Fishing Forum

Hi Folks!
After a long while of lurking this great forum - I registered. []
By way of introduction .....

I have been float tubing for 27 years now, here in Ireland, Europe, having been got into it after talked with Del Canty about his Flaming Gorge big trout catches in the late 70s.

I've sat in and used a variety of tubes from beginnings with Fishmasters, then Insul Dri (they were ahead of their time, and really kick started the "new" tubing IMHO), a Hi & Dri, camo Top Gun, and I'm now using a camo Bucks Bags Bullet V/U-tube.

Used to keep my sonar tucked into the side pocket, taking up valuable space, but based on inspiration from this forum, it is now on a swiveling and tilting mount. The side-side scanning transducer is also rotatable for fore-aft scan without touching the screen settings, and is also on a liftable, tiltable mount.(thanks TubeDude, and all, for those tricked out pics !)

Pic of setup enclosed.
Pic of sonar mount encl.

The interesting tube fishing here is mainly for trout and pike, chances of flyfishing for other fish like carp too.

Pic of a decent tubed pike encl.

Most special requirements arising from tubing in Ireland revolve around dealing with windy conditions. We have a constant fresh breeze here on the edge of Europe ... nice for surfers, but it makes tubing a pretty energetic thing to do. Also - got to look out for boaters that never saw a tube before, never mind thinking of looking where they're going .....

I used to use a 7 amp hour Gel Cel (12 volt) but nowadays I have eliminated those from my kit.
Nowadays I use a model aircraft flyers nickel metal hydride battery 10-cells which is also 12 volts, but it is about a tenth of the weight, is much smaller-more compact, and can be recharged in 30 minutes with a good charger.

Pic enclosed for anyone interested in smaller batteries.

That battery shown in the pic is a 10 cell GP2200 2.2 amp hour battery, and it keeps my sonar going for 4 hours. It is very compact. Another size would be a GP4350mAh 10 cell pack.

I have a few of these Nimh batteries now and will never go back to the heavy ones. The battery fits in beside my tackle in one side pocket, and a spare batt is beside it. They are available in 2 or 4 amp hour without going too expensive cost-wise.
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Welcome! That's a heckuva fish, bet it was a wild ride. I like your setup too.
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Welcome. Maybe we can get some imformation on fishing there. What species are available ?
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Welcome IFT. Glad you decided to jump in and post.

That's a great looking pike. What a fish. I'll bet it pulled you around the lake for awhile.

We're looking forward to your posts. Always good to hear a different perspective from a different place. And I didn't even notice you accent. [cool]

No more lurking for you, now.

Best regards, and again, Welcome!

z~
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IFT.. you mentioned tubing in salt water.. do you do any tubing in any freshwater tubing in the lakes.. ??

MacFly [cool]
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IFT.. you mentioned tubing in salt water.. do you do any tubing in any freshwater tubing in the lakes.. ??

MacFly [cool] [/reply]


Salt Water Tubing .. not a lot. I hope to try flyfishing for grey mullet and bass later this summer - but that will be in a stillwater salt lagoon type environment, not open water. And this would be a couple of days in calm during holidays, not the average fishing trip.

Basically it is all about freshwater lough tubing for me. I am happiest with lakes when in a float tube and usually after good trout or pike.
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Welcome. Maybe we can get some imformation on fishing there. What species are available ? [/reply]

Try here for a start: [url "http://www.cfb.ie/"]www.cfb.ie[/url] the website of the Central Fisheries Board. [/url][/url]There may be better info available online for particular regions from the local region authority, but this website gives reasonable general fishing information on the whole of Ireland.

Hey Zonker ...
You can't hear my accent when I post, on account of I type posh [cool]
And yeah .. that's my best float tube pike there, at least so far. It was a fun day. There's some brilliant pike and trout fishing going on here at the moment, but I can't get out till after the weekend. []
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..that sounds good to me.. I asked about salt water because you had said the windy conditions were good for surfers.. :-)

I for one would love to see more pics the waters etc that you fish in the Emerald Isle..

MacFly [cool]
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Welcome and thanks for posting! I really like the looks of that battery you are using. Can you tell me about how much it does weigh and what type of charger you use for it? Do you know if they are available for purchase online?

That is one heck of a pike! I went to highschool in Montana and we had some great pike fishing up there but I never hooked anything quite that big. Nice!
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Welcome, welcome and that is a nice setup. By the way that was very nice pike. Keep up the posts as we love to see stuff from every where. You should chat with TubeN2 he is the master at salt water tubing or a EXTREME tubing, going as far riding the tides.

Majja
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Flyanddrive:
I will take a couple of photos next time I'm rigged up and on the water, and post a thread about the different batteries that can be made do the job, the handy ways to charge them, and what ones I use and why. It helps that I work in a hobby shop so the battery technical info is all around me. []

Majja:
As far as salt tubing goes I'm a real beginner. Very limited opportunities to do it safely, due to my home location, strong tidal flows could easily cause a long walk home later if timing is wrong. This is a type of angling I hope to learn more about from this forum. My tubing is mainly for coldwater fish species, so there are times during the summer when the fishing for these dies off a bit, unless I drive farther to a deep lake, and the sea closer to where I live begins to look more attractive.

Now if it only clears up a bit tomorrow, I could grab a few hours.
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Thanks for the reply. I already have a fairly small (6"x4"x2") but heavy (probably around 5-6 lbs) 12v that I currently use. It lasts forever and a day with the sonar I have mounted on my tube but it just looks like the battery you have might be lighter and more easily stored even with a spare or two. I'm just curious. [cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]Sorry my welcome and response is so late in the day. Had I known you were going to come aboard, I would have cancelled my fishing trip this morning. NOT LIKELY.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Anyway, add my welcome to that of the others. Very pleased that you decided to jump in and contribute a bit. I enjoyed your pics and your creativity. [/#0000ff]
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Now we got to get a map and put pins on to show who lives where! Welcome to our yard! I learn alot from all those great guys and gal about tubings.
That's a nice pike and I got dreams to hook oneone of those days!
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Welcome aboard IrishFloatTube. We are glad to have you hear and we thank you for your generous introduction as well as contribution to this forum.

That is a very nice setup that you have and even a nice fish to prove it.[cool]
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