6 Ways To Rig A Tube Bait

Hey folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and today I want to talk to you about the tube bait. This is a really versatile bait. You can rig it so many different ways and it's effective in all of them. I want to go through some of the different ways that you can fish them. I've caught largemouth and smallmouth on this in all across the country. Let me show you a couple different ways to rig this.

   The first one is using a tube jig. This is an internal jig that goes inside of the weight. I want to show you a couple different ones here. Look at this. There are two different kinds. What I want you to notice here is on this one here the eye is at the top of the bait or top of the jig. The eye here is at an angle on this one over here. There's two different reasons for that. This one here with the eye on the top is going to give that tube the characteristic spiral action that it's known for. It looks like a dying bait fish. I'm telling you, man, the fish love that. Bass just chew it up. That eye on the top is critical. That's what gives it that action.

   The bad thing about that, of course, is because it spirals it likes to get hung up in weeds. It gets hung up on things under the docks, also, just because of the position of the eye, for me, it tends to get hung up on rocks more often. I end up breaking off a lot. That's where this one comes in with an angle. That's where that comes into play. Can you see that angle a little bit. It gives it less of a pronounced spiral action, but because of that angle it comes through weeds a lot easier and it doesn't get hung up on rocks as much. This is the one I prefer to use more often than not.

   The way you rig it is really simple. All you do is wet the jig head a little bit and then you're just going to stick it inside the backside of the tube, and slide it all of the way up inside. You can see a little bulge there, and you just poke it right on through. Poke that eye right through the bait if it will go through just like so. I don't know how well you can see that. Can you see that? There you go. That's the eye right there, and you just tie right to it. It's very simple and straightforward, however, if you notice, the hook is sticking out. That makes it so you get better hookups that way, of course, but that kind of limits it such that you can't throw it in weedy areas. You're going to get hung up more. You're going to get hung up in ropes and things hanging off of docks and that sort of stuff. They make that kind now where it's got that weed guard.

   Can you see that weed guard? All that does is it's a wire that hooks up underneath the barb of the hook. You'd be surprised how weedless that is. I'm bringing my finger right across that point and it's not getting hung up. This works great in really weedy areas and flipping and pitching and stuff, but it can be a little awkward to rig if you don't know how to do it. All you do is unhook the wire and stick it right straight down, let me wet the jig head real quick, this goes right inside the tube, put the wire right inside the tube, slide everything right on up, and you'll see the wire will start to come right out. It'll poke right out. See how I did that? Just push it all of the rest of the way on through just like I showed you before, just like that other jig head. Poke that right on through. There's the eye, and now you can just snap that underneath that barb and it's weedless now. You've got a weedless jig. This works great for throwing into cover, throwing into weeds, or anything you can get hung up on. It's the perfect way to catch fish and not worry about getting hung up.

   Let me show you another way. For example, you can throw it on a split shot rig, or mojo as some people call it. It's got this cylinder weight here. This goes through weeds and rocks really well. About eighteen inches below that down here, you'll see how far apart it is, down here I've got a little hook. This is an interesting looking hook. Notice the shape of this thing. Look at this part right here. See how that angles down like that? Looking at that can tell you right away that you're not going to put this in the bait the way you normally would. Why do you have that? See this wire? This little wire comes on down, but it hooks on right to the hook just like that. Can you see that? That's what holds the bait in place. The bait lies just like that so you can see the angle of that hook is really weird.

   You're going to put the hook in towards the top at an angle like this rather than right down the middle like you would a Texas rig. Don't put it down there. You're going to put it at this angle. All you're going to do is right straight through like that. Bring it all of the way on through. This is called a High Performance hook. I think Eagle Claw makes it. Then you slide it right on up. See that wire hook, that little wire we've got right there? That clips back onto the hook like so, and now it holds that bait in place. All you have to do now is put the hook through the body and the point of the hook rests right on top of the bait. It's weedless just like that.

