Dave Scadden's Outlaw Escape Float Tube

[MaxDrown]

How would this float tube do on rivers like the Eleven Point, Current, and North Fork of the White? I'm thinking about something like this for day trips instead of a solo canoe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-DL1uEQdHc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqi9uYhr1lU

http://www.northforkoutdoors.com/2010showseasonspecials/2010showseasonspecials.html

[id10t]

How would this float tube do on rivers like the Eleven Point, Current, and North Fork of the White? I'm thinking about something like this for day trips instead of a solo canoe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-DL1uEQdHc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqi9uYhr1lU

http://www.northforkoutdoors.com/2010showseasonspecials/2010showseasonspecials.html

I had/have one. I never use it. I found it to difficult to control and fish in moving water. They are just to high & wide for me. Using oars makes it tough, they always seem to be in the way. I thought it would be a really good platform for the river but after 5 or 6 trips I went back to my canoe and kayak they were much easier. Things you take for granted in a canoe or kayak just don't happen on pontoons. I thought it would be like a drift boat but I was wrong. I spent way to much time trying to control the boat and not fishing. They don't go upstream well at all way to much drag. Most of the rivers we float the rocks are just under the surface when you are drifting and fishing and a pontoon catches a rock you will spin quickly. You cant just drop your rod and give a quick stroke of the paddle to right yourself. For me it was just not fun fishing.

Hope that helps

[sean c]

Max,

I was a pontoon guy for the last few years and if I had stayed with a pontoon I would have purchased the scadden renegade. The idea of a frameless pontoon is pretty cool alot less storage space and a ton less weight. My 9' outcast weighed something like 70 lbs and if I remember right the 9' renegade weighs half as much. Leaving the frame assembled a deflated pontoon will take up most of the back of a standard bed pick up. Floating and fishing rivers from a pontoon have its pluses and minuses like any other craft. Toons are super stable, darned near indestructible and much easier to get in and out of then a canoe or kayak. They are also slow, don't track worth a flip and are a PIA to fish out of but so are most solo crafts in moving water. FWIW if you go the toon route I would get at least a 9 footer I would skip the escape and go with the renegade. As far Scadden frameless one neat concept and they get pretty good reveiws. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Also I used my toon mainly on the NFOW.

Sean