Kickboats, Anyone.....?

[AY]

Just looking at making an informal survey. Does anybody out there fish for stripers, blues, etc. in a kickboat? I started to bring an Outcast PAC 8 into the salt here in Maine last summer for stripers, and now I'm hooked - more fun than a canoe, easier to fish from than a kayak, much less hastle and more stealthy than anything with a motor, allows access to tons more water than mere waders or float tubes. Yet, I haven't encountered another soul out there in a kickboat....If you are a salty kickboater, let me know - I'd love to swap lies and ideas sometime.

P.S. I have already been called insane, suicidal, stupid, and a bunch of other things on some other boards by many who are convinced that saltwater is to be fished from a boat, kayak, or waders - period. Anything else is too dangerous. I have fished using all of those methods, been float tubing the salt for 9 years, have a season with the kickboat under my belt, and I'm not dead yet, so please skip the warnings, admonishments, etc., no matter how well intentioned - I've heard them all before.

Tight lines, all!

AY

[Doc@CastleHill]

Help me out. What's a kickboat? any links I can click on to view one of these?

Doc

[T.Phillips]

Two pontoons through which are dangled two flippers closely resembling those of a seal. When used for propulsion in conjuction with brown waders they effectively match the hatch to rising sharks.

Sorry.. I couldn't resist. It was comments like that and enduring a thrashing school of blues (that busted scared pollock UP THROUGH the leg holes in my float tube)that finally made me retire my float tube from salt water use. forget about the notoriously strong Piscataqua currents and pitch black harbors its the unknown that gives me the shakes.

[schwilp]

I had a similar terrifying experience involving a 40
pound snapping turtle on a Cape kettle pound - I looked
down and there was the gaping maw of the beast
coming up at me. I found that if you kick fast enough
you can actually get a float tube to plane....

[WeeHooker]

Funny you should mention it. While I've used my Round tube in sheltered areas on Narraganset bay on occasion, I'll admit that any kind of fin powered vehicle is a rare sight in SE Ma/RI.
However, just yesterday am I was fishing a school of bass in the 2-3' ocean swells @ the mouth of the Westport R (in my 14' powered skiff) when I ran into a pair of FF'rs in 7'-8'inflatable kickboats ( Sorry, no visable brand name. As it was rough enough where I fished w one knee on the seat and left the motor running, I thought these guys were nuts! Admittedly though, after watching them for a while,they just bobbed around and actually seemed to have uncanny control and propulsion through the rip and even against the outgoing tide. They looked comfortable and stayed high and dry for the most part. (They were having some trouble w backcasts though.) I'm not ready to try it yet ( Read: Happy Pungo owner who would like to watch his kids grow up)but it had my attention. It certainly looks like a viable way to fish estuaries @ minimum.
Dave