Tube fishing 101 - pics added 12/31/06

[bassnleo]

I usually T-rig a flippin tube with a bullet sinker. I don't use this often and when I do the tube will eventually slide down the hook. I use toothpicks to peg my sinkers and so I started taking a toothpick and sticking it through the head of the tube and through the eye of the hook to hold the tube in place. Any other ideas out there?

Look at the Eagle Claw HP hook which is pictured on page 1. The tube will stay in place with this hook.

As far as pegging with toothpicks, I know alot of guys do that but I personally don't want that little piece of wood against my line fearing it will wear on the line and cause a weak spot.

I peg my weights with a rubber band.

Take a thin rubber band and run your line through it. Tie an overhand knot to affix the band to your line. Slide your bullet weight on the line and to the overhand knot you tied. Pull the knot down through the sinker. Now, take the main line at the bottom of the sinker and cut it (about 3" below the weight and above the knot), this will leave you with band remaining in the weight and your main line running through it. Trim the rubber band at the bottom of the sinker, be sure not to nick your main line.  This leaves you with rubber against your line. It will stay in place firmly, but you still will be able to slide it to re-tie if necessary, and without fear of the band damaging your line and causing a break off on a hook set.

One more tip, when your pull the band through, pull it until about 1/16 of an inch of band remains exposed at the top of the weight. This will allow you to have something to grab on to to remove the band from the weight so you can re-use the weight.

If you need me to, I can take step by step pics and post them here.

[MALTESE FALCON]

Great posts guys, thanks to all for sharing their techniques. The tube is one bait I always seem to ignore. Rest assured they will be my number one bait to master this spring.

Falcon

[Guest Texas_Bass_Pro]

bassnleo---Thanks for adding the pictures.  They really helped me as well as other anglers like me that don't know that much about using tubes.

[Garnet]

Try a very small metal bead (small hole)with a rubber bobber stop above then your bullet wieght.

I use to use spinnerbait materail but didn't like throwing worm wieghts away or fighting to clear the hole.

If you go on the FLW site and watch Larry Nixon rig a worm you will see the Bobber stop. I thought it was my invention but apparently not.

Garnet

[Painter Dude]

And, here's 2 styles of internal heads.

I have not fished tubes very much and when I have it has been either weightless or bullet style. With the poured internal weights shown on this post are they inserted from the rear with the eye punched through or from the front with the weight punched through.

[bassnleo]

And, here's 2 styles of internal heads.

I have not fished tubes very much and when I have it has been either weightless or bullet style. With the poured internal weights shown on this post are they inserted from the rear with the eye punched through or from the front with the weight punched through.

You can insert them from the rear, pushing the head up to the top of the tube then popping the eye through.  OR

Insert the hook point in the top of the tube(where you want the eye to end up) and work the hook down through, then punch the head through. It's kind of up to you. Personally I start at the top of the tube, It's a little speedier than the other way because you don't have to re-tie your line each time.

[bassnleo]

Thought I'd bring this back since there has been some tube questions lately.

[justfishin]

Darn good job Bassnleo, and everyone that added to this post. In my area I would say the tube is the no. 1 bait, day in and day out for smallmouth and  used a lot for green bass as well. For guys that do not catch fish on tubes or have never used one, this post hit the info right on the head. I only have one thing to add. I use the Gammy G-Lock hooks for rigging my tubes for flipping wood and grass for green bass. They really work well. Is this a great site or what.

[lmb7]

thanks thats some good info

[Bankbeater]

Excellent Post.  A lot of good info in here.

[bassnleo]

Thought I'd bring this one back up since there seems to be quite a few tube questions lately, enjoy, there is some great info in this thread.

[BassHunter69]

another great idea with tubes which i Loveeeeeee is brass and glass, that extra falsh helps somehwta plus the brass resonates a bit differntly then lead and plastics beads. a buddy of mine and i went fishing as wheeler d**n i caught 3 to his 1 just fishing tubes with brass and glass, i added a tooth pick in the brass as well after a few cast and i was still getting mojo bites.

