I feel like I could right a book about tube fishing sometimes. The bait is so simple, yet so versatile. If you can fish a skirted jig or a shakeyhead, you can handle a tube. I've been lurking here a long time, I can say I've gotten some great info and I want to give some back, so here goes...
Don't stare at it...it's ugly, but they work, I promise you that. If you had to choose, a tube best imitates bottom dwelling creatures that bass love so much, namely the crayfish, crawdad, mudbug, whatever you want to call them. They do a good job imitating gobies, sunfish, and perch too.
The tried and true method used to fish a tube jig has been mentioned 100s of times here on bass resource. The drag/drift method. Find rocky structure, drop tube to bottom, let wind or trolling motor take you to the bass. This method is just as possible from shore, but putting jigs uphill = more snags, but I've caught a lot of bass from shore, dragging a tube. You've got to be feeling bottom. If you're not feeling that jig sliding over and bumping into rocks, you're probably not where the (smallmouth) bass are. While you learn this, you'll be setting hooks into rocks, weeds, brush, folding lawn chairs...etc. You'll learn to distinguish bottom contour and compostion like the back of your hand. How'd the pro used to learn a new spot? Dragging a jig around it........ You'll know you're "getting it" when you find yourself setting the hook for what seems like no reason and just like that there's a fish on the line.
First thing to really understand is you ARE going to lose tube jigs, lots of them, get used to it. Put more money into the terminal tackle, get yourself a bunch of the internal jigheads designed for tubes. Make sure you've got some different weights, and get plenty extras if you really want to learn. What weight do I use most? 3/16oz. In some bodies, this isn't even close to enough weight to get to depth. But in most situations, 3/16oz is enough to get to bottom without plowing it like a field, and light enough to give a slow fall or tumble in the current. I keep a stock of 1/16oz to 1 oz weights. You don't need to go all out immediately... ask yourself: what weights do you use on other baits like a TX rig worm or shakey for where YOU fish? Transfer that knowledge over.
Don't go out gander and buy a manufacturers entire lineup of tube colors, not necessary. If you catch them on green pumpkin senkos, or watermelon trick worm, whatever, go get yourself that color which you are confident in. Some bodies of waters have hot colors, it is what it is. Know thy waters. If you don't know what color to get, go with good ol' green pumpkin, it imitates many things bass want to eat. If you want another color, get black, melon, white, or smoke. Those 5 colors will produce. Don't worry too much about flakes, if you want flake though, I like blue, purple, orange, or "hologram (multi color.)" I don't think it makes a difference most days, but it gives confidence so there's that.
With it's bulky body and flailing tentacles, a tube can also resemble baitfish if you fish it the right way. By snapping off the bottom and allowing to fall back (usually spiraling down) you are now imitating a dying baitfish. Sometimes when I run out of jigheads or whatever, I fish them with little or no weight. By jerking erratically and giving slack like a hard body jerkbait, you are again showing them something new (usually.) Some tubes float, some of them sink with no weight added, you have to experiment a bit with this tactic, but in snaggy/shallow rivers, it can be deadly. Lightwire 1/0-3/0 ewg hook. 1/16 oz or less weight will make some tubes suspend just below the surface as you work it back. To add that weight get a piece of suspend strip to wrap around the hook shank or experiment with different hooks until you find one that makes the tube do what you want. Or just let it float, use them as a topwater, don't believe me? See the BPS poppin tube. This is just something they don't see everyday, sometimes it works.
Want to add some flair to plain jane color tube? Grab a pack of flashabou and tie a few strips to the hook shank or bottom of line tie and let it hang out the back, obviously you have to cut strips longer than the tube to get the desired result.
Scent makes sense with tubes....I like gulp crawfish spray.
A little more on terminal tackle. There's many ways to rig up a tube, and the options are out there to make it easy for you. For a typical 3.5 tube I run a jighead with a 2/0 or 3/0 hook. 4" gets a 4/0. A 2.5" inch mini tubes get something a bit different, I use a darter jighead with a small hook, size 1 or 1/0. Some companies make smaller style heads with stout hooks, but they're harder and harder to find and I'm not about to blow up that connection, do your homework. The little tubes can really be killer some days, just like down sizing with any other presentation.
So now you're saying, I want weedless or snag proof! No problem, tubes rigged properly will come through brush and weeds pretty well. You should still expect to lose some hardware, snag proof is just a brand name. When I want to fish weedless I have 2 ways I go about it. Standard Texas rigging, which is what a lot of guys do. Flipping tubes (esp the bigger ones) have padded a few pockets in tourneys. They've seen a skirted jig all weekend, toss em a tube in the same colors... A bullet weight, and EWG hook is all you need to make one "snag resistant." Add a bead for a rattle/clicker.
But lets say you don't want the bullet weight in front of your tube, ok, then you will need a weight that goes inside the tube. Yamamoto makes a weight that's designed just for this, and it works very well....provided you have the right hook. The issue with these weights is that the go inside the tube all the way to the front, you stick your EWG through as if you were going to TX rig, but instead thread the hook through a hole in the weight and then straight down so it sits on the shaft at the bend. The crucial part of this equation is choosing a hook with a down bend long enough for the yama weight to sit flush against the actual hooks shank. <---- this is critical for the tube to still have that spinning/flat fall that makes smallmouths come unglued on occasion. If you don't get what I'm sayin I can add picks or make a youtube video.
If you're asking what rod and reel you should use, I believe that all depends....If you're fishing a small and shallow stream, you don't need 3/4 oz gobie style jigheads, and thus wont need a MH rod that makes driving those hooks home possible. If you're using light: <1/16oz - 1/8oz heads and small tubes you will get the best casting results with a medium light rod, but might not get good hooksets.
For a do it all combo: most medium fast action spinning rods will toss 1/8oz to 3/8oz tubes and jigheads without feeling too overloaded while still driving that hook home. Every manufacturer assigns different ratings, so be aware of that, you don't want a noodle rod for this, its just like fishing skirted jigs in many aspects, you need some backbone. Ask anyone who uses tubes, what happens when a hooked smallie comes to the top. Their acrobatics usually send your tube flying sky high or back at you, the more weight you use, the more leverage they CAN get.
Don't skimp on line either, you're going to be fishing these things in rocks, weeds, wood, so when you snag, you can get some back, or at leas the plastic. I use yo-zuri hybrid (4 and 6lb) which is tough as nails in terms of abrasion resistance and outright breaking strength, but the trade off is a little loss of casting distance compared to braid or light mono, but to get many snags back and drag river bass around with no fear I will take that loss of 5-10 feet casting distance every day. Put some old shoes on and walk out into the river if you need more distance.
Wall of txt complete. Sorry, I don't always transfer info from brain to screen very well, I could explain a lot better in person.
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