I’m currently using the last of my 2.75” Strike King fat coffee tubes and debating on upsizing to a local brand that offers a pretty appealing stupid tube setup in a 3.5” mold.

 

My concern is the general 3” rule for soft plastics I’ve safely abided by for some time, and wondering if I won’t be missing bites. It generally applies to paddle tails and Ned rigs, and although they have hit Big TRDs & 3.25” swimbaits, I have found the sweet spot for river smallies to be that 2.5-3” mark. I’m just wondering if that applies to tubes as well?

I fish tubes, got hooked on the Case tubes many moons ago by some older river rats who fished the heck out of them. Gitzit is another good tube. I prefer to use the 2 3/4” with a jig head. But I have fished some larger magnum tube rigged weedless with an EWG hook and splitshoting. The larger are not my tube to grab, but know some Susky guys who prefer the larger. But I’m also a fan of the 3” grub on a jig head. I fish various soft plastics for smallies but the old tube and grub are classic baits. I have fished some Berkley Power Tubes. I liked them but they dried up and have not seen them in years. 
I would suggest you try the larger. Why not. Soft plastics are cheap. You’ve been chasing smallies a long time and they may just be a bait that works great from the get go for you. Larger profile that they might be looking for. If you are feeling it, go for it. You’ll make it work. 
 

The only tube that I use anymore is the 2.75" Strike King bitsy tube. It far out produced any other tube that I tied on . My favorite color is green pumpkin with blue, green, red and gold flakes. I don't remember the exact name, I call it Christmas tree.

24 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I fish tubes, got hooked on the Case tubes many moons ago by some older river rats who fished the heck out of them. Gitzit is another good tube. I prefer to use the 2 3/4” with a jig head. But I have fished some larger magnum tube rigged weedless with an EWG hook and splitshoting. The larger are not my tube to grab, but know some Susky guys who prefer the larger. But I’m also a fan of the 3” grub on a jig head. I fish various soft plastics for smallies but the old tube and grub are classic baits. I have fished some Berkley Power Tubes. I liked them but they dried up and have not seen them in years. 
I would suggest you try the larger. Why not. Soft plastics are cheap. You’ve been chasing smallies a long time and they may just be a bait that works great from the get go for you. Larger profile that they might be looking for. If you are feeling it, go for it. You’ll make it work. 
 

Thanks for the vote of confidence my dude! 🙌🏼

I've never tried the 2.75 inch tubes. I like the original Gitzits in streams and lakes for smallies . Been  using  them a lot lately for largemouths too.

The tube bait is a great bait. Overshadowed by many soft baits these days. 

7 minutes ago, Spankey said:

The tube bait is a great bait. Overshadowed by many soft baits these days. 

Honestly Ned bite has slowed considerably for me lately, mostly a dink magnet. Everyone throws it now.

I like the bigger size in a shad or bait fish colors. Weightless . I stick a foam ear plug in it I get from work . Helps it stay of the bottom.They like it pretty well

10 minutes ago, bowhunter63 said:

I like the bigger size in a shad or bait fish colors. Weightless . I stick a foam ear plug in it I get from work . Helps it stay of the bottom.They like it pretty well

Weightless with a foam ear plug. Are you using it as a top water?

To me, 3.5 inches is still small. A 4 inch tube is what I’d consider to be large, and even then not unreasonably so. I guess it’s worth considering that there are different tube shapes. I mostly use 3.5in tournament style tubes (Gitzit, Dry Creek), which are skinnier than a standard double-dipped tube. I often find these tournament tubes outproducing Neds in both size and quantity, especially once summer kicks in and the fish get desensitized to the Ned profile. I’d say go for the 3.5 inch tube. It’s a proven presentation no matter where you go or what style of tube you use.

I’ve attached a ~2lb smallmouth (decent for where it was caught) and a dinky Florida bass below to instill confidence that 3.5in tubes do, in fact, catch fish of all sizes.