[Catt]

Excellent post y'all  

Made me dig out my tubes & dust them off

Now if I can get rid of a hurricane I'll give em a try  :

[.ghoti.]

Hey Catt, we all know how to fish post-spawn, post cold front, post storm, etc. What the heck do you do post hurricane? Hope you weathered the storm safely.

Agree with Alpster. This has been on of the most informative threads lately. Over the last couple of years I've been using tubes less and less. They used to be one of my go to baits. Two years ago I got on trick worms and flukes; last year was Ikas and Cut-Tails; this year it's been hula grubs, and now SwimSenkos. And, I always have a senko on one rod. Tubes just got pushed farther and farther down the list. I gotta put "em back in the rotation. Thanks all, for jogging my memory.

I've always been a fan of Zoom tubes and Power tubes. I have several others in my tube bag, but those two were my best producers. For rigging, I switched from an EWG hook to the Gammy G-Lock hook. It holds the bait better, with a lot less sliding down the hook. I always put the weight inside. I've tried several different ways to hold it in place, but the best seems to be the old style "bass casting" sinkers. Insert one into the tube and run the hook through the eye on the sinker. Works like a champ, and they are cheap. A split shot with a rattle behind it works pretty good, too.

On a side note, why are these called bass casting sinkers? I've never seen or heard of any bass rig that employs these things.

I also put in a Berkley crappie nibble, the ones with glitter. When you're working them through the water, they shed "scales", and add a good taste. My catch rate goes up when I use them.

Greta thread, gents.

Cheers,

GK

[frogflogger]

good info - really a weak spot with me - thanks to those that know

[Dwight Hottle]

bassnleo

Excellent post. Very informative & the pictures helped immensely.

[bassattackerdad]

We fish tubes mostly for smallies with an internal jighead 1/4-3/16 oz in green pumpkins, browns & light greens. They can mimic craws or baitfish. 6'6 to 7 spinning rod, with good backbone and sensitive tip, light line 6-8lb. We cast to rock structure, riprap, drop-off etc. let tube sink and sit. Slowly raise rod tip and feel for weight. If there is weight, set hook. If not, drop back down, wait, shake rod a bit, wait, raise rod tip again, repeat. Then cast to spot 5 feet further down bank. And on and on.  For us, often times the take is extremely subtle. One thing to remember about tube fishing is that it has a tendency to twist up your line. This is because of the falling action of the tube. So you might need to stretch your line after tube fishing or replace it. My kid likes to dropshot tubes nosehooked on #1 dropshot hook. it gives a lot of action to the tube legs.

[The_Natural]

Wow...old post.  I can still say I am defintely still a tube nut.  Like most, I have successfully worked a beaver in to the mix, but in postspawn....the spiraling tube is second to none.  I attribute my tube fishing to Gary Kline back in '92.  Even with the Sweet Beaver taking the place of the tube in a lot of circumstances...Kline even recently proved that the tube can still dominate.  He set the 'A Day on the Lake with a Pro'  record with a tube in smoke red.  Smoke red or purple is probably the most underrated plastic color in fishing, but that is a different thread.  I'll post pics later of how I rig my tubes...I never leave the dock without one. 

[bassnleo]

Man, you are so right, I also never leave w/o one tied on.

It seems I have also worked a beaver style bait into my flippin aresenal, it may be #1 now. This past year I found myself actually going back to a tube on more occasions. I used to use it more than any other bait I had.

Here's an example  .

Seems like everyone was flippin a beaver style or creature style bait. I had one particular occasion during a tournament, alot of boats were in an area I had found decent fish. Problem was this was my back-up area and me along with everyone else were there because the wind was hammering most everyone's water. I had boats within pitching distance for hours .

Guys caught fish, BUT, as the day wore on in this weedbed the number of bites seemed to tail off. It was my thought that the number of boats along with heavy weights constantly punching thick grass had the fish a little spooked.

I needed to change. I looked down and saw a tube rigged on a spinning rod........Hmmm.....I re-rigged a flippin stick to accomodate a tube and began to flip/pitch that (smoke red flake ) and with half an hour had culled up 3 times and right in the same area I had just passed through without a bite. I can only attribute that to a tube and it's uncanny ability to get bites.

