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A quick and painful way to end any trip is to leave your tube in bright sun on a hot day, especially if you just came in from cold water. Even truck tires can warp and pop if they get too hot. I’ve never seen a vinyl tube pop first hand, but I’m told that the noise is like a gunshot going off. Let a little air out or keep your boat in the shade on those hot days.
When launching, it’s almost always easier to walk in backwards so as to avoid tripping over your fins. The only time I walk in forwards is when the bank is extremely steep and I can get my legs all the way under water in one or two steps before I plop down and push off from the shore.
If you want to store more rods using the Velcro straps found on most float tubes you can easily extend them with a set of Velcro rod wraps. Shimano and several other companies make these rod wraps. Just attach them to the existing Velcro and you can hold 2-4 rods at a time across the front of your boat instead of 1 or 2.
If you get a big fish on in your float tube and it gets close to the boat but is still acting hot, spin the fish around in a circle a few times to let it tire, then ease the net in front of the fish and stop circling. Most times the fish will simply swim in to the net because it has gotten used to heading in one direction. I jokingly call this the “death spiral”. This works really well with halibut.
If you are keeping a fish with spines, give the fish a little haircut before putting it on a stringer. Fish like rock cod, calico bass, and striped bass have razor sharp spines and can easily puncture your tube or your waders. Take a pair of dikes or heavy duty scissors and cut all of the spines off the fish before putting it on the stringer. Watch out for halibut teeth also when unhooking them. Halibut have a habit of biting down hard on things like fingers and float tubes and they don’t like to let go.
When launching your tube in the surf, if you feel like there’s any chance of being flipped over, do the following: Unclip the strap between your legs so you don’t get tangled in it coming out of the tube. Take your sunglasses, hat, and reel and stow them in the pockets. Tie the pockets shut with a piece of fishing line. This way if you do get flipped in the surf, your pocket won’t blow open. Next step, paddle like hell.
Strap a life jacket to the back of your tube, just in case.
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