What waters do you float in?

[Slim1]

I live in Central Sierra California. I float tube and or pontoon (have both) in waters like lake Don Pedro, New Melones, Pinecrest lake, Lower Middle Stanislaus River (there's a couple of pools on the river to float tube in) .... mostly around the corridor of Hwy 108. Down to the South eastern end of the Delta and over to O'Neil Forbay (below San Luis Res.) up to Bridgeport lake and Twinn Lakes Off of Hwy 395 (east Sierra's). Just to name a few...

I mostly flyfish for trout but also for Stripers, Cat Fish Large and Small mouth Bass, Crappie, gils etc... Caught a few of other non sports fish like carp and pikeminnow etc...






Slim
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[peter805]

Man , you have it made !!! Where you live is some
fantastic float tubing.
When comes to me, I do what I can. Few places "close"
to my house but I love going to Eastern Sierra (Bishop,
Mammoth, Lee Vinning area) to do a little float tubing.
I also fly fish (I have not p/u spin rod I like 2 years) so
choices are few.


Peter
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[cpierce]

What are your techniques and flies for fishing for catfish? This is something I am interested in pursuing.
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[Slim1]

[quote cpierce]What are your techniques and flies for fishing for catfish? This is something I am interested in pursuing.[/quote]

Pictured above, in the corner, is a chartreuse clouser, very simple. White buggers and or white in the buggers & other colors are good also. But a buddy of mine tied an all white one. After 10 min of fighting something, (we think it was a cat ???) it broke off. Never was able to raise it to see what it was!
I use intermidiate sink line, and caught them on the surface and or caught them dragging the bottom slowly, and in between.
By no means am I a pro at it, was a surprise when I caught my first one. Depend on the time of the year, spawning time, " I think", is the best. They are VERY territorial.
That one pictured above I saw hitting the surface. Thinking it's a bass I paddled over and on the third cast, and only a couple of feet under the surface He took the fly.
Other cats:


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[peter805]

I caught a cat of the bottom with interm. line on
black bugger once.
Now that you mention it I will try to use all white
bugger and see what happens. I don't normally
target cats when I'm fly fishing but why not.

peter
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[cpierce]

Sounds fun! Thanks for the information, I will try some white or white and something else streamers or buggers.
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[Leaky33]

[][][][][] This is in Id.

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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I lived in Sacramento for several years and tubed all along the foothills of the Sierras and out into the flatlands. Even tubed most of the length of the Sacramento River for stripers, salmon, steelhead, shad and even a couple of sturgeon. Plenty of kitties but mostly on bait in the murky river.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are a lot of clean water reservoirs in northern California that kick out grundles of bass, crappies, bluegills and kitties...as well as those silly trout. Some of my favorite tubing was on small farm ponds where there sometimes were not many fish but they got big and they often had not been hit by tubers. I was in the real estate business and had connections with some private land owners.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have caught kitties on fly rods in many parts of the country. They are efficient predators with a lot better eyesight than most people give them credit for. When the water is clear enough for "sight feeding" cats will chase minnows and hit bugs on the surface...especially big hoppers and caterpillars in the late summer. I have had some banner days casting to big cats right along the shoreline when they are cruising shallow and looking for topwater groceries. A 10 pound cat on a hair bug definitely outfights a 10 inch bluegill.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I live and fish mostly in Utah these days. We have several good catfish holes here. I have caught lots of channel cats here on flies...even on purpose. My opinion is that the pattern is not as important as getting something in the right zone...so they can feel the vibrations and then see the fly. Dark patterns are good not only for visibility but because cats feed on the young of their own kind after they hatch out. Black, brown or purple buggers all fill that bill. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In both California and Arizona I have taken cats on topwater and shallow flies and lures being fished for bass in the middle of a shad school. The kitties were up on top, busting shad, side by side with the bass. Cats fight harder on a fly rod. Any good white or silver pattern of a similar size to the baitfish will get hammered.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Lots of cats like chartreuse. And adding some contrasting color helps too. Try making a chartreuse "egg sucking leech" with a hot red or orange head/egg. Trout, steelhead, salmon and bass like it too.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good luck and post up some reports for your trips over there. I do miss that part of California.[/#0000ff]
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[paledun]

I live in Colorado an I will admit this is my frist season using a float tube. I have throughly enjoyed it. but her are a few snap shots of the areasmy son and I tubed this summer.
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[Jim_T]

I live in Southern Califronia and since this is my first year tubing I tried to sample as many lakes as possible to see which ones I wanted to go back and fish more thoroughly next year. Just ordered a pontoon so some of our bigger waters are now on the wish list as well.

Generally fish for trout, bass, and bluegill.

Fished the following so far:
SCAL (Castaic Lagoon, Silverwood, Big Bear, Puddingstone, Sante Fe, Century, Jenks, Perris, Elizabeth, Tejon Ranch, Laguna Niguel, Cuyamaca, Hodges, Murray, Upper Otay).

Central/Northern California (Manzanita, Davis, Lower Sardene, Alpine, Spicer, White Pines, Kelsey Ranch, McSwain)

Eastern Sierra (Pleasant Valley, Mamie, Mary, Twin, Gull)
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[peter805]

Those are some fantastic pictures ! Thank you for sharing and welcome a board.
Would you have a close up of your fly rod holder?

Peter
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[paledun]

Thank you Peter. Yes, here are a couple of pics of the rod holder. I built my rod holder after looking at many on this site I just took the ideas of all and used them to fit my wants and needs.
rod rack colapsed


Rod rack set up ready to be mounted on the boat

on the boat on the water

active rod holder

let me know what you think or if you have any questions
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[peter805]

Very cool !!! I like that rod rack a lot.
Well done !
Thank you for the pictures of it.[]

Peter
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[NewRiverRat]

I hope you'll forgive me for not using a "tube" proper, but a 'toon. I've been running the waters of the New River in Virginia for over 30 years.

My 'toon on Clendennin Shaols.


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[kochanut]

i say the first three around Leadville.... the last 2 spionney or antero... im damn positive the last one is antero
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[paledun]

Very good guesses but all wrong [] the first two are north catamount, the third is Quail lake in Colorado Springs and the last two are 11 mile res.
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