Reading the topic on splitting tubes made me write this. There has been a debate going on about injected tubes versus hand dipped tubes and as someone who has used both and still uses both kind let me tell you my observation based on 30 years of using these lures. The very first thing is the action is NOT THE SAME!!!!! A dipped tube has a different fall and a random darting action when being snapped with an inside jig head. Injected tubes fall straighter, even with a big gap between the head and top of the jig head they fall much straighter. Anyone who has used tubes will tell you that the bigger the gap between the jig head and top of the tube will give you a wider spiral on the fall, injected tubes have the same type of action but the tube is sort of mechanical, it will spiral tighter and almost in a perfect circle, the dipped tube will vary. Now it sounds as if I'm bashing injected tubes, I'm not and I do use them, for me I like the injected tubes in larger sizes, 3.5" minimum but 4" mostly and I Texas rig them and pitch them to cover for largemouth, the straighter fall makes for a more precise presentation and easier to get through small holes in cover. I believe the reason for this is due to uniform wall thickness throughout the tube, a dipped tube the walls free form without the constraints of a mold cavity surrounding it so it isn't perfect, little variances cause it to be a little more erratic and when smallmouth have become conditioned to a plethora of tubes the slightly more erratic action is a difference maker. When I snap jig a tube, a hand dipped tube will snap up and fall left or right, you can't really tell, injected tubes will fall one way, if I snap the tube up and it falls a little to the left, I can bet money it will do that for the entire retrieve. Now when fishing deep water and making long casts you don't see the tube, but just knowing that one is more erratic gives me more confidence in one over the other, and in 30+ years of fishing tubes I have yet to have anyone use an injected tube and catch more fish than me with a hand dipped tube, it has never happened. I'm not trying to sound cocky or claim I'm this awesome angler, I'm not, I'm an avid angler who has used the tube since it came on the market. Over that time I learned why some tubes have become favorites while others not so much, and all you had to do was be on the water and it became clear because one thing we all like to do is buy, and try, new stuff. So a lot of tubes from different brands began hitting shelves by the mid 90s and by the 2000s even more brands and I probably tried them all and you didn't have to even read the packaging, you knew when you dropped the tube in the water and watched it fall in clear water what you had and you fished every tube hard wondering if the new one with certain kinds of scent will work better than the old hand dipped tubes we used for years and after a bag or two you would realize that it just wasn't working as advertised. I know some will disagree but any tube from 2.75" to 4" that is hand dipped or lets just say dipped, is going to have a different action than an injected tube, and I'm not talking a huge difference, but it is enough that you can see it and when the fish aren't active those subtle differences are game changers. Injected tubes with uniform tails poured on splines work fine and most of the time are great but the waters I fish for smallmouth are pressured and when the fish shut down a dipped tube is the go-to for almost every angler and guide I ever talked to and fished with and depending on where you are and the fish you are after it may not be a big deal but for some of us the subtle differences can be the determining factor between a good day and a skunk.