Jonn Graham on Tubes

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TUBES

(POSTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF JONN GRAHAM)

Jonn Graham, smallmouth guru

  If I had to pick one bait to fish with for the rest of my life, it would be a tube. Why? Well, not only does it catch fish, but it is one of the few baits that can catch fish in a river 12 months out of the year. In addition, the tube can imitate almost any type of forage a bass seeks out. Drag it on the bottom - crayfish, reel it through the water column - minnow.

Now, I have been fishing tubes for a long, long time. I could write pages and pages about the subject, but I don't have that kind of time right now. I just want to talk about some tube basics.

I prefer a tube that measures around 3 inches in length. The rigging I prefer, and almost every other river smallmouth fisherman does the same thing, is to rig my tubes "weedless". Of course, rigging any soft plastic weedless is very advantageous in a river setting.
( http://www.hookedupbait.com ) and ( http://www.wincoscustomlures.com )

If you throw plastics with the hook exposed, you will donate most of them to the "river gods". The jigheads I use are made by Owner and are called the bullethead. Owner's hooks are legendary when it comes to sharpness. They are not cheap, but they get the job done.
( http://www.ownerhooks.com/hooks/ultraheads.htm#5146 )

Put the hook into the nose of the tube and then  BRING IT RIGHT BACK OUT OF THE TUBE ON THE SIDE! If you put the hook point too far down the tube initially, you will have a problem with your final rig.

Above I am showing how you push the head of the tube all the way up behind the lead portion of the jig.

Now, the above picture shows the tricky part. When your tube is completely rigged it has to hang straight. In order to accomplish this, you must put a slight bend in the body of the tube, before inserting the hook point back into the bait. that is what the above picture shows. You will remove that bend in the bait upon finishing the rig job.

When it is completely rigged, it should look like the picture above.

I fish my tubes on a medium action spinning rod with braided line. My preferred jighead weight is 1/8 ounce and I prefer tube that is dark colored. I fish my tubes a little different than most. Instead of hopping the tube off the river bottom, I prefer to keep my rod parallel to the water and drag the tube six inches to a foot, stop and let the tube rest, and then do it again. This technique gives the angler more feel of what the bait is doing and what the bottom feels like. The rig is incredibly snag proof. If you do get hooked on a rock, don't panic and jerk hard. Simply hold your rod high and give it a pop and it will usually come free. Be aware that smallies love to strike a tube right after it has been dislodged from a rock.  I think Mr. Brown Bass thinks it is a crayfish getting away from them. This idea of getting hung up and then "popping" the tube free can be a deadly way to get a reaction strike out of lethargic bass. I cannot tell you the number of times my clients and I have hooked a smallie right after getting a tube un-snagged.............it really works.

AS ALWAYS............................HAIL TO THE SMALLIE

~ Jonn Graham

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<*(((>{  tjd