Tubes are easy lures to fish that resemble crayfish when brought back along the bottom, but they also can mimic fleeing minnows when they are reeled fast. They are relatively cheap, and come in many sizes and colors.
Where to Buy Tubes and the Best Colors
Tubes are available at outdoor supply stores that sell fishing equipment, and they are manufactured by many different bait companies. They look sort of like small squids, and some anglers use pink or clear tubes for flounder or even small tuna, as they can also work well for these fish. But for largemouth and smallmouth bass, tubes that are about three or four inches long in natural colors like watermelon (an olive-green color), pumpkin (a light brown color), smoke (dark gray), and black work best. Cabelas has a nice selection of tubes.
Hooks to Use with Tubes
Tube jigheads are required for this type of fishing, and they should slide inside the tube, head first, with the hook exposed when fitted, and the eye of the hook, on the top of the jighead should be pulled through the head of the tube. Here is a good type of jighead for tubes. Any simple jighead should do fine if tube-specific ones like these cannot be found, but they must be large enough to fill the length of the tube.
Lure Retrieve
Usin tubes in rivers and ponds may at times be the best way to catch bass, but the angler must work these lures properly. The best way to retrieve a tube is to fish it like a jig. Let it sink to the bottom, and twitch the rod, jerking it up (looking like a swimming crayfish), and reel up the slack as it resettles on the bottom. This works in deep areas in rivers, especially where the bottom is rocky, and on the downstream side of riffles and rapids. The one problem with fishing tubes is that they often snag. It is best to avoid using them when there are submerged dead trees in the area, as the tubes will most likely find them. In ponds, tubes work just about anywhere. They are great in deep areas with muddy bottoms, in shallow areas where they may be seen as they are retrieved, and in most tree-less areas in between.
When to Use Tubes and an Alternate Retrieval Technique
Using tubes for bass is great in the summer and fall when fish are aggressive, because their retrieve should be faster than that of jig and pigs. Tubes are smaller than jig and pigs, and will catch fish of all sizes, whereas jigs usually only yield somewhat larger fish. Tubes may also be reeled faster, to resemble fleeing baitfish. With this retrieve, the lure should never get quite to the bottom before the angler twitches the rod up, raising the lure in the water, and then the angler should quickly reel the slack to catch it again before it sinks too deep. When fished like this, as the angler pops the rod up, a tube will often dart in different directions each time it is jerked up, enticing any aggressive fish in the area.
Tubes are versatile lures that may be used to catch many different species of fish, but for bass they can at times be the most productive lures in an angler's arsenal. There most common function is representing crayfish on the bottom (in rivers for smallmouth, or ponds for largemouth bass), but with alternative retrieval techniques, anglers can lure fish that might not be resting on the bottom. Using tubes for bass is at times one of the most productive fishing techniques
 |
