Anyone know of a good float tube, or are they good for the BW/Q? My group doesn't fish much and its tough to fish out of a canoe solo, so I'm looking for something easier to fish alone with. Any advice would be great.

Seems like a lot of unnecessary extra weight. Many people fish solo out of a canoe.

AmarilloJim: "Seems like a lot of unnecessary extra weight. Many people fish solo out of a canoe. "

Right on! Not only unnecessary weight, but physical space as well. Also it would be difficult to get around easily and you'd be fairly contained to where you'd fish... can't imagine using a float tube anywhere outside of a campsite since it would be unsafe trying to get in an out of a canoe with it.

I would consider a float tube (ONLY) if on an entry lake or one short portage. Those things are huge and would take a lot of air to inflate.

Take or rent an aluminum canoe because it is much more stable of a platform to fish. Sit on a low to the ground camp chair a bit back of the center of the canoe. You can also sit in the back seat with extra weight in front. You can use a waterproof bag, add water with a pot and roll up to seal. This gives you some ballast to even out the canoe. When back at camp just dump out the water and you are done.

Don’t under any circumstances use rocks as ballast weight. They could damage a Kevlar canoe and will sink your canoe if you dump.

It’s your trip, but I would not want to haul a float tube.

You will need to put some weight in the front of your canoe(packs or water filled bags). If you can get a canoe without a thwart behind the bow seat you can sit backwards in it and this is more stable. I like fishing with a yak paddle. I just set it accross my lap while fishing and I can engage it for positioning at a moments notice. For vertical presentations it helps to put the wind at your back.

I had a tripmate bring a float tube once. He liked it. We traveled ultra-heavy on that trip, with only one portage, so it was no biggie. That being said, I've spent hundreds of hours fishing alone from the canoe. An anchor and a drift sock are two important tools. Also, don't try to sit in the stern alone, sit in the bow and turn around and face the stern.
Try fishing from shore, too.

I remember an article probably from the 90's on float tubing in the BW. It was in the Boundary Waters Journal I believe. I have owned 2 float tubes in my life and loved fishing from them and thought it would be a great way to bushwhack into a remote lake for the day.

You could easily pack it into a regular size pack and with a small pump be ready to go in about 10 minutes. The issue is portaging it in. I would only bring one if you intend on basecamping with not too many portages. But it would be fun tangling with big smallies from a tube. God forbid you run into a 40 inch northern though. You will go for a ride!

I have actually thought seriously about it for my spring small mouth trip with the flyrod. Depending on the wind, i could really take my time to work a particular bay that I have in mind. I think i could cover it much better in a float tube than in a canoe.

I fished out of tubes a great deal when I was younger. We were amongst the originals and simply used semi truck tubes and slapped a board in as a seat. I still have pictures of carrying the enormous contraption down some railroad tracks on our way to some swampy back in the woods pond.

Then we moved up to some of the smaller and more practical commercial models. Our favorite way to fish from them would be to float a river or large creek. Park 2 vehicles and drift along, super fun and very productive.

For Canoe country I think it might be interesting to use one of those pontoon style inflatables complete with smallish oars like they use out west for backcountry trout fishing. Your legs are still partially submerged but the oars seem a bit more mobile than kick fins.

Tubes are super fun and fish do not seem put off by them. Sort of seems impractical in canoe country however since you mostly already have a watercraft with many advantages already available. Just turn your tandem around and paddle and fish from the bow and weight the stern (which is now the bow if fishing solo). Got it? Good! ;-)

You could consider a packraft such as an Alpacka. They don't weigh much, around 5 pounds, and roll up fairly small. They can be paddled with a kayak paddle if you already have one along on the trip. I use one for fishing mountain lakes in Colorado for trout and they work well. The mountain lakes I fish are pretty small though.

The pack raft idea sounds interesting. It looks like some of them weigh as little as 5lbs, which would be great for an idea I had. On a recent trip, we bushwhacked to two lakes that would have been IMPOSSIBLE to get a canoe to. One of the lakes had a beaver that acted like he had never seen a human, as he swam within 6 feet of where I was standing in the water just off the shore before he splashed me. I can only imagine the fishing potential on some of those isolated lakes.

Right, that's exactly what packrafts are good for. Carry it in a medium size backpack along with a 4 piece kayak paddle, and you can use it on any water that you can hike to.

Thank you for everyone's input. We usually basecamp and only go in a few portages nothing too deep. So maybe if I find a lightweight one, but then again, we are going to Ogish this year so it might be too big for a float.