As a guide, I always inspect the gear of the folks who come to fish with me, just to make sure it will work for the application at hand and that they will be safe while using it. Sometimes I’m impressed, and sometimes I try to talk them into using my gear, instead.
Take Bill, for example. Bill is a guy who fishes with me in my drift boat multiple times a year. Bill never brings another person with him. He is retired and in his early eighties, the type of guy who tells you what he is thinking, and it doesn’t matter if it is politically correct or not. He frankly does not care. He has told me that.
A couple of years ago, he decided to sign up to fish with me on Lake Almanor for the Hexagenia hatch. He had all the right equipment. Everything was labeled, and he knew when and how to use it. I was impressed. Then we looked at his float tube, waders, and fins. He pulled out an original 1981 float tube, the kind based on a car tire tube with fabric covering and a cloth seat hanging in the middle. He got out his bicycle pump and pumped it up, and it actually held air. Then he pulled out his custom-made neoprene waders, tennis shoes for booties, and scuba-diving fins that were four feet long, if they were an inch.
I hesitated, then I begged him to use my gear. My float tube was made in the twenty-first century, not forty years ago. He looked at it, at my small float-tube fins, and then at me like I was crazy — he didn’t need anything else, he said. At least I made him wear a personal floatation device that would blow up when it hit the water, and I never left his side. His gear worked, though.
After the fishing was over, he looked at me while he was sitting at the table on our family cabin’s deck and simply said, “You were right.” The next night, he used all my stuff, including my waders and booties and float-tube fins. He looked at me, winked, and said, “That’s the cat’s meow.”
Stillwater gear has evolved over the years. Personal watercraft are more comfortable, more reliable, and much safer than that old car tire float tube. I have multiple stillwater gear setups, ranging from gear for shore fishing on walk-in or backpack trips to gear for fishing from a drift boat and soon a 20-foot motorized lake boat. Most folks don’t guide and thus don’t need all the different setups I use, but at the very least, gear for fishing from the shore or from a float tube or pontoon boat is something any fly fisher who fishes lakes and ponds is going to need.
From Shore
Whether you drive to a lake or pond or you backpack to your destination, fishing from shore is the simplest way to get into fish. Concentrate on areas that have transition zones: shallow to deep, drop-offs, weed beds, wind lines, logs, and so on. Some lakes have open shorelines, but many are ringed with vegetation, and back casts can be a problem. Roll casts are the answer, so practice your roll casting before you go. Because roll casts are so common in shore fishing, your rod choice needs to reflect that fact. A medium-fast 9-foot rod, 4-weight to 6-weight, will do the job, paired with a decent reel with a floating line. A 9-foot 5X monofilament tapered leader or a 10-foot sinking leader with a 2-foot-per-second sink rate complete the basic setup. (Product names for sinking leaders include Sonar, PolyLeader, and VersiLeader).
If you drive right to the lake, you probably could bring everything but the kitchen sink, “ just in case,” but if there’s a hike to the water or it is a backpacking destination, simplifying things pays off, and however you go, focusing on essentials is always a good idea. My hiking kit consists of the rod, reel (lightweight) and line noted above, three 9-foot 5X monofilament tapered leaders, a sinking leader, one spool of 5X monofilament tippet material, two small indicators, a bottle of floatant, a small assortment of nontoxic weights, and a small fly box.
This fly box contains only top-producing f lies — terrestrials, dry f lies, midges, small nymphs, damselfly imitations, and Woolly Buggers — and I carry only four of each: high-floating ants, sizes 12 and 14; a simple foam beetle, size 12; Adams Parachutes, sizes 14 to 18; a yellow Stimulator, size 16; Tiger Midges in black, claret, and red, sizes 16 to 20; Zebra Midges in black and red, sizes 16 to 20; and WD-40s in black and gray, size 18. For nymphs, I carry my Lance’s X-May in olive, brown, red, and black, sizes 16 and 18; black AP Nymphs, size 14; and a water boatman pattern, sizes 14 or 16. I carry two colors of damselfly nymphs, olive and brownish tan, in size 12. The pattern is Kaufmann’s Marabou Damsel. Woolly Buggers in olive and black, sizes 10 and 12, round out the box. It’s a minimalist selection, but with it, I can fish both creeks and still waters when I head into the woods.
I include the sinking leader to fish the Woolly Buggers and damselfly nymphs. I attach the sinking leader to the fly line with a loop-to-loop connection and then add one of the 9-foot 5X monofilament tapered leaders to the sinking leader. Sometimes I rig this with two flies, with a Woolly Bugger or damselfly nymph and a small nymph 18 inches or so behind it off the bend of the hook of the main fly.
I fish nymphs and midges beneath an indicator placed three feet up the 9-foot 5X tapered leader. I tie a nymph or midge to the end of the leader and add 18 inches of 5X tippet material off the bend to the second fly. If I fish a split shot with this indicator rig, it is usually a foot above the first fly on the tapered leader. If fishing dry flies, I usually fish just one fly at a time, but if I fish two dries, I space them 18 inches apart the same way as the nymphs.
I fish the sinking leader if there are no fish working on the surface, concentrating my efforts on areas that go from shallow to deep. Roll cast as far as you can, let the f ly sink for just a few seconds, and strip it back slowly. If you get no grabs, strip faster. If you still get no grabs, move on and work your way around the shoreline.
With the indicator rig setup, roll casting can be difficult. An indicator, weight, and two flies make it hard to cast without a major tangle. I like fishing this rig in deep water, such as near cliffs or deep drop-offs. I keep my fly line tight to my indicator and strip the line in slowly to ensure the line stays taut. Keeping in contact with your indicator and flies allows you to set the hook quickly. It will increase your catch rate.