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

My concern is the general 3” rule for soft plastics I’ve safely abided by for some time

Please expound

1 hour ago, Buzzbaiter said:

To me, 3.5 inches is still small. A 4 inch tube is what I’d consider to be large, and even then not unreasonably so. I guess it’s worth considering that there are different tube shapes. I mostly use 3.5in tournament style tubes (Gitzit, Dry Creek), which are skinnier than a standard double-dipped tube. I often find these tournament tubes outproducing Neds in both size and quantity, especially once summer kicks in and the fish get desensitized to the Ned profile. I’d say go for the 3.5 inch tube. It’s a proven presentation no matter where you go or what style of tube you use.

I’ve attached a ~2lb smallmouth (decent for where it was caught) and a dinky Florida bass below to instill confidence that 3.5in tubes do, in fact, catch fish of all sizes.

 

 

 

 

Please expound

Nice. Well I typically stay under 3” for soft plastics, as I’ve heard that is the sweet spot in the waters I fish. This is a reflection of the size of most of the forage, the vast majority of the baitfish I see are between 2-3” and the craws the same.

 

However, considering that most strikes seem to be reactionary I’m not entirely sure this matters and my success on 2.75” paddle tails/neds is more likely a result of throwing them more.

2 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

However, considering that most strikes seem to be reactionary I’m not entirely sure this matters

Only one way to find out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained  

 

I started fishing for smallmouth with a strict match-the-hatch philosophy. I found that on some occasions, I’d do better with a larger, more intrusive bait that didn’t look close to anything the fish were eating.
 

if I were you, I would not only try the larger tubes, but also sling around a fluke or something really intrusive to test out the reaction hypothesis. I’d like to hear how you do

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

Weightless with a foam ear plug. Are you using it as a top water?

Sometimes and higher in the water column when there feeding on shad 

I use smaller tubes for smallmouth than I do for largies.  Mostly, well, because their mouths are smaller.

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I use smaller tubes for smallmouth than I do for largies.  Mostly, well, because their mouths are smaller.

What size?

You can buy those teeny tiny tube prerigged PowerBait tubes but I don’t think ones that small are a great way to target Smallies. Draw attention from panfish. If 2 1/2”-3” tubes are a good catcher for you now I would not go smaller. As summer progresses going to fall I would think going a bit larger.

I’ve caught those rut/dink smallies on 4.5 inch  finesse worms and Senkos. Wondering where did they think they were gonna do with that. A 3” or 3.5” tube is not oversized for any respectable size Smallie. 
 

Great post. Like the tube talk. They don’t get talked about much these days. Try “Roadkill” or “Pumpkin w/ green flake.  

24 minutes ago, Spankey said:

You can buy those teeny tiny tube prerigged PowerBait tubes but I don’t think ones that small are a great way to target Smallies. Draw attention from panfish. If 2 1/2”-3” tubes are a good catcher for you now I would not go smaller. As summer progresses going to fall I would think going a bit larger.

I’ve caught those rut/dink smallies on 4.5 inch  finesse worms and Senkos. Wondering where did they think they were gonna do with that. A 3” or 3.5” tube is not oversized for any respectable size Smallie. 
 

Great post. Like the tube talk. They don’t get talked about much these days. Try “Roadkill” or “Pumpkin w/ green flake.  

For sure, tubes are a classic fish catcher and honestly in most cases I’d say outfish neds. 
 

As for the 2.75” producing for me, I have not exactly been crushing them on it. That is why I came back to the drawing board. Not sure if it’s the size or my rig.

On 6/26/2024 at 12:36 PM, Ohioguy25 said:

What size?

 

I want to say they are like yours, 2.75 inches.

 

I also on occasion use a zman tube, which may be even smaller than that.  But it tends to be a dink magnet, just like a ned rig is.

 

Mostly use 3 inches or bigger when targeting largemouth.

I’ve never fished a solid body tube. Why I don’t know. Don’t know why I never tried them. But there are a few brands out there that appear to be good quality. I fish grubs so they are sort of a grub with a tube tail. 
Zman has one, guess they are set up for NED rigging. Never jumped on the NED rig bandwagon stuff. Some of us were and still are fishing Ned style since the 70’s. If the Zman stay buoyant for being a solid type tube they look like a good different choice. That slight bit of a change may draw unexpected bites. They claim that elastic holds up well.