Float Tube Fishing in Ireland
Having a really great time fishing from the world's best floating fishing
platform
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The best rod length
for a tube fishing depends a lot on what line, what length of
line and hook sizes you will be using. The lake you fish will
dictate a lot of these points. For tube fishing on the surface I use a ST 6 floater or intermediate shooting head (DT cut in half) with a no 2 floater level for shooting line. The rod that does this best for me is a 10' 6" medium action. It is soft enough that when netting a fish the rod is bent to the bottom section, (ideally only the top of the butt section bends so there is reserve backbone strength available) and not the full length extends over me. A bit long but quite manageable. Moreover, it's long enough for dibbling droppers at short range to attract the fish up. From the tube dibbling at long range is not necessary because the trout will rise consistently closer to the tube than they will for boating anglers. There is a lot more on this subject and other fly fishing float tubing over here on this page : Fly Fishing in Tubes. The medium action rod I recommend is soft enough that, with reasonable care, small hooks will not be pulled out during playing big fish, due to excessive rod stiffness. but not unduly soft. The typical medium price general purpose no 6 beginner 10' 6" rod has the action I describe at a low cost. |
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I change over from
floating to intermediate line pon one rod, or slow sink to fast
sink on the other many times during a day with no appreciable
delay longer than just changing a fly.
Float tube casting a fly for fish feeding along marginal reeds |
Rods that are
Suitable |
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Anyone who held an old
glass RW Farnborough knows the action that is exactly right, but in a
lighter carbon fibre rod. A modern medium-heavy reservoir comes close if
graded tip-middle action. The overall stiff strength makes a rod hard work over a full day, but the ability to bend in the middle mitigates this significantly. If you find it tough at first - use an elastic wrist strap around the rod handle below the reel to move the workload onto your forearm which won't get tired. How to Change Shooting Heads Quickly While Afloat You were fishing the bottom in 4-6 feet of water, but now you moved out to 9 - 10 feet depth. If you count down the slow sink Wet Cel 1 you will waste much of the fishing time, so a Wet Cel 2 is more appropriate. An alternative is hanging a motionless weighted buzzer under a floater line + strike indicator and wait for the fish to find you. But you stop moving and searching if you choose that option. Using a faster sinking line allows you to retrieve, and search water while still staying within visibility and taking distance from the bottom at the new depth. So you can see how there is a need to change shooting heads frequently during the day, and back again, so as to search and fish the water column effectively at each level. |
 Perch on a dropper Corixa |
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The "spare spool system" advocated
unthinkingly by many is flawed
because it necessitates rethreading the rod rings to change. Spare
spools is only appropriate with full length DT lines for salmon and
river fishing trout, but never with ST lines. There
is a much better way to change short fly lines. If you change the line
while it's all outside the rod tip ring, no re-threading is required. For this reason all my tubing fly lines have a 4"- 5" loop at their back end, and all backings have the same on their front end. To change line it is a simple matter to cast out and retrieve the line to the point where I can swing the back end of the ST to hand. Take the ST loop. Now pull on it until I also have the front too with a 15' loop (30' head doubled) laying downwind in the water in a big loop. A slow finning speed keeps it trailing all away and tangle free. Take the leader, attach with rubber band, tape or clip and wind it fly-end first onto an old line spool, rubber band or tape the rear end, and pass the entire spool through the large backing loop to release it. Take alternative ST on it's spool, pass spool through the backing loop to make two loops knot, roll off into the water (or just strip in the line at the reel in the conventional way to extend the new ST). Ready! Time taken to switch from slow sink, to fast sink maybe 60 -90 seconds. And with this system two rods does everything. |
 Fly Pike from Float Tube |
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No taking the reel off to change line, and
one day accidentally dropping it
overboard. The reason for selecting the ST no 6 (over lighter lines) when floating line fishing for trout is that it can penetrate wind on back-cast better. This reduces tangles while fishing a three fly leader. A no 5 is ok in calmer conditions, and I have the 5 rod too but don't choose it so often. I would end up fishing shorter leaders or fewer flies. As long
as you are casting short lines on lake or lough, you have no requirement to
mend line to overcome (river) current induced line drag, so there is no logical reason
NOT to use shooting head lines. |
 Rainbow Trout blind in one eye (shown) had no problem nailing this California Leech
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