From a Float Tube or Pontoon Boat
Fishing a lake or pond from a float tube or pontoon boat means you don’t need to be concerned about shoreline foliage or terrain interfering with your casting. And in comparison to fishing from shore, these watercraft open a much larger expanse of water for you to explore, greatly increasing your opportunities to hook fish. If I can access a lake or pond by using a float tube or pontoon boat, it’s how I prefer to fish it.
As my anecdote about Bill indicated, I prefer a U-shaped float tube — the open front makes it easy to enter and exit. The design I use has one air chamber for the entire tube. The seat and seat-back rest are a large piece of closed-cell foam. I like this tube because the closed-cell foam provides a way to stay afloat if the air chamber fails.
I also have an eight-foot pontoon boat with a steel frame that breaks down for transport and storage. The boat is designed to ride low in the water, which makes it less susceptible to being blown around by the wind. The pontoons are split into two different air chambers for maximum safety.
Even if a watercraft has built-in safety features, you need to add other safety gear — I keep a head lamp, a small portable air horn, and sharp knife in the craft. Always wear a personal floatation device. And always check over your gear for readiness, safety, and any issues you may need to address before launching onto the water. This last year at Lake Almanor, one of my float tubes was leaking, and the nylon straps on one of my pontoon boats broke. All my float tubes were nine years old, so I ordered and replaced the air chambers in all of them, then tested them to be sure all was well. I also replaced all the straps on my two pontoon boats and checked their air chambers.
One of the great advantages that comes with fishing still waters from a float tube or pontoon boat is that you can attach a fish finder to your watercraft. The fish finder isn’t actually to find fish, although that helps. It allows you to determine water depth and see the topography of the bottom of the lake — the structure and transition zones where fish hold and where you need to fish.
A watercraft also makes it possible to carry two rods, one rod lined with an intermediate sinking line for presenting sinking flies and the other with a weight-forward floating line for dries. Sometimes I add a third rod, lined with a weight-forward floating line rigged with an indicator setup to fish midges or balanced flies, such as leeches or damselfly nymphs. If you’re carrying multiple rods, buy a watercraft that has Velcro straps for securely storing rods. All my float-tube and pontoon rods are 9 to 9.5 feet in length and 5-weights or 6-weights.
As with my backpacking and walk-in fishing gear, I focus on carrying only the essentials and leave the kitchen sink at home, even though the watercraft allows me to bring more stuff. I take only gear specifically designated for my float tube or pontoon fishing. I do this for one major reason. If there is an issue or incident while I’m fishing or traveling, I don’t lose all my fly-fishing gear.
The gear I carry on my watercraft includes three 9-foot 4X and three 9-foot 5X monofilament tapered leaders, one spool of 4X and one spool of 5X monofilament tippet material, two small indicators, one bottle of floatant, and a small assortment of nontoxic weights.
I have fly boxes stocked for specific lakes or fisheries. For example, my Manzanita Lake fly box is labeled “Man/ Baum/Lewis Box” (Manzanita Lake, Baum Lake, and Lewiston Lake). This box is filled with f lies that work at all three of these lakes: damselflies, leeches, terrestrials, mayflies, and caddisflies — six flies each in one or more sizes: Kaufmann’s Marabou Damsel in olive and tannish brown in sizes 10 and 12; Woolly Buggers in black, olive, and brown, sizes 8 and 10; Lance’s X-May Callibaetis Nymph, size 16; Foam ants in black and red, sizes 10 and 12; Lance’s X-May Emerger in olive, gray, and black, in sizes 16 and 18, and the list goes on. I cover all the entomology food groups.
In addition to the box designated for a specific fishery, I carry a “Midge Box” filled with a huge variety of midge pupa patterns, from size 10s to size 24s in black, gray, red, and other color combinations. Among the flies I carry are Chan’s Bombers, Tiger and Zebra Midges, Mercury Midges, and Dorsey’s Secret Midges. The box holds close to two hundred and fifty midges.
Other essentials I carry on the watercraft include a light long-sleeved shirt, a light rain jacket, water, a couple of protein bars, a lighter (in case I get blown across a lake and need to build a fire), a long-handled net, line clippers, forceps, a pump to reinflate the tube or pontoon, and the manufacturer’s repair kit. I don’t overload the watercraft. Everything you carry on your watercraft you must row or kick to move.

I wear lightweight stocking-foot waders, and I add fleece pants underneath for warmth when needed. I always wear a tightly cinched wading belt while in the watercraft. If you have an incident, you don’t want your waders to quickly fill with water. To secure my fins and protect the soles of my waders from gravel and rocks, I like to wear booties. My booties of choice have a bump on the heel to keep the strap of the fin in place. My fins are short, wide fins that you can walk in if needed, and they will accept a large wading boot or bootie. As you would when fishing a stream, I adapt my stillwater tactics to what is happening on the water. In the springtime when damselflies are hatching, I strip damselfly nymphs between open water and weed beds toward some kind of structure, such as logs, manzanita bushes, or willows, which is where an emerging nymph heads to hatch out. The damselfly is an awkward swimmer and swims erratically at a 30-degree angle to the water’s surface. Using the rod rigged with an intermediate line and a 9-foot 5X mono leader, I fish these areas from different casting positions, creating different angles of retrieve to give the fish a view of the profile of the fly.
If a midge hatch is occurring, I’ll use a weight-forward floating line with an indicator setup. I fish three different midges, selected from the Midge Box based on what size of midge is hatching. I move the indicator up the leader or down toward the flies to set the depth at which the fish finder shows the fish are holding. If the fish move up or down in the water column, you can move your indicator accordingly.
Whether you fish still waters from shore or from a watercraft, focusing on the essentials for both safety and success is the way to go. As one of my mentors said, “You don’t need the kitchen sink, you just need the fork and the knife to catch fish.”