Newton

[TubeDude]

Launching and getting out in sticky mud is a chore with a tube or toon.  I fought that fight while on a 6 month assignment in the New Orleans area.  I would launch my tube from the bank at the back of one of the canals.  It was slippery slimy mud...often exposed at low tide.  I found two things that would work to help with the getting in and out.  One was a big piece of discarded carpet to lay over the mud.  The other was a cheap ladder to lay down and use as a stopper to keep from sinking and sliding.  Took some experimentation but I was able to fish in spots not available to either boats or bank tanglers.

Before coming up with those methods I got a little crazy.  Pulled my tube up around my waist and worked my down wearing my fins.  When I hit the slick mud I "fin skied" down into the water.  Luckily never rolled over.  To get back out, I worked into water as shallow as possible, undid the crotch strap on the tube and pulled it up over my head.  Then I pitched it and my rod up on the dry shore area and side by side slogged up out of the mud with my fins.    That was a lot of work but I always got a  grundle of redfish, sea trout and flounders.