore and cast your line across your body (if you are right handed, cast your line over your left shoulder). Once the cast is made, stop kicking and if fishing wet flies, give your fly time to sink using the count down method. If fishing dry flies, let it sit still first then begin your retrieve using various retrieve styles until you find one the fish favour. While retrieving, you can choose to start kicking again or continue to sit still. With this technique, you want to slowly work the entire shoal of a lake 5-10 feet at a time and keeping a distance of about 20 feet from the drop-off. The drop-off is where the bottom of the lake gets deep quickly. If you look into the water while kicking away from shore, the weeds will disappear all of a sudden; that's the drop off. Trout will rise up the drop-off and onto the shoal looking for quick and easy meals. The transition from the shoal to the drop-off is the 'Strike Zone' and it's where you'll get the majority of your hook-ups. Troll-casting works with both floating and sinking lines but a sub-surface presentation will almost always out produce a top water presentation and your efforts should be rewarded using weighted flies and/or intermediate sinking lines. *See the primitive drawing below. 

Trolling
A method usually used by less experienced fly anglers who aren't yet comfortable with their casting, trolling flies from a float tube can be very productive and with a good searching pattern should help you find good fishy hangouts. For those not confident with their casting skills, you can simply pull line off your reel and kick backwards while wriggling the tip of you fly rod to get your line out. Trolling from a tube, whether with a dry or wet line can give your fly some incredible action. The side-to-side motion you can create with your tube by hard kicking one leg then pausing and repeating with the opposite leg combined with laying your rod across your tube will cause your fly to stop and start at various speeds and can drives the fish nuts. You also have the option of stripping your line in while trolling. When doing this it's a good idea to experiment with your retrieve as the trout will react to different speeds. Again, a sub-surface presentation will usually produce better than a top water presentation as most fish do 90% or more of their foraging below the surface.  

Drifting
One of the biggest downsides to float tubing is fighting against the wind. It can take a lot out of an angler when kicking against a strong wind or even a stiff breeze when you've been at it all day. You can however use the wind to your advantage. To do this you'll want to make you way to the end of the lake where the wind is coming from (a good time to troll or do some troll-casting). Once there, you simply let the wind push you back to the other end. While in this drifting state, cast to fishy looking hangouts. You can use your fins to manoeuvre yourself into desired locations while on your drift. 

Anchoring
There are anchors made specifically for float tubes. On breezy days these anchors seam to work well enough but on windier days they're not very reliable. In my experience, a 5lb dumbbell weight tied to an anchor rope works pretty good. Anchoring your float tube opens up the opportunity to fish static presentations. This floating line technique of fishing under an indicator is one of the most productive methods a stillwater fly angler has in their arsenal. Although not as immune to the effects from the wind indicator fishing from a double anchored boat, you can still have outstanding results if you know how to control your line to keep your presentation still (catatonic). Under an indicator you can fish leech patterns, scuds, boatman, and many other simple life forms but chironomids (midge pupa/larva) patterns are the most popular. The idea is to attach a strike indicator onto your leader according to how deep you want your fly. If you're fishing depths of more than ten feet, a quick release indicator will make life a whole lot easier to net fish. Using a fluorocarbon leader, attach your flies so your point fly sits at minimum one foot from the bottom (in Alberta we can use up to three flies but I usually stick with two to prevent tangles when netting fish). Cast your flies out and let them sit while trying to keep all movement off your line so the fly remains static. Once you believe your fly is directly below the indicator, wait some more. Now strip the line in very slowly or take a couple of very short (2 inch) quick strips of your line, pause, pause some more, now wait some more and repeat. Remember, when you think you've waited long enough, wait some more. On breezy days you can use a drifting line method with this system as well. With the wind at your back, cast to your side and just let the wind drift you set-up slowly until it is directly in front of you. You can also fish this long leader set-up without an indicator. We call this fishing "naked" and great attention must be taken as your concentration must be intense to feel the take which at times can be very subtle. When fishing naked, retrieving with a dead slow hand twist retrieve will produce the best results. Static techniques are very affective but can become boring as there is a lot of waiting involved. It can also be just the opposite with non-stop action when a good hatch is on though, at times resulting in a-fish-a-cast. Static line fishing isn't the only technique to use when you are anchored. Casting a sinking line with wet flies is an affective method for finding fish and if there is a good hatch on and the trout are actively feeding on top of the water, it's sometimes fun to anchor right in the middle of an active area, tie on a dry fly to your floating line and just enjoy your time casting to risers. During the boatman/backswimmer migration that we see in the fall, you can have incredible success with a dry line and a floating boatman pattern. Although you don't need to be anchored to enjoy this type of fishing, it frees up your concentration as you search for rise rings to cast your fly into. Whenever you are anchoring down, remember to fan cast. Fan casting is simply spreading your casts out in different directions as you don't want to continually fish the same water over and over again. Once you do hook up however, cast to that same spot a few more time as you may have found a feeding lane. If it is a feeding lane, a lot of trout will continue to move along this same route in search of food.