I'd like to try out tubes this year. Please explain how you fish tubes and pretend like I'm a five year old. I know many of you have success with tubes in BWCA. I'm not a very experienced fisherman, so please break it down.

Setup, retrieve, depths, presentation?

I'll be up there around 2nd week of June if that helps. I'll target whatever bites.

Fish them as you would any jig, cast it out, let it drop all the way to the bottom, work it back by lifting your rod tip and then slowly reeling in line as you drop your rod tip back down. Repeat. Tube jigs tend to fall at a slower rate than other jigs and fish often bite on the drop. IF fishing walleye, you'll want to let it fall all the way or near the bottom.
Can also be fished under a bobber with or without live bait. Reel the bobber in in short spurts, allowing the jig to fall back to it's maximum depth.

Fiirst, perfect time using a tube for SMB, Pike, and Walleye.

Universal size for BW at that time of year: 3.5in.

Rig: Texas style, or jig with lead on shank of hook. With Texas style, pull hook all the way thru, and "skin-hook" it. Sharpen hooks so they will split atoms. In a 3.5in. tube, a 1/0 or 2/0 thin, high quality hook(Daiichi, Gamakatsu) EWG works great.

Presentation: this jig-body does 2 interesting movements. First, when it hits the bottom, the tenacles wave around, giving movement while body not moving(dying minnow? crayfish?). Second, when pulled off the bottom(1 to 3ft.) and allowed to freefall back to bottom, it makes a "corkscrew" movement, just like a dying/dead baitfish. Just don't overpower it with too much weight, allow it to fall on a semi-slack line. A 1/8oz. weight will get you to 10ft., 3/16 to 15ft., 1/4oz to 20ft. Learn to be a "line watcher".

Color: everybody will have a favorite, but basically the "earthy" colors like pumpkinseed, watermelon. In the clear waters of the BW, a fluorescent color could be construed by the fish as aggressive, and this is a "neutral" technique, meaning it appeals to both aggressive and neutral fish.

quote gutmon: "Fish them as you would any jig, cast it out, let it drop all the way to the bottom, work it back by lifting your rod tip and then slowly reeling in line as you drop your rod tip back down. Repeat. Tube jigs tend to fall at a slower rate than other jigs and fish often bite on the drop. IF fishing walleye, you'll want to let it fall all the way or near the bottom.
Can also be fished under a bobber with or without live bait. Reel the bobber in in short spurts, allowing the jig to fall back to it's maximum depth."

+1 p.s. You can swim them like a wounded baitfish also for active fish.

quote chipaddler: "I'd like to try out tubes this year. Please explain how you fish tubes and pretend like I'm a five year old. I know many of you have success with tubes in BWCA. I'm not a very experienced fisherman, so please break it down.

Setup, retrieve, depths, presentation?

I'll be up there around 2nd week of June if that helps. I'll target whatever bites."

Here is a link to a nice concise article about fishing tubes.

Tube Fishing

For bass you can fish it like any other jig. Cast, let it sink and hop back to the boat. It's also great weightless if fish are more finicky.

Split shot rigs with the bait 18"-24" behind work pretty well for the wally's. Just enough weight to help get it closer to bottom and keep it a bit more in the zone.

Enjoy!
Brandon

I am also a novice and just started with tubes last year. An easy rigging method that was taught to me was to push a tube jig head into the tube, punch the eyelet out through the soft plastic and tie to the main line. In the pictures in the link above, the tube at the very bottom left appears rigged this way. Then it can be fished just like a jig except that it has the unique movements described above. Placing the jig head sort of mid body in the tube can make the movements even more erratic.

Some fisherman, especially on Lake Erie, like to "drag" tubes - meaning that they get it on the bottom and then reel in as slowly as they can tolerate reeling.

The other thing I found with tubes was to not be afraid to set the hook. Smallmouth especially seem to really inhale them. Enjoy! Fishing with tubes is fun and productive.

Awesome guys, very helpful. Hope to come back with some photos of pig with tubes jamed in their mouth.

I use tubes often in the BWCA. One of my favorites is casting white tubes onto wind blown points. Often there is a substantial bow in the line since I am using 1/4 jig heads. Hold on the smallest really nail it., Unfortunately the pike end up with several as well. I use 8# mono. On both spinning and bait casting rigs.

Besides white I use a pumpkin color which is green

Good luck

quote Kentucky Mark: "I use tubes often in the BWCA. One of my favorites is casting white tubes onto wind blown points. Often there is a substantial bow in the line since I am using 1/4 jig heads. Hold on the smallest really nail it., Unfortunately the pike end up with several as well. I use 8# mono. On both spinning and bait casting rigs.

Besides white I use a pumpkin color which is green

Good luck"

Pumpkin and white are my two faves!

You can swim them like a wounded baitfish also for active fish ."
I don't fish tubes too much or at all but I have really gotten to like Zoom Super Flukes. They have an awesome action if fished weightless or you can add weight and fish like a tube or jig. They are deadly on bass and I have caught a lot of walleyes on them as well.

http://zoombait.com/trickflukes/flukes/super-fluke/

quote minnesotashooter: " You can swim them like a wounded baitfish also for active fish ."

I don't fish tubes too much or at all but I have really gotten to like Zoom Super Flukes. They have an awesome action if fished weightless or you can add weight and fish like a tube or jig. They are deadly on bass and I have caught a lot of walleyes on them as well.

http://zoombait.com/trickflukes/flukes/super-fluke/ "

These are one of the first techniques I learned from on site from QueticoMike. Tons of bites. Only problem is my hook up percentage is lower than I'd like.

+1 on the pumpkin color

All the tips above are great, I fish them Texas rigged with 1/8 or 1/4 oz bullet weight the majority of the time. A few manufacturers have a color called "Roadkill Camo" which seems to kill it everywhere I try it.

An alternative that I've played around with a few time that has worked well for me is Carolina rigging a tube with a walleye floating jig head inside the tube. Gives it a different action that I feel resembles a crawdad nicely. Basically when you pull or reel in on the weighted Carolina rig, it pulls the tube forward and down. At rest, the floating jig head inside the tube allows it to start drifting upwards slowly. I dunno, but it sure has worked for me when Texas rig tube isn't getting bit. Hangups can be trouble though if the area is especially rocky.