2024 Float tube season

Another float tube fishing season is in the books. Safe to say, that I won't be doing much more float tubing until 2025 at this point. Throughout 2024, I did a bit less float tube fishing than in the past couple seasons, and consequently, landed less fish than usual.

Being that safe ice around town was mostly gone by late February, I attempted to start off the season in early March, at one of my warm water spots that typically produced some pike and bass. On my first outing, I popped one of the air bladders while inflating it, despite having tested it the previous night at home. As I was in waders, and about 1 hour's drive from home, I decided to wade the swampy shoreline instead. Wading in the muddy silt was quite tough, but I managed to land a few small fish.

 

Unfortunately, I was not able to find replacement bladders anywhere, but luckily, I still had a spare with a slow leak in the seam, which meant I'd need to refill every few hours during any given outing. Not the end of the world. I returned to the spot about 1 week later. While I was able to get out in my float tube, the bite was off, I only managed to hook one small pike, but lost it near the float tube.

I spent the next few weeks wading or still fishing, and by the time I got on the float tube again it was already the second week in May, shortly after pike season re-opened. The spot has been slow over the past few seasons, but I did OK this time, landing 4 pike, as well as an incidental largemouth bass.

By far, the biggest surprise of the day was a nice 4 lbs tench that hit a big spinner I was casting. Being that Tench are normally bottom feeders caught while still fishing, it was the last thing I was expecting.

My next float tube outing came a couple weeks later, when I headed back to the same spot. Action was a bit slower than the previous outing, but still landed a few more pike.

As I went out of town early in June, I didn't get back on the float tube until later in the month, just after the bass season opened. By that point, I decided to give pike a rest, and start targeting some bass. On my first outing to a vert small lake I had some success on in the past, I managed to land some smallmouth bass, but nothing too big.

Again, after more travel, it was the second week in July until I finally made it up to my favorite smallmouth lake for the first time in the season. The bite was a bit tougher than expected, and the smallmouth were headbutting lures, as opposed to biting. I ended up losing the biggest one of the day, so had to content myself with a pic of this one instead.

2 weeks later, I returned for more float tube fishing on the same lake, hoping for redemption. This time, the bite was even tougher, with similar conditions. Worse, I lost the 3 biggest bass of the day, including one that was likely in the top 3 biggest I've ever hooked on that lake.

The following day, I managed a few hours of last minute float tube fishing during the evening. While I managed to land 5 largemouth bass, they were all quite small, so didn't bother with any pics. At that point, I gave float tubing a rest through the entire month of August, and into September.

Finally, due to a long heatwave through most of September, I managed back to back outings for smallmouth bass, back at my favorite float tube fishing lake. The bass were not where I expected to find them, and while fishing was tough, perseverance paid off with a few nice smallies landed to end my 2024 float tube fishing season.