How to build a fly rod tube 

How to build your own fly rod tube for well under $10.  The supplies I purchased from Home Depot; 1½" X 10' PVC Pipe $5.11, 1½" PVC Cap $0.83, 1½" PVC Female Adaptor, 1½" PVC Plug.

To see how I painted the finished tube:

Finishing the PVC Fly Rod Tube

I somewhat recently fished a creek with a friend, and since he is a much more experienced fly fisher than me, I tried to just follow his lead. I noticed that when we found a spot on the creek that was both approachable and looked promising, he would subtly encourage a trade-off (you take this hole, I get the next hole) kind of thing. It seemed fair. Unfortunately, my impatience with the lack of action kept me moving. I noticed a couple of times that I had deviated from the unspoken agreement.

My home is not the ideal place to spread out feathers, hooks and/or thread.  We have a playful cat and a dog that believes it's his personal responsibility to lick all my stuff.  This means that I need to clean up when I am done - even if I am just waiting for cement to dry.  Also, I wanted to be able to relocate my supplies easily from room to room.

I purchased a folding TV tray table for $9.99, two packs of 4ea alligator clips for $2.29 each, a kitchen cutting-board for $6.59 and a pack of nails for $1.29 (which I didn't end up using).  I grabbed a rat-tailed file from my toolbox, along with some drill bits.

Organize, minimize and strategize to maximize your fishing time in a float tube.

Organize: everything you take out on the water should have the same location each time.  I personally have two bags (right and left sides) and I place all of my tackle in the right-hand bag, and accessories in the left.  The accessories bag includes a stringer, pliers and other items I might want while holding the rod in my right hand.  The tackle side being on the right is great since the rod is usually across my lap when I need to change my rig.

Minimize: don’t try to take every piece of gear you own.  Less is more when you are out of the water.  I like to stock a small Plano box with just a few small split-shots, tippet line, a few dry flies and nymphs in different sizes/patterns, and a small variety of streamers.

Strategize: think ahead.  Setup your rig at the car.  Figure out what you are mostly going to try first and tie it on.  Any tricky to tie setups should be pre-built on dry land and stored so that the amount of time you spend with your line in/on the water is maximized.

Floating line with weight - even lots of weight - is no substitute for sinking line.  Trust me, I learned it the hard way.

I recently tried fishing for White Bass in a central California lake.  The fish were holding right on the bottom, probably gaurding nests, and I only had floating line with me.  I added weight and used heavy flies with my 7-weight rod with a 5-weight reel to help manage the heavy rig, and that part worked well.  What didn't work was that every cast lost about 20% of its distance due to the floating fly line.

So, to start - the cast:

Over time I have collected some tips about fishing small streams - creeks - like my local Piru Creek were I try to practice all of these suggestions.