   That works perfect for a split shot rig. I'm using a six to ten pound test medium light weight action seven foot rod. It's a little light weight, but don't limit yourself to that. You can throw this behind a Carolina rig the exact same way. What that does is this weight comes down, it sits on the bottom, and then this weight just flutters on down. It floats behind it. It floats a little bit above it. You can take a number ten corky people use for salmon fishing stuff that inside the bait, and now it floats. It'll float above the weight here. It is candy sitting up there like that.

   Here's a little trick we use up here in the North West. Take a toothpick, break it off, stick it right in the end so it holds the opening open, blow all of the water out before you cast it, throw it on this mojo rig, and throw it out there. What happens is the rig weight will hit the bottom and sit there for a minute. This bait will sit on the top floating. The bubble tension will rise, and eventually it will give. It will burp a little bit and fall. What happens is that smallmouth or largemouth will come right up and just look right at that bait. Looking, looking,  "I don't know if I want to bite it.", then he starts to back off, and it burps and falls. It's candy. It is candy. Man, the fish love that. You can do that. Like I said, put a little number ten corky in there and that will just make it a floating bait. Put it behind a Carolina rig or what have you. It's the same sort of concept.

   Another way to rig it is using a drop shot rig. I'm just going to pull this bait out real quick from how I had it. All I do here is I just nose hook it. Here I'm going to go straight from the top on down just right on top of the bait straight all of the way through. That's it. I'm done. That, my friends, is how I rig it on a drop shot rig. It floats freely behind here. It's uninhibited by the hook. It works wonders. I like to put a good amount of weight behind it here. Again, you don't have to limit yourself. I'm using a six to ten pound test seven foot medium light action rod, but you can also use braided line on a flipping stick, on a heavy weight on the bottom, and turn that drop shot. I call it a bubba shot. You can now, because the weight's on the bottom it's really easy to pitch, pitch that into some heavy cover like matted weeds or matted hydrilla. Punch it through, it will fall through, and now the weight's on the bottom and the bait is sitting up above that. The fish underneath those mats eat that stuff up.

   Another hook very similar to that HP hook I showed you is like this one. If you notice, instead of having a wire to hold that hook in place it uses little plastic prongs there. The concept is the same. See the bait's going to sit flush with this hook point right here. Look at this angle, you've got to go through the top not through the middle, through the top. Here I've got it on braided line. Here's the bait. I've put a bullet sinker in front of it, a little tungsten weight. I flip and pitch this into wooded brush, cover, and all kinds of stuff. It's weedless. I just text pose it. What I do is I just back the plastic back on top of the point there, but it's completely weedless. I run my finger and I'm not getting hooked up at all. You don't catch and weeds or any garbage or gunk. Those little prongs hold the bait right in place. This is the perfect little setup for flipping and pitching.

   There are so many different ways you can fish a tube it's not even funny. There's internal weights you can use, again, with those little clips and those angles. You put the weight inside and the hook goes through it. There's a little opening in there and it holds the weight inside the bait. Another way to throw it is with darter heads. That's very similar to these except that the head is pointed. I don't have those, but the head's pointed instead of a ball. Then, the tube itself instead of putting it inside and threading it inside the bait you rig it like you would a Texas rig, on the outside like this. Then, what you're doing is with the weight on the outside it does a couple of things.

   First off, if I can do this, now the jig head's on the outside with the eye tie up here with it further in front of the bait and that's going to give it an even more pronounced spiral action. It's really going to spin as it falls. This is another great way to rig it. I don't like it as much because it slides off of the hook a lot easier. I just find it burns through my baits a lot faster because I'm tearing them up as they're sliding off this hook, but it's a great, easy way to fish it.

   Don't be afraid to experiment; look at all of the stuff you've got in your boat and play around with it. The point here is that there's really no wrong way to fish this bait. There's a lot of different ways. Get creative, have fun with it and catch a lot of fish. I hope those tips helped. For more tips and tricks like this visit BassResource.com.