Float Tube [Belly Boat] Fly Fishing for Trout on a Small Lake

Float tubes, also known as belly boats, are a great way to fly fish and explore small lakes. 

Since we are still unable to leave Auckland, we decided to take our belly boats for a spin on a small local lake called Whatihua that is stocked with trout. It was as much about an overdue catchup as it was about catching trout.

We set up the belly boats and made our way down the hill to a small jetty on the lake to launch. I had an elaborate setup on my Traper Fly Stream float tube with a couple of GoPros set up to capture the action from every angle.

Barrie, Lloyd, Pawel, and Simon set off and I followed suit.  There was a bit of surface activity with damsels dipping in the water and trout rising intermittently. It wasn’t long before Lloyd hooked up, followed by Barrie not long after.  Things were looking very promising.

Next up was Simon with an acrobatic little trout on his red beaded damsel pattern. I tried and tried but didn’t get any touches until I swapped to a similar damsel pattern as Simon. 

Unfortunately, I kept missing my takes while Pawel landed his first one at the other end of the lake. Things were going well for everyone but me.

Simon struck again with a nice rainbow on his damsel pattern after adding a second one to his dropper rig. I followed with takes but just could not hook up. He followed up soon after with another nice rainbow which dropped off right beside the belly boat as he was trying to net the trout.

The fish kept coming and Llyod was in next with a nice rainbow trout while Pawel ended the pre-lunch session with a good fish.  

We made our way to shore for a spot of lunch and a bit of a chat before setting out once more on our float tubes. We were without Simon now as he had to head off after lunch.

With the sun up high and the wind picking up things had slowed up and it became clear that I was going to blank. Just then I had a take on the hang.

With this final opportunity lost my blank was locked in.  Apart from a few more missed takes that was where we ended for the day. 

In the end, it was a great little fly fishing session on our float tubes and fantastic to finally catch up after over 100 days.

If you are interested in Belly Boating/Float Tubing check out the two options from Traper by clicking HERE.