Float Fishing on a FoldCat 375fc

Ask a dozen fishermen, “How do you like to fish?” and you’ll get two or three dozen different answers. We recently accompanied John Siracusa, of Festus, Missouri, for a day of fishing on Missouri’s Big River. We asked him what how he fishes.

“I like to float fish,” John told us. When you float fish, John explained, you put your boat in upriver and let the current carry you downriver. You fish while you float along until you get to your takeout point.

“In the summertime,” says John, “I like to come down to the river, put in my Sea Eagle FoldCat, and just enjoy the river, fish with friends, and get the absolute relaxation I need.”

Floating and fishing downriver is simplicity itself. The back-end logistics of float fishing can be just as simple, or incredibly complicated. It all depends on the kind of BOAT you’re using. Here’s how John keeps things simple: float fishing in his Sea Eagle FoldCat 375.

John parks his FoldCat 375fc in the middle of the river. “Try doing this is a bass boat!”

If you have a HARD-HULL boat, float fishing gets pretty complicated

If you TRAILER a hard-hull boat, get ready to do quite a bit of driving before you make your first cast:

If you TRAILER a hard-hull boat, two fishermen drive two vehicles to the launch point; one vehicle trailers your boat. Launch and tie up the boat. Park and unhitch the trailer. Both fishermen drive both vehicles to the downriver takeout point. Park one vehicle. Both fishermen drive back upriver in one vehicle. Park vehicle, launch boat, and start fishing.

The FoldCat 375fc is a breeze to set up and launch. The same can’t be said for larger bass boats.

Inflatable FoldCat makes float fishing simple

With an inflatable FoldCat in your trunk, meet your fishing buddy at the downriver takeout point. Park their vehicle and drive yours to the launch point. Inflate the FoldCat, launch it, and go float fishing.

“The ease of dropping off the inflatable FoldCat is a must for float fishing,” says John, because it cuts down the logistics so he can do what he came to do: go float fishing. He and his fishing friends will float and fish the summer days away. “We fish, stop and eat, then fish some more,” he says. “It’s just that easy.”

John chose the Sea Eagle because it’s ideal for his kind of fishing — float fishing — on nearby rivers. “I’ve owned a lot of boats, mostly bass boats,” he said. “Most of them were hard to maneuver and trailer. I got the FoldCat because it’s perfectly made for the type of river fishing I do. Bass boats are still on the launch ramp while I’m out fishing.”

Trophy breeders

The Big River runs through several counties in east-central Missouri. John and his buddies float fish about six miles between Mammoth and Merrill Horse. The slow, meandering river has plenty of small and largemouth bass plus goggle-eye (rock bass), and gar. “Just about any kind of fish,” says John. But what they’re really after is “trophy breeder” smallmouth bass in what they call trophy areas of the river. The limit is one, and it must be eighteen inches, but catching the limit is not the point for many fishermen including John: enjoying a day out fishing is.

“I like to go into ‘stealth mode’ and fish out the holes where the fish may be hiding.” The FoldCat’s quiet, even with an electric motor. John has lots more to say about float fishing and his Sea Eagle FoldCat. Watch his float fishing video on the Sea Eagle website at http://www.seaeagle.com/FoldCat

As we left John, he told us, “If I had someone ask me about the FoldCat, I’d say, ‘What are you waiting for? Go get one!’ It’s a fisherman’s dream come true.”

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