J Francho

I've only fished Upper Saranac, but generally the fishing there is pretty easy. Classic smallmouth fishery. Look for drop offs near points. Drop shot worms and minnow baits, spoons, grubs, and tubes. Watch out for northerns!

LOL.....

If you are going to rig them on a weedless hook, I HIGHLY recommend Rig'n Hook by Owner:

Sometimes I wonder if the most ridiculous claims of PETA's actions weren't completely manufactured by their detractors. I don't care for them either, but there are wing nuts on both sides of the equation.

Even if it matches my shoes and belt?

That sucks! At least it was the back u-joint....

RI Sweet Beavers have always been durable and reasonably priced to me.

Grown men don't use comic sans.

Nope, but I used to kill on them, back in the 90s. When Berkley Powerworms came out, I switched. These days, I've been tossing the Recon Worms and big Anacondas. Caught a bunch of nice fish last night, fan casting a Sammy, and picking apart productive areas with a Recon Worm. I have no doubt a Culprit would have worked just as well - they're great baits too, the standard that most ribbon tails are built to.

As the Great Lakes slime took over, tubes fell to the wayside up here. The drop shot solved the slimy bait issue. They are making a comeback as anglers are fishing deeper and deeper, beyond the "slime belt."

Kent's 4,368 "Goodnight Irene" posts don't count, lol.

Pretty wild. I like how well prepared they were on shore. There's just no replacing that animal, should it die.

I have a couple rods in lock-down. I occasionally check my "feel" with a scale, especially with lighter lines.

I fish a tournament almost every week. Some have 15 boats, some have many more. I don't have any sponsors, my boat is nearly 20 years old, and I do not wear a cute jersey. I do carry a man purse, though, lol.

http://www.thefishgrip.net/ Take any scale with a hook, and loop it through the hole in the handle. You can see them in use on Major League Fishing.

Why are you equating fishing fast with fast moving baits? To me, "fishing fast" has nothing to do with the bait itself. Last tournament, I plied a spot that I know holds fish with jigs and craws. Nothing. Rip a crankbait through there, and ignited those fish. Three in three casts, a limit in about 20 minutes - all casting to the same spot. The wind was blowing so hard, I had to circle back a few times to make the right cast. That ate up a lot of time, but was worth it. That's fishing slow, even though I was ripping that Flat Mini DR.

Hook through the hole on a Fish Grip. Just be sure to zero out the scale with the grip attached, and hanging. This is a pike, but you get the picture.

None taken...just sharing my experiences. I've been using tubes for lake fishing since they were called "gitzits" - probably late 80s early 90s. Venom and BPS brand "tender tubes" have a slightly thicker head. They kind of fell out of favor, but are coming back as we fish deeper and deeper, beyond the "scum line." I am very familiar with Jeff Little's baits - he's a friend of mine, though I do very little river fishing. I've got a couple early draggin' heads, and even a hand made spinnerbait version.

ST-36 #4 work fine.

Lucky Craft hooks aren't straight VMCs - they are Daiichi sharpened VMCs. I replace with Owner hooks.

Cover dictates line choice, not rigging. For deep, clear water, I use 6# InvisX or Tatsu. For shallow weeds, I 20# 832 or Power Pro and a 12# fluoro leader. Bubba shot, 50 lb. braid, straight up.

I'll use snaps for cranks and spoons, but that's simply to use a stronger Palomar knot with fluoro. Otherwise, I can tie a Uni knot in about the same time it takes to open a snap, remove the bait, add a new bait, and close it.

1. Exposed tube jigs: Tubes actually work better for me when I the line tie is back a bit from the tip. You get a more random, spiraling fall, and less "Great Lakes Gunk" since the line tie is a bit further back. Also, when imitating a goby using the Big Dude heads, you want to have the swell back from the tip of bait to give it that goby look. 2. Those internally weighted tube rigs have a terrible hook up ratio for me, and I'm not the only one. I'd much rather rig it on a Jika rig, a traditional Texas rig, or Bobby's stand up jig shown above. Another option is the Confidence Baits butt dragger jig. This was specifically developed by expert river smallie anglers. In either case, these tubes are a solid option, and offer greater durability than some of the old stand byes - little improvements are what guys like Bobby are all about. It's obvious he spends as much time on the water as he does at a desk designing baits. We reap the benefits.

You've pretty much addressed the worst part about lesser tube style baits. So simple, but no one does this. You can tell you actually fish, lol. Thanks for the cross section pic!

Grubs work well. A spoon for the center target is another good option.