[bassnleo]

Another noteworthy offering for this thread.......

In the past year I have been experimenting with different size tubes, specifically, tubes much smaller than the norm.

I had this trip on Lake Erie.......Conditions were perfect for tubes. Those fish see countless numbers of 3 and 4 inch tubes. I downsized to a 2 1/2" tube.

It's a little more work to cram a jighead into these tubes but with a little patience it can be done. That size change totally changed the rate and type of fall usually associated with 3-4 inch tubes. I actaully had to mess with jighead weights to acheive proper bottom contact depending of course on wave action, depth, "snagyness" of the particular bottom.

End result, I loved how they performed, so did the big smallies  .

I found that my landing ratio went up dramatically. I attribute that to the fact that there was far less plastic (than on a 3-4 inch tube) to interfere with hook penetration. If you've ever fished a tube in depths of 20-30 feet for smallies, hook penetration can be a factor. Now, it's not all from tube size, line strech, rod power, smallies just closing their mouth and holding on all play a factor. It's not uncommon for a 4-5 lb Erie smallmouth to go from 20 feet deep to 3 feet out of the water in the blink of an eye after hook set. It's heart breaking to watch one jump one way and your tube goes the other.

I can honestly say that with the smaller tubes I did not have that happen once! I landed EVERY smallmouth I hooked on the smaller tube and each time the hook was firmly embedded in it's mouth, and I pour my heads with only 3/0 light wire hooks.

This was all using a 6'6' Kistler rod and 8 lb flouro line.

Another interesting fact from that experience. Just about everyone knows that gobies are a predominate forage on the Great Lakes. I actually foul hooked several gobies that were pecking at my tubes. They were just about the same size as my tubes. I found that I WANTED gobies pecking away and they often telegraphed when I was going to get a smallmouth bite. The gobie pecks would suddenly stop and THUMP, a smallmouth would be on. I honestly believe that the gobies pecking away drew the smallmouths attention, they came in for a look, and liked what they saw.

Just a theory, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

[Primus]

Great info guys, bassnleo you sure know your stuff when it comes to tube fishing. I also agree with the Natural on Smoke Purple being the most underated color for soft plastics.

Anyway, to add my 2 cents, tubes are great bait for a Carolina rig. I personally prefer the thin walled single dipped tubes like a BPS tender tube, regular Berkely power tube for this application because the double dipped tubes have all that extra plastic which makes the tube a little stiffer and seems to interfere with the hookset. However the double dipped tubes are my preference when fishing a tube with an internal jighead.

[bassnleo]

Thanks man!

The wall thickness of tubes is something I've yet to write about. I think I'm similar to you in that I like thin walled tubes for internal jigheads. For flippin applications I like thicker plastic. The thicker plastic seems to hold up better with the heavy weights and heavy guage hooks common for flippin. They seem to last a bit longer when constantly popping the tube of out the weeds or whatever heavy cover I'm targeting.

Carolina rig, try this. Take a foam earplug, soak it in whatever scent you like. Jam it inside the open end of the tube and leave it toward the opening. Serves 2 purposes, obviously the scent, and it will allow the back of the tube to float up slightly. It's a good deadsticking technique!

[bassnleo]

bassnleo

Excellent post. Very informative & the pictures helped immensely.

Dwight, judging by your Erie smallmouth pics, I can't imagine you need much help. You got game on the big water. 

We need to hook up this Spring!

[bassnleo]

Dust off those tubes boys, things are thawing here and before long the brownies will be chewing. When the water climbs into the low 40's and clears up a bit, I'll be tossing a 2.5" watermelon or green pumpkin on a 3/16 - 3/8 internal head. Always love that first bite indicating tick and the swing of the stick that follows. 

[Mobasser]

Good post. I'm getting back into tube fishing this year. Thanks to a link from A-Jay, I ordered new tube baits from Provider Tackle. I received them on Friday, and they look great. Good quality products.