Float tube essentials?

Been around the ocean one way or the other my whole life and I’m way more afraid of seals than sharks.

 

Not to mention those 12' hammerhead sharks can add to the excitement too.

 

I've never heard of a hammer head attaching anyone, especially on a tube. I've personally been harassed and bummed (attached) by a seal. Very scary

 

One reason you have never heard of a hammerhead attacking someone is that they are normally far offshore, away from tubers, swimmers and kayakers. So other than maybe diegofish, I have never heard of anyone fishing in a tube where hammerheads would be.

I think you mean attack, not attach. Hammerhead attacks on humans are known but not common. Hammerhead shark - Wikipedia

 

dmorgan3 .. got rammed a few times by HH right off the MB jetties, saw one pulled up by some dudes fishing hospitality from shore too, it was a crazy year tho...

 

How big?

 

Biggest I got to the yak was 12' and change, the one caught from shore was 5-6, I would guess. Got rammed by several in the 9-13' range

 

Wow

 

Insanity during an insane year...

 

Werf told me about this thread, but I got distracted. I replied before, but took down my post after reading more of the thread and wanting one post to cover all my thoughts.

1. The Striker 4 is a good purchase. The Nocqua battery is worth the money, too, and both work well in a kayak. (FWIW, I posted on this site - on one of Scisport’s threads, I believe - how easy it was to install a Striker 4 on my kayak. That “Hobie is Lowrance-ready” stuff is overblown. Thirty minutes and some water strap and it was in.

2. An air horn is better than a whistle, IMO, but rust fast, so rinse well.

3. Werf’s right: once you’ve gone yak, you’ll never go back. Since getting a kayak, the only action my Fishcat 4 Deluxe gets is when I wonder if I should sell it.

 

I am comfortable in a tube all day......but the last couple times, got close to putting the "yak" in kayak after an hour or two...So there's that........

 

My rod rack slipped lower when I tried it mounted where yours is....
I mounted it farther back, with loops of double-sided velcro tape through the D-rings so the rack can't slide any lower.

Ran a long orange bungee around the middle tube on the rod rack. The ends loop under the float tube. Front hook attached to the d-ring near the forward end of the tackle compartment. It doesn't take much bungee tension to keep the rod rack angled straight up or slightly outward.

The back bungee hook is attached to the d-ring behind my left hip (where the tether for the stripping apron is anchored).
My ghetto-fabulous orange bungee has blunt plastic hooks on the end rather than metal hooks, so me and the tube don't get poked. I figured I'd rig up something that looks nicer when the bungee rotted from the salt water...but it's been a couple years now.
With the rod rack sitting farther back you have more lateral room up front when casting or fighting a fish.
Advantage #2...it frees up the rod holding velcro strips that let you lay a rod down horizontally. I can cast one line out to the right side and troll and lay that rod down...and work a second rod straight back or to the left.
And a few times I have strapped all my rods down horizonally while passing under gangways and docks.

 

Eight hours on my kayak is easier than four hours in my tube, but ymmv.

 

Mariners basin... More wakes from bat rays than boats...