Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 01/14/09: Tube Bait Fishing for the Spring Spawn

The plastic tube is most deadly on the largemouth bass during the spawning season. This is my favorite bait to catch those finicky bass. The enticing movement of the shredded tail and the light weight makes it very difficult for a bass to refuse this offering.

My favorite all around size is the 4" tube. The color I prefer is smoke with silver glitter although many other colors can be effective in different water clarity. The tackle required for rigging this bait is an large offset hook with a clip on the bottom of the hook eye and some small splitshots. The special tube hook with the clip will make it much easier to hold the tube bait's head in place since it is hollow. Thread your hook on your line, then place the tube Texas style without a bullet sinker and use the clip to keep the bait from sliding down the hook. Add as small of splitshot as you can tolerate to still allow the bait to sink at a medium fall and not move off the bed with a twitch of the rod.

The Tube bait

Working the tube bait on a bass bed requires you to use a pitching method. I prefer a spinning outfit since the lure is so light and the spool of a spinning reel offers very little resistance. Simply pitch the tube beyond the bed and work the bait towards the center of the bed. Once in the center, lift your rod at approx. a 45 degree angle and twitch the bait gently. What I mean by "gently" is to shake the lure causing it's tail fibers to move but not moving it from the center of the bed. This does take practice and requires having a semi taunt line with very small twitches of the rod on the order of 1/2" back/forth motions of the wrist and hand. You'll know you are doing it correctly by two things: 1- The bait stays in place or nearly in place and 2- The bass become interested and start nosing the tube.

Detecting a strike is often difficult as the bass may simply suck the lure in and move toward you and spit it out beyond the bed within a matter of seconds or less. A couple of things that can make a difference in detecting s strike are: 1- Be a line watcher and 2- Watch the bass and if it is moving off the bed, set the hook.

So next time your out during the spring spawn, try a tube bait and I'm sure you'll be doing more catching with less fishing.

The Largemouth Herald

The Largemouth Herald with several fish caught on tubes in January 2009.