Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
4 WAYS TO RIG YOUR TUBE
Alter the way your lure behaves
1 STAND UP
By hooking the tube conventionally, but using a stand-up jig head, the lure will sit 70-90 degrees off the lakebed. “When it is retrieved, slowly jigged along or close to the bottom, it resembles a feeding fish or burrowing worm,” Sam explained.
2 SINKER
The presentation again uses a buried weight, but this time the weight and hook are separate. A ball/sinker weight is pushed into the lure’s body, and an offset hook is used. The point goes through the eye of the sinker, before it is rigged Texas-style. “This way of rigging the tube gives the swimming action of the Buried presentation but, as it is fished weedless, you can cast into snaggy areas where the perch lie up, without getting caught up as easily,” Sam added. Anther advantage of tubes is that you can fill the centre with a gel flavour, although all tube lures are pre-flavoured by over salting, by the manufactures so the salt ‘grips’ the lure more effectively. The final plus point is the hollow body traps air. On the retrieve, this air can escape, creating a distinctive popping noise underwater, which is a very different sound/ vibration to that created by other lures.
3 BURIED
One unique feature of tube fishing is that you can bury the jig head inside the lure. By using a Tube Jig Head – one which has a slightly elongated head – you gently push the weight inside the lure’s body. “Rigging the lure this way gives it a curling corkscrew action in the water as it falls. As well as falling much slower than a standard jig head, it creates a totally different vibration and presentation,” said Sam. Sam also recommends Darter or Swimmer Heads because they are small enough to go inside the lure’s body. “The one important point is that the jig head’s hookshank must be longer than the tube’s body, so it exits just beyond where the body ends,” Sam continued. “This will immensely improve hook-up rates.”
4 TEXAS
As with all soft baits, tubes can be rigged weedless or Texas-style using an offset hook. Just remember to match the size of the hook to the size of lure so it is well balanced.
Take the tube
In the lure world, tubes are quite different, mainly because they are hollow-bodied. This makes them fish in a totally different way to other soft lure patterns. Size-wise, because of their unique profile, they tend to be 1.5in-6in and it is towards the smaller end of the range – 2in-3in – that Sam generally uses when targeting perch. “My favourites are the 3in Berkley Power Tube or, if I’m targeting larger fish, the 5in Berkley Havoc Smash Tube,” explained the Get Hooked On Fishing project manager. “The Smash Tubes have a flat-backed profile, which helps with Texas rigging as well as how they curl and glide in the water column.”
Fishing hollow lures
Even though they are unique, the way to fish them is very similar to other soft baits, and there are no rules! After casting, it is best to allow them to sink fully on a slack line as this is often when bites are likely. From here, you can retrieve them slowly, quickly, in a series of jerks and lifts or, if vertically jigging, dead-stick them. The one thing fact does ring true is, if you’re going lure fishing, particularly on a pressured venue, it pays to take the tube!