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Inside Angles: The Classic Generalist Softbait

Like other top predators, largemouth and smallmouth bass are primarily visual feeders, but they often don't discriminate fine details well close in on moving baits.

Inside Angles: The Classic Generalist Softbait
You can get away with simplicity when dealing with what may well be the finest generalist softbait of all time.

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Each day on the water is an ongoing experiment in action. And, no surprise, we’re fishing as much against other anglers as we are trying to figure out the fish. So, fishing on Mille Lacs for smallmouths, or on Lake Fork for largemouths, assuming you have a clue about where fish should be, you can assume that other anglers do to. It’s likely that the fish you’re casting to have seen a lure or two or 10 during the past week.

One answer among many is to fish with lures that others aren’t using. I’m guessing that’s the reason that on many waters tubes have been so effective the past few years. Even though they’re one of the finest softbaits of all time, there are too many other fancy-pants softbait options for anglers to choose from these days.

So, where I fish for largemouths during summer, I’m confident, running down a weedline that’s likely already been fished a half-dozen times during the preceding week, that the fish usually haven’t seen a tube.

On smallmouth waters, too, my sense is that anglers are overwhelmingly using finesse presentations like drop-shots, hair jigs, and, especially, the most recent phenomenon, the Ned rig. Nothing wrong with those choices, for sure, but some of these fish haven’t seen a tube in years, even though they’re one of the best smallmouth baits of all time.

Matching the hatch is all the rage, because it makes so much sense. Give the fish something that looks like what they’re eating, the closer the match the better. But not so fast.

I think of the tube as a generalist softbait. A tube doesn’t specifically represent a certain something so much as it’s a less-than-specific something that could be many things. Could be a bluegill or a perch; could be a shad; and it certainly could be a goby or a crayfish. Sometimes, beyond easy explanation is the fact that something a bit different does a better job of getting fish to bite than something that perfectly matches the hatch.

Like other top predators, largemouth and smallmouth bass are primarily visual feeders, but they often don’t discriminate fine details well close in on moving baits. Vision initiates the first movements of the fish to check out a lure, but as the fish draws close it usually isn’t focusing on the fine visual details to make the final judgement about whether to sample it.

A diagram of the different elements that go into classic tube jigs.
Clockwise from top left: Eagle Claw ProV Jighead; 3.5-inch PowerBait Power Tube on a shaky-head jig; 2.5-inch Power Tube on an Eagle Claw Finesse jighead; nail weight; Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L19 tube hook, Insert nail weight in head of 3.5-inch tube on tube hook; 4.5-inch tube Texposed on a 5/0 Eagle Claw Trokar 170 weighted swimbait hook.

We have mentioned before that scientists in the Berkley lab found that to be true when it came to experiments with the crayfish shapes bass preferred. They tested six shapes, including an anatomically accurate shape with claws and other appendages, but found that fish preferred modified shapes. The shape chosen most often was without claws or other appendages. This might suggest why the generalist tube shape fills in well in situations where fish have a hankering for a meal of gobylicious or crabby patty.

There are many tricked-out ways to fish tubes, but one rarely needs to step beyond fundamental options. Rather than slipping a jighead inside a tube, I prefer to fish it rigged outside in the fashion of jigworming. I like the profile and action better. Ned heads work great on 2.5-inch tubes for smallmouths, while shaky heads do well on larger tubes for largemouths. Use a drop of super glue to secure the head of the tube to the jighead.

In the North Country where pike (and the occasional muskie) are common along weedeges when I’m fishing for largemouths, I rig with about an 8-inch wire leader, either 13- or 20-pound American Fishing Wire Surflon Micro Supreme. That’s a bit too much hardware near the lure to work for light-lining smallmouths.

Where heavier cover is an issue for largemouths, rig Texposed with a weighted swimbait hook like the Eagle Claw Trokar 170. Screw the keeper ring into the head of the tube, then lay the tube on top of the hook with your fingernail up against the back of the hook shank to determine exactly where to slide the hook point through the tube so it lays flat on top of the tube. A 3/0 hook works for the 3.5-inch tube; go to 5/0 for the 4.5-inch tube.

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The other option for heavy cover is to rig with a straight tube hook like the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L19 (2/0 for the 3.5-inch tube; 4/0 for 4.5 inches). Then for weight either insert a nail into the head of the tube, or, for fishing deeper, use a pegged worm weight ahead of the tube in the fashion of Texas rigging.

If there is one color that works across the board in the PowerBait Power Tube lineup, for both largemouths and smallmouths, it’s Breen Green. Perhaps again, it’s a color that perfectly matches exactly nothing, but still generally represents just about everything? I also carry Goby Magic and green pumpkin, and, to shake things up a bit even though it seems to make no sense at all, I occasionally go with white.

You can get away with simplicity when dealing with what may well be the finest generalist softbait of all time.




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