On Dec 30, 1:15 am, rw wrote:
Mike wrote:
On Dec 30, 12:47 am, rw wrote:

Counteract the rotation with your fins. The greater the change of
direction of the cast, the more effort is required with the fins. Small
changes in direction won't require much effort, if any at all.

Imagine as a worst case casting directly behind you.

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Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

That sounds plausible, and if you manage to coordinate your finning
with your casting it will also doubtless work, but I have never
managed it in my tubes ( belly-boats) . In my main pontoon boat, I
don´t use fins anyway, just the oars.

Well, that's the problem, Mike. You need fins. Oars won't do. No matter
how cold it is, you need fins. You have to put down your rod to use
oars. That's one reason I hate fishing from frigging canoes and kayaks.

A big advantage of a kickboat (oars and fins) vs. a belly boat is that
you can get your fins out of the water when you don't want them there,
like when it's really cold, or when you're trying to make time with the
oars.

Other than that, for me, they're in the water when I'm fishing.

And then there's the wind. Always the wind. :-)

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Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

You are right, and on a few big lakes I fish in spring and summer,
mainly for pike and perch, I would do that, but you can´t use fins
for long in Winter on the Baltic. I tried it a few times, and damn
near froze my feet off. I would not use a float tube in those
conditions anyway, it would be a bit suicidal. If anything happened,
you would not last long in that water, a life-jacket is more or less
useless at those temperatures. It will keep you afloat, but it wont
stop you dying very quickly of hypothermia. I know a couple of guys
who wear special survival suits, and I tried one once, but I just
couldn´t cast while wearing it. The life-jacket is more than enough of
a hindrance.

The pontoon boat keeps you clear of the freezing water, but you would
be dead just as quickly if you fell out of the boat etc. I had a
special safety belt on mine with a quick release, and I was never
usually very far from shore, or in relatively sheltered bays etc, and
even then only in more or less calm conditions.

In winter, you can´t usually stay out more than an hour or so anyway.
So you paddle out, fish for an hour, paddle back in, warm up for a
while, and then paddle out again and fish, until you have had
enough! Catching fish is usually quite easy, because there are a
lot of them at about the 6m mark in various places, but catching them
from the shore is well nigh impossible except under certain
conditions. Usually after a storm, during heavy overcast, or at
night.

TL
MC