i need Tube Tips

[justtrying]

hey guys, i'm trying to "catch a few" on tubes, but am not having the success i think i should have.

i can catch them w/worms, but, i'm doing something wrong w/tubes.

please tell me "in detail" how you rig/fish tubes.  ....you know, do you texas rig?  do you leave hook exposed?  what hook do you use?  ,,,what about weight?  what kind of rod/reel?  brand of tubes?

...any & everything would be appreciated.  

thanks

[basspro48]

I always texas-rig my tubes with a 1/4 oz. bullet pegged with a rubberband tied in a simple overhand knot. I use either a Medium heavy or Heavy casting rod depending on the type of cover I am fishing. My reel is a Shimano Curado CU-200 spooled with either 17lb. Berkley Vanish Flourocarbon or 50lb. Stren Super Braid. When I'm not using my homemade tubes I usually use YUM Vibra-king tubes.

Hope this helps.

[Triton_Mike]

Here is my favorite head to fish tubes on

http://www.bassstalk...p/products_id/8

Here is how I like to rig them.

another site

I like to stand my tubes up vs laying flat on the bottom. Just something different I guess.

T Mike

[Guest senkosamson]

There are different tubes for different applications. The small 2" tubes are usually for swimming like a grub and the jig head can be inside or outside depending on the action preferred.

With head embedded, the line tie is on top but through the plastic and the action is more eratic and darting.

With the head on the outside, the action is more of a glide/finesse swim or hop. 1/6 oz. Ballhead jigheads are my usual short tube jig and the hook is exposed. To make the small tube bulge a little, I pack it with a piece of a small diameter worm, at times.

When you go to larger 3-3.5" tubes or larger flipp'n tubes, texposed wide gap hooks are the way to go. The larger tubes can have thin walls or thick, depending on the diameter lure you want to present, the type of cover and water displacement of the tube. I started using thick walled fat 3.5" tubes this year and my catch ratio has gone up dramatically. Many handpour guys sell the best tubes made in this category (Mizmo, Micromunch) and the plastic is soft enough for a good hookset.

The larger tubes are great for areas a jig & trailer normally target: rocks, drop offs, steep banks, laydowns, docks) and the key is to let them hit bottom and wait 5 seconds. Then, you can drag or stutter-hop them back to you, but with pauses.

Tubes are like Senkos in that fish will take them off bottom and swim with them a distance. The most important aspects of using tubes are : feeling the lure on the drop; feeling for a tick or nothing at the end of the line on the hop and strong hook sets.

Tubes are all season lures and work just before the ice covers everything. Slower the better for water under 50; medium fast for water over 50, but always with pauses in retrieve.

I've been very lucky this last season to have been given the opportunity to learn what the larger tube feels like when struck and now always carry them, along with large-gap hooks (3/0, 4/0) and 1/8-3/16 oz. bullet weights. Smaller tubes have always been open water fish catchers, but are limited in cover. Texposed tubes work every place else.

My basic short tube colors: chartreuse, pearl laminate, craw laminate, bubblegum, pearl

My long tube color preferences: roadkill (medium pearl green), green pumpkin; pumpkin; brown with black flake

You don't need to go nuts with color. Fish see the above colors quite well as well as muted colors with red, purple, blue or green flakes (black or smoke plastic).

I use 10lb-30lb test braid for all LM tubing and throw a tube 40% of the time when weeds are healthy and full grown. For smallie tubing, gravel , crushed shell and medium rocks on sand are a good place to start.

Make yourself use them in at least   20 locations that you'd normally use a worm and get ready for some action, even from 12" youngsters. Bass LOVE tubes and tubes will outperform other bottom-hoppers much of the time!!

[roadwarrior]

I'm a pretty big fan of Triton_Mike. If you guys didn't know, he writes for GYCB's Inside Line magazine. I highly recommend this magazine, it's not just an infomercial, it's packed with some great articles including interviews with top pros (Rick Clunn is featured in the latest issue). So, Mikes's tips may be all you need, but I'll describe the way I fish tubes anyhow.

First of all, from midsummer until very recently, tubes have been my #1 producer. I have been fishing the Micro Munch Tackle El Gordo, black neon (black with red flakes). This is a big tube and I have caught some big largemouth on them. I fish spinning tackle as I do for almost all my soft plastics, specifically St. Croix ES70MF, Yo-Zuri Hybrid Ultra Soft #6, Gamakatsu 4/0 EWG T-rigged, 1/4 oz bullet weight with a bead, unpegged.

I cast parallel to the bank out about five to ten yards or preferrably, on or near structure. Initially I let the tube fall on slack line and let the tube sit for at least thirty seconds, but maybe a minute or more if I really like the spot. I often feel like bass are attracted to the splash and fall and will stalk the lure while it lies on the bottom. The head may bury into rocks on the bottom, but the tenacles float up. On the first movement I only move the tube a few inches on a short horizontal sweep, moving it over rocks slowly like a crawdad might move. Then I let it sit again for quite awhile and repeat. If this pattern is not successful or just for variety, I will hop the tube with a longer vertical move, raising the bait a foot or so and moving it forward then falling on slack line. This is the only soft plastic I actually hop.

Bass sometimes strike on the fall. Sometimes when it's lying on the bottom they will pick it up, but usually I get bitten when I start to move the tube. Maybe the bass is eyeing the bait and strikes when it thinks the lure is trying to get away. Other guys fish tubes shallow and in grass with success, I generally use other weightless soft plastics shallow. For me the tube, Kut-Tail and Kreature are my deep water baits (also a lizard C-rigged, but that's another story).

