Do any of you use tubes for Large mouth bass? They sell them at our local BPS. Seems that all I ever read about is using them on SMB. If so, where and when?
Texas rig them, with a pegged weight, and pitch them into the slop.
T-rig and skip under docks and pitch around bushes.
Thanks. Will try them.
Possibilities are endless with tubes.. all good suggestions above. I personally like to "yo-yo" them through the water columns with a weighted tube hook when I'm struggling to find fish.
Largemouths love them, good advice above. Only problems with tubes is when the habitat you're fishing is too weedy. If you find good edges, drop them just outside, work parallel to the edge. Vary the retrieve to find what they want that day.
Stupid or Texas rig em with a pegged weight and drop em down the sides of standing timber
1/2 oz tube jig and crack em. Always helps to have something different that nobody on your waters throws.
I actually watched some youtube videos over the winter on tubes. Thought they looked interesting and got some, fished them one time so far and caught a few lgm with them. Will be throwing them more in different situations. But it looks like it will produce for me.
Tubes are a staple for me for LMB. I like to t-rig them and do the old hop and pause retrieve. Tubes and senkos are my main go to baits when nothing else will catch them. My preferred color is green pumpkin with a little flake.
Find a 4 1/2 inch tube (my fav. SK Denny Brauer Flip Tube) and texas rig it with as light a weight as you need to get through the wood, grass or whatever else you are throwing into. Great thing is they are streamlined to come through heavy cover easily.
A T-rigged craw tube caught me a lot of fish last year. Pitching a tube use to be one of my favorite ways to fish but it just isn't the cool thing to do anymore so it's kind of fallen out of favor with a lot of guys. They're a great big fish pitching bait for me though.
From the mid 90's to early 2000's a tube, a jig, a power worm, and plastic craw were my go-to flipping and pitching baits. Then somewhere around 2004/2005 I kinda forgot about them, and for the next 7-8 years if I was not using a jig to pitch and flip with, I was using a beaver style bait almost exclusively. Tube's, worms, and craws kinda got forgotten about.
It's funny how things come full circle. I never abandoned the jig, but the last 3-5 years, tubes,power worms, and craws have made a huge comeback in my arsenal, as well as mixing in beaver style baits now and then. The fish still bite them as well as they ever did. In fact, I think I am catching MORE and BIGGER fish since going back to my "roots" then I ever did when I had "forgotten" about these baits.
Like others have stated, Texas rigged with a weight and I flip/pitch them in holes. I personally don't use tubes a lot anymore, I probably should. I first learned how to pitch/flip with a tube into slop, in a few casts I quickly caught my first into the slop LMB.
One of my confidence baits for largemouth. 1/8oz tube jig head with an exposed hook and I drag and hop them around. Works well
I've had some success fishing tubes traditionally with spotted bass as well.
I use them for SMB and LMB. If there's a decent amount of weeds around, I use a skip gap hook and peg them with a bullet weight. If its on the rocks for SMB, I generally use a tube jig and down size on the tube to a smaller one.
Somewhere along the way it seems like they became just a clear water SM bait, but that's a mistake. For some reason, they're back in my rotation too but they work. This thread makes me want to fish them more though.
On 5/18/2018 at 6:54 PM, Todd2 said:Somewhere along the way it seems like they became just a clear water SM bait
Probably because they started out as a smallie bait. The first tubes I recall were Gitzits. In fact, no one called them tubes. Any jig head stuffed into a tube was a "Gitzit."
I used to use them often, but have gotten away from them the past 3 yrs. Texas rig and like many say above, a pegged slip sinker. Also, you might search older articles by Guido Hibdon. He was very good at tube fishing.They will catch all species of bass.If your waters are super weedy, drop them on outside edges of moss lines etc.
I havent fished them a lot but the few times I did they worked well . One time I forgot my soft plastic bag so a search through my gear i found a new bag of black Gizits . I Texas rigged them and caught plenty of largemouths .
Tubes started as 3/4" crappie jig and evolved to 7" Tora tubes for largemouth bass with a wide variety of sizes inbetween. Very versitile soft plastic that range from Garlands Gitzit hollow body to Denny Brauer solid head flipping tube to solid bodies with tube tails. Rigging is only limited by your imagination from drop shot to jigs.
You can use a soft plastic tube for all game fish.
Tom
Netbait used to make one called the BK Tube. They had a color called "Lou's Special" that was as close to a sure thing as I've ever found. I have literally ONE left and it's being saved for the most desperate of desperate days.
On 5/17/2018 at 7:23 AM, Pacoac10 said:1/2 oz tube jig and crack em. Always helps to have something different that nobody on your waters throws.
Cracking a tube is a very under used technique
What is cracking a tube?
On 5/20/2018 at 7:14 PM, thinkingredneck said:What is cracking a tube?
Snapping it off the bottom, almost looks like you're setting the hook instead of just fishing the bait.
On 5/20/2018 at 8:12 PM, Bluebasser86 said:Snapping it off the bottom, almost looks like you're setting the hook instead of just fishing the bait.
Works with alot of baits ! My most productive retrieve with the fat ika and works sometimes with stick baits .