# Does anyone use belly boats / float tubes to fish the bays?



## flyingfish (Mar 21, 2006)

I was cleaning out my hanger yesterday and found the belly boat I used to freshwater fish in Arizona. Itâ€™s basically a flotation system with a seat that you sit in up to your waist and you use fins that attach to your shoes to quietly move through the water. 

Itâ€™s a very efficient way to quietly fish a weed line and smaller lakes. Since youâ€™re in the water up to your waist it also keeps you fairly cool in the Arizona summers.

It seems like it would also work in the bays but we didnâ€™t have rays, sharks, or flesh-eating bacteria in Arizona. Does anyone use these to fish the bays? Iâ€™ve attached photos of my rig for reference.

Gary


----------



## 1fisher77316 (Oct 30, 2004)

In my travels I've seen a belly boat/tube used in salt water twice. Once in a major bayou/ marsh at POC and once on the beach front at Galveston. Frankly I thought the guys on the beach front had more balls than brains. They were catching and stringing trout which is bad enough close to shore and they were outside the 3rd bar casting back towards shore. 
I've used them in fresh water and using them in the marsh where there was bad mud made a lot of sense. in some applications it would work but be careful.
Tight lines!!


----------



## flyingfish (Mar 21, 2006)

Thanks 1Fisher. 

Gary


----------



## impulse (Mar 17, 2010)

I wouldn't hesitate to use mine on any day I'd take the kayak out past the 3rd bar. Once you get past the breakers, it's often a gentle swell and easy to manage in a belly boat.

Catching trout... fun. Stringing them up and dragging them behind my dangling legs? Not as much. 

For years, I traveled around the country for my job and kept a belly boat in the trunk. I would pull it out when I had a few free hours and a fishing spot. Often went miles off the beach in many lakes- wearing a PFD, of course. I caught a lot of fish I couldn't have caught fishing from the shore. And saw a lot of scenery that I would have missed.

I'd have preferred a kayak, but some customers didn't take me serious when I showed up for a sales lunch with a kayak tied to the roof... And I was often gone for weeks at a time.

Bottom line, a belly boat (with waders and fins) takes up almost no space in the car, will take me places that I can't reach on foot, and open up fishing opportunities I'd miss otherwise. I'm surprised more people don't use them in the salt. I see a lot of waders covering one side of a channel, when they'd do better on the other side. If only they could get past the deep spot. Belly boats give you that flexibility.


----------