In open water, especially when smallmouth fishing, I fish a much smaller tube on a jighead. This bait is a 3 1/2" Gitzit in baby diaper

yellow. Although I have had some success in stained water with this color, it is particularly effective in the crystal clear waters of Bull Shoals. I fish this tube completely differently. I cast near structure or cover and allow the lure to fall to the bottom on slack line. I never let it sit, but make long, full hops trying to attract actively feeding smallmouth. There have been days when this has been the most productive lure I have ever used. And that's the technique.

[justtrying]

ok guys, THIS is what i was looking for .... KEEP IT COMING!  ...i KNOW the tube has to be a great producer, i just haven't fished it enough to be comfortable w/it.  

i guess it's like when i first started fishing jigs, i had NO confidence til i caught a few Good fish.  ,,maybe if i can use some of the advice you guys give me & catch a few, ............

anyway,,, THANK YOU, thank you, thank you ....and, as i said before, Keep them pointers coming.

now, i'm going back & re-read the posts - (you just gotta LOVE this place)

[phisher_d]

I fish tubes in two ways:

On the bottom as a crayfish imitation

Swimming as a baitfish imitation

When I'm fishing a tube on the bottom, I texas rig it either weightless or with a sliding bullet sinker for deeper situations. I use a technique sort of like what RW described in his 3rd paragraph, but I've also had success simply dragging them on bottom back to the boat. If you're doing this with a weightless tube, you have to go vvveerrryyy slow. For bottom hopping I like a 3-3.5 inch tube. My colour choice is usually green, brown, black or some dark colour like that. If you know what the crayfish in your lake look like, you could try to match those colours as well.

For swimming a tube, I like light tube head (usually 1/8-1/4oz) on a smaller 2-3 inch tube. I cast that out and let it fall on a slack line, watching the line as it falls. If anything doesn't look right, set the hook. When it gets to the desired depth, I retrieve it back slowly with subtle jerks. The coloder the water, the slower you will probably want to retrieve. If you get a bite and miss the fish, open the bail or put the reel in free spool and let the tube free fall. This makes the bass think it has killed the fish and it will often pick it up a second time. My colour choices for swimming are chartreuse, pearl, white, silver and other light, baitfish type colours.

In dingy water I like to add a rattle to my tubes, but in clear water I find that it can sometimes have a negative effect and scare bass away. In that situation I sometimes thread a small piece of sponge onto the shank of the tube head (or into the body of the tube if it is t-rigged) and then squirt some attractant onto it. The sponge holds the scent for a long time.

I don't know how much the brand of tubes matters, but I usually just fish BPS tubes because of their ultra-low price.  If you are texas-rigging the tube though, you would benifit more from a softer (usually more expensive) tube because it will give you a better hookset.

I do most of my tube fishing on spinning gear with 8-10 pound mono or fluorocarbon, but if I'm fishing heavy cover for largemouths, baitcasting and braid are always options.

As for rod and reel, the best you can afford. For me, that's not very much, but the added sensitivity and power in an expensive setup is always a plus.

Hope this helps

[phisher_d]

Chris wrote a good tube article:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1131171508

[Nick_Barr]

I throw my tubes as this:

TExas rig with it skin hooked

With a 1/4 bullet weight or football head/tube jig weight

I throw: Poor Boy Danks, Clearwater tubes, Strike King Flippin Tubes

On a Lamiglas Cert. Pro MH/fast action

With anywhere from 6 to 17 pound test McCoy Mean Green

I throw these on riprap banks, rocky points and flip them in pads and wood.

When fishing them in deeper water, try dragging it and make a hopping presentation that resembles a wounded baitfish, even swim them over ledges and big smallies will smack them.

[Guest avid]

I only recently started catching bass on tubes.  My best method is to pinch a 1/32 oz. bullshot sinker right at the top of a 3 1/2 tube.  Cast it to cover and it will slowly spiral down.  This has been pretty effective for me and is a go - to technique when other methods aren't producing.

[Panamoka_Bassin]

I too just got into using worms, myself, and have found a few variations that work.

My rig is a simple texas with either 1/16 or 1/8 bullet on a neon black or olive green 3.5" tube with a 2/0 worm hook. I bring the off-set bend out near the top so that the point is just short of the "tentacles". I make a small 1/4" slit on one side of the tube and let the hook bend sit there and put the barb through the other side.

As I always use spinning gear (I am not good with casting reels, danged backlashes), I find that flipping and pitching are great, but even with a full over-hand cast you can get some great action working any kind of structure you can find. I watched Aaron Martens (sp?) in a tourney on TV just barely moving the lure, and then twitching it for up to 4 or 5 feet along the bottom, and I have had some success with that. Generally, though, the best technique is just to let the tube sink, jig it up a bit and let it sit for a while. Be careful the next time I jig the tube, because many times a bass has taken a soft hit on the tube and is just holding it in his mouth.

When I get a chance to sight fish, I'll throw the tube well past the fish, and "yo-yo" it until I get to the fish. Then I wait a few seconds, and maybe put a little twitch or two to trigger a strike. If that doesn't get the fish to bite, I try a little more of a movement, about 6-10 inches, to mimic a crawdad a bit.

When I do get a hit, I like to let the bass run a bit before I give a strong hook-set...not a jerk like set, but just a good firm yank is all you need.