Sooo the bottom structure is starting to get vegetation on it and I can’t throw regular tubes heads anymore for smallmouth.  Wondering if anyone has tried those weedless tube heads? Where the hook kinda points back in? Have they worked well or what’s the best option for a weedless tube for smallies 

Put a bell sinker in the tube and texas rig by punching through the loop on the sinker at the top of the tube with an offset worm hook. Or theres a way to do it with a traditional tube jig by putting the hook point up into the tube then out through the side and rotate it around until the head is in the top aka "stupid" tube.

If you want that spiral fall that makes a tube so enticing, try stupid rigging the tube. Personally once the weeds are up, I prefer a straight fall as it avoids the line catching on the weeds as the tube falls. 

There are a few different ways to rig a tube weedless. One is an internal weight as mentioned and the other is a pegged bullet weight and a wide gap hook. 

I love using a tube as a punch bait. Once it falls through the weeds and hits bottom, it'll release the air trapped inside. I call it burping a tube. Unlike most soft plastics used for punching, bites come after the bait has fallen. I just let it sit for a while after it burps and that is when most of my bites take place.  A tube with less, or no salt will rest tail up and seems to work better for this technique.

I use Oldham's Weedless Tube-Lure. I fish rivers with a lot of snags and these do a great job for me.

Slide the tube over a finesse worm (cap & grown) and weedless rig it using a shaky head jig.

Tom

 

 

I like the Owner Phantom Tube Hook for 2 reasons:

 

1) Weedless

2) Is center-weighted to fall with a lazy spiraling action versus most tube jigs that are front-weighted and just do a nose dive into the weeds.

 

Heres how to rig it: cut/paste Owner Phantom Tube Hook with Justin Lucas

3 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I like the Owner Phantom Tube Hook for 2 reasons:

 

1) Weedless

2) Is center-weighted to fall with a lazy spiraling action versus most tube jigs that are front-weighted and just do a nose dive into the weeds.

 

Heres how to rig it: cut/paste Owner Phantom Tube Hook with Justin Lucas

That looks awesome thank you! Perfect 

13 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

I like the Owner Phantom Tube Hook for 2 reasons:

 

1) Weedless

2) Is center-weighted to fall with a lazy spiraling action versus most tube jigs that are front-weighted and just do a nose dive into the weeds.

 

Heres how to rig it: cut/paste Owner Phantom Tube Hook with Justin Lucas

 

Nice, I really want to try these for river smallies. I'll try to pick some up locally as TW is backordered until end of May for 1/8

Make your own......I've done this and it's easy, fun and works great.  I was throwing one today