Tubes are not just for the North anymore!! For along time fisherman up North have been using tube baits with great success, they are very popular with the small mouth fisherman, from Tennessee up. Well, we’ve been missing out down here in the deep South!
I was turned on to fishing tubes from a guy that does allot of flipping, as a matter of fact, he really whooped me one day from the back of the boat. I had my trusty Jig and he was flipping his tubes. I laughed when he first pulled them out, asking if he thought there where in Small Mouth Bass in these waters, he laughed back and said, sure, I’ll use one for bait after he hits my tube.
Well, to make a long story short, while I was getting caught up, cleaning off grass, wiggling to get through pads, he was fishing. Not only was he fishing, he was catching, and very nice bass to boot.
So at the end of the day I asked the obvious questions, and below are his answers.
Why the Tube Bait down here?
1. Action was his first answer, the tube swirls on the way down, giving a different profile than any other bait on the market, and one these Southern bass haven’t seen.
2. Easily manipulated through grass and trash, not getting caught up as often and easily freed if it does.
3. Color combos unlike you can ever find in the jig world, with swirls, tri lams, and some flair style colors.
Do you use a tube rattle? How do you get the attention of the bass in the dirty water we’re fishing?
I don’t use a rattle he said, I put a small glass bead between the weight and the eye of the hook, the sound is not muffled then as with the interior rattles and sound great. Made since to me.
So with this new information, I started experimenting on my own a couple of years back, and this is what I have found.
Tubes are GREAT for our Southern Waters! You can adjust your weight to what type of water you are fishing, Peg it with a big flipping weight and they go through the grass clean then swirls to the bottom getting the attention of any bass close around, the bait isn’t covered with trash like some creature baits out there, and comes back clean 90% of the time.
Working through the trash we fish down here is very easy with a tube, the slick profile helps the bait go through the limbs and logs with ease. I used to be real careful with my jigs when going through deep piles of trash, but now my confidence level is much better and I can ‘hop’ the tube without worrying about getting caught on the next limb.
You can swim the tube, ‘worm’ fish the tube, put it in any area you want. They work well weightless on top of scattered grass, slowly floating back down in the holes. During the spring I rig the tubes with a swimbait hook and they float straight down, wobbling side to side straight into the bed. I usually use a bluegill color when doing this, she just want stand for it, she’s not going to ‘push’ it out, she’s going to inhale it!
So grab you a bag of tubes and experiment with them as I did. You will find that down here, tube baits are very versatile and will give you an edge over some of the other guys, because as you know, it’s one bait these bass just don’t see very often.
See Ya on the Water,
Lee
