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Power-Fishing a Tube - Throwing Big Tubes in SE Mass and Cape Cod Waters
Article by Matt Grady
Posted on February 14, 2008

Matt with bass

Mention tubes and immediately you think of smallmouth, finesse fishing, spinning reels, light lines and 1/8 gitzit-type tubes. In this article I'm going to write about the versatile tube bait and fishing one as a power-presentation instead of a finesse tactic.

The Beginning

About four years ago I was watching a TV show with Kevin Van Dam. He was smallmouth fishing with tubes on one of the Great Lakes and catching some nice fish. The show had underwater footage of the tube hopping erratically over rocks and gravel and I was amazed at how realistic it looked. Not long after that I bought some tubes, started learning how to fish them and determining which set up worked best. I immediately fell in love with tube fishing and I caught fish the first time that I tied one on.

Gear

Like any other kind of fishing, I found certain things I liked and disliked about tubes and fishing them. The biggest was that I had bought 1/8oz heads and 3 inch tubes (like what was used on TV) so I had to use spinning gear to throw them and I prefer casting gear to spinning gear any day. I also didn't like the light weight of the tube. It was hard to feel the bottom and detect strikes because it floated so much with the 1/8oz head. I was still catching fish on them but my method needed refining.

Traditional Tube
Traditional Tube

Big Tube
Big "Power" Tube

First I bought some heavier heads. I started with 1/4oz. Immediately I noticed the difference. Now I could feel the tube much better in deeper water and I could also differentiate between rocks and weeds on the bottom. Then I bought some bigger tubes. I found that 4-inch tubes had the same action as 3 inch tubes and they were heavier. Heavier tubes meant I could throw them farther, cover more water and I seemed to be catching bigger fish on them also. Next I added glass rattles in the tubes. I had to super-glue the rattles in the tubes or else they would fall out after 5 or 6 casts. Once glued in they will stay there for the life of the tube. The rattles work really well in stained water (clear water also) or at night. I think it really helps the fish find the tube on the bottom when visibility is low.

As for line I found that 12-14lb test line worked best and I often use 14-17lb fluorocarbon when fishing clear water. The heavier line (less stretch) allows you to really feel the bottom and detect the lightest strike. It also lets you fish thick weed and really horse fish out of cover without worrying about breaking off. I also prefer long, heavy action rods for fishing tubes. The longer rod allows you to cast farther and move a lot of line with one swing when a fish hits in deep water.

So after all my research and development I found that a 4 inch tube on a 1/2oz jighead with a 2 or 3 OT Owner hook with rattles glued in the tube cavity, on 12-17lb line with a 7-8 foot heavy action baitcasting rod and reel is the best tube setup for power fishing.

Techniques

Now that I had the gear straightened out a concentrated on learning HOW and WHERE to fish the big tube and which presentations worked best. After a lot of trial and error I found that you can catch fish on tubes in just about any depth as long as the bottom is relatively clean.

I have always loved fishing deep water. I've never been one to go down and bank throwing at shoreline cover. So naturally I started fishing big tubes deep water and found that fishing a tube slowly on deep main-lake structure is a great big fish pattern. If I had to rate structure I'd say that off-shore rockpiles are the best for tubing. Grassbeds come in a close second and any type of gravel would be third. The problem is that off-shore rockpiles are often few and far between in our area but when you do find them they always hold fish. Grassbeds on the other hand are much more common, especially on Cape Cod. They are generally much bigger and easier to find as well. I like to find grassbeds in the main lake in anywhere from 10-40 feet of water (15-25 being most common) and throw markers out on both ends of the grassbed to define the exact spot that I'm targeting. Once I've done that I make it a point to keep the boat as far away as possible and make long casts INTO THE WIND. Throwing into the wind allows the tube to hop WITH the grass instead of against it. Main-lake Grass (which may be as tall as 5 feet) blows over with the current that's generated by the wind. If you throw your tube with the and hop it back to the boat against the grass you will hang up almost every time. For this technique to be effective you must cast into the wind.

As for the action of the tube, I try to hop the tube with a constant rhythmic motion. I try to envision the tube hoping about 2 feet at a time. Once I've made 3 or 4 of 5 steady hops I make one fast rip and yank the tube about 3 feet off the bottom VERY quickly. That fast yank will often trigger the strike. I find this method is very effective on tough days where the fish aren't biting anything else. I think the fast rip of the tube triggers a reaction bite that few fish can resist.

I find that the bites usually come on the way down while the tube is falling. If your line is tight as the tube falls you'll feel the rod just start to pull fast when the fish hits. It takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of detecting the bite its really easy. It's an awesome feeling to lean down to the fish just a little then swing back HARD and feel the weight of the fish getting ripped off the bottom. I very rarely have fish come off once I set the hook on them with a tube. The hook-set to landing percentage is very high with this bait.

Tubes

For all intents and purposes when it comes to brands a tube is a tube is a tube. I like to throw a regular 4 inch tube when I'm fishing a clean bottom with little or no weeds. However when the grass grows long and high off the bottom as it does in many ponds on the cape, a traditional tube will hang up in the grass and you'll bring in grass on almost every cast. That makes it an ineffective method and you will not get bites if your tube is dragging a foot of grass around with it. This gets frustrating because as i mentioned earlier, fishing the grass in the deep water is where the tube really shines.

This spring while nosing around Bob's Bait and Tackle I found a new "Craw Tube" from Strike King. I bought a few bags of them and quickly realized I was onto something. By looking at the picture below you'll see that the claws hang way off the sides of the tube. This makes the tube sit on top of the grass instead of falling down into the grass and hanging up. I have used both styles of tubes in the same spots and the craw tube will hang up much less than the tube without the claws.

Craw Tube
Craw Tube

The tube is made for flipping so I trim the top 3/4 inch of solid plastic off, make it into a regular tube. Add a 2/0, 1/2oz jighead, cover it in smelly jelly and you're ready to go.

Conclusion

I'll finish up by saying that the thing that surprises me the most when I fish a tube this way is the number of big largemouth I catch in traditional smallmouth spots. Give power-tubing a shot, it'll surprise you.



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