question

[lonehunter]

just a thought , has anyone concidered that a lot of physical theropy is done in pools , i saw a news program and right off thought of how much a tube would be useful in that area . maybe get some of these people in the out of doors too instead of staying in a building all the time .

it's got to be scary enough to put your trust into someone holding you in the water , with a tube and a companion at your side i think it would make for a more enjoyable experiance ( more independance , depending on the person ) thus a speedier recovery .

if you have some contacts in the health care industry or in the tube industry , this might be something worth mentioning to them . what do you think ?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][url "http://members.tripod.com/float-tubers/"]http://members.tripod.com/float-tubers/[/url] This is a link to a handicapped float tubers club, referred to me by Dave (I think).

Flotation fishing is a passive form of exercise therapy for many people with physical challenges. Not only that, with proper gear and instruction, it makes it possible for them to fish productively in many situations in which they would be incapable of trudging the banks or some other physically demanding form of fishing.

In the early 80's, I was visiting a friend's tackle shop. He introduced me to an older gentleman as "the man who can answer your questions about float tubes." My friend left us, to go wait on other customers and I "held forth", as I am prone to do. At the older gent's request, I helped him assemble a complete float tube system...including fins and waders...from the shelves of my friend's shop.

We took his gear to the front, to be checked out, and my friend d when he mentally tallied the sale. Then the old gent d himself, and proposed that he would gladly buy all this stuff...but only if I took him on a demo fishing excursion, to help him learn to use it. My friend pleaded with his eyes, and I agreed.

We met early the next Saturday morning and drove up to Willard Bay Reservoir, near Ogden Utah. I helped set up the tube and tackle, and coached my new student into his waders and fins. He literally took to it like a "duck to water". While I was getting my own craft launched the old dude was kicking around and learning to maneuver his new toy.

When I could catch up to him, I got him rigged for dragging bait for channel cats. They had been biting well, I figured it would be a sure thing, and he was not a troutaholic purist type. To cut to the chase, he had a ball, catching a limit of nice channels in about two hours.

We broke down the gear and stowed it in my rig for the trip home. While I was filleting out his fish for him he admitted that he had a very serious reason for wanting to get a thorough tubing tutorial. It turns out that he was a prominent heart surgeon...and a heart patient himself. He wanted to put himself to the test, as well as the float tube, to see if it was something that heart patients could do in moderation.

His verdict? As he stated, "It is a fantastic passive exercise...as long as one does not have to exert unduly, in the wind, etc." His next action was to contact all of the fishing heart patients in his club and take them back to my friend's tackletorium to get outfitted. I didn't collect any commission, but I did get some "feel goods" out of it.

Over the years I have helped design and build various rods and harnesses to allow challenged anglers to fish, even with physical limitations. As long as they have good legs, and can work the fins, float tubing is a "hands free" system that helps give challenged fishing fans a better way to fish.

Good post, Lonehunter. I like the way you think.
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[lonehunter]

a good post pales to your good deed . you the man .[]

the p.b.s. program was about christopher reeds . a.k.a. superman .

i don't agree with everything he says , but i admire his detirmination to live a normal life again .

i'm glad someone like you who was able to be the frontersman in an area like this . it would have taken a guy like me some time before someone took it seriously .

thanks tubedude !
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[TubeDude]

[cool]I do not seek accolades for doing what comes naturally. Since "discovering" float tubing in the late 50's...at least for myself...I have always enjoyed sharing the sport with others. I am not a zealot, standing on street corners and preaching to the masses. But, it doesn't take much more than a question or a polite request to get me started. Helping kids and divantaged anglers...float tubing or not...has always provided me with a great deal of personal pleasure.

One of my successful "projects" was a gentleman from Sandy, Utah, in 1980. As you can see in the two pics combined below, he has only one arm. Due to a congenital deformity, he had only one short and poorly formed arm...with a thumb and two fingers. On his left shoulder, doctors had grafted two of his toes, which functioned only for grasping.

In spite of his "challenges", this man (and his wife) operated a successful printing company...including most of the physical work involved in setting up and running the complicated equipment. They were the ones who talked me into doing first a book on Utah fishing, and then my float tubing book. They published the first one, but have since retired...she going into local politics.

My friend was intrigued by my float tubing and asked if there were some way he might be able to get involved. He was already an avid fisherman, and had a system that incorporated an under-the-rod closed-face spinning reel, which he could cast with the trigger mechanism bail release. I think Daiwa still makes these.

He could tie knots, using the grafted toes on his left side, and the three functional digits on his modified right arm. He would then cast with his right arm and place the butt under his arm pit and reel with the right arm. It was cumbersome, but he made it work.

After observing him, I hatched a plan for a simple harness to go aver his head, to both hold the rod butt and the rod, above the reel. It was suggested by the standup fighting gear I used to use on salt water boats. With it, he had greater control and leverage, both for casting and retrieving.

You will notice the long handle on his rod. I built a special stick for him, both with a long handle and on a long blank, to provide him with extra reach and control. I subsequently built him a couple of rods for trolling...in his boat he launches and skippers too. The rods and harness worked fine for the fish he loved to pursue in Deer Creek and Flaming Gorge.

I'm sorry you can't see the harness in the top pic. It was low light, on a daybreak trip to Willard Bay Reservoir, for catfish, and he is turned away from the camera. However, you can see that it was effective. In the lower pic, he is holding a limit of nice channel cats. He unashamedly tells everyone that he caught them "singlehandedly".



PS...note the old FishMaster float tubes. These were some of the first commercially made models. They were crude by today's standards, but were better than the old canvas slings I had been rigging for twenty years before they came out.
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[lonehunter]

your living proof of what a good heart and a sharp mind can do . [angelic]
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