3" Tube = Fish

[andrewlamberson]

The tube bait has always been a favorite of mine, and since moving to Winona and fishing the Mississippi even more so. EVERYTHING eats a good tube bait!

My wife went shopping up in "The Cities" on Saturday ...so I had the entire day to fish! I was on the river by 8am and off at 7:30 pm...now that's a day of fishing! It was a overcast, but warm day (60's) and the fish were just plain on ...all day. I had made up a dozen green pumkin/red flake (using the new colorant) and every fish in the river wanted it:

Walleye: Largest was 24". Kept one 22" for dinner. LOTS of "shorts" (under 15"). Those little male walleyes would not leave the tube alone!

Largemouth: Landed an even dozen. With the top 5 from 3lb to 4 lb 10oz.  They also really liked the 3.5" Swim Shad in Baby bass/white.

Smallmouth: Landed a couple dozen...the largest was 5 lb 4oz...my 2nd over 5lb smallmouth this year. A 5lb smallmouth is a BIG smallmouth! Smallmouth love tube baits. I probably could have caught small ones all day on the 2.5 Swim Fry...the little ones were on the upstream side of wing dams close to the bank. The bigger fish were all out in deeper (8') water on the current seam.

Northern Pike: I lost a lot of baits to those little buggers! Landed a few...but they normally take the bait so deep that they cut you off in a flash. When I started to run out of my watermelon/red flake that I made up I started using wire...and landing the Pike..but I think it negatively affects the bait for bass.

Sauger: AKA "sand pike"....a few small ones. Nothing big enough to fall into the live well by accident!

Sheepshead: Caught a coupled small ones on the tube...then a really nice 8 lber. Darn those things can fight!


Also caught a bunch of small crappies, suspended in 20' of water, on the 2.5" swim fry. Never did find any big ones though.

I really like being able to make my own tube baits ....and using the spline sure beats the heck out of cutting the skirt! The new green pumkin colorant sure does make a nice, deep color bait. I also did well with a green chartreuse... with 1/2 the body dipped in the green pumkin. Make a nice two color bait.


Andy

[pjmcla]

Congratulations on what certainly sounds like a Great Day.  Lots of good fish, and variety to boot.  Don't you just love the spring bite on a day when it is on.  Still can't understand the Northern "thing" about tube baits.  Did you throw the 3.5" swim shad in a breen back any?  Any other baits that produced well?

[BareKnuckleJigs]

AWESOME Fishin' Day, Andy!

Down here in Mississippi, I've grown quite fond of Tubes...and this just happened recently, about the last 3 months (not counting my very few experiences with them over many years).

This past Friday, a 4" Tube delivered a Largemouth Bass that, due to my lack of planning, had to be released, and was my Personal-Best Largemouth.  I have a Ruler on the side of my little boat that's not positioned for "precision" measuring/length-aquiring...You have to hold the fish horizontal, but back-up/belly-down...You can't lay the fish down.  I think this was a major mistake.  This Football Bass was between 21.5" and 21.75"...holding it up...sagging in the middle.  I believe if I could have laid it down, it would have crossed that Hard-To-Reach, Over-Okhissa-Slot-Place of 22".

All but 1 of my fish, Friday, ate the Tube.  I'm REALLY diggin' the Tube's Versatility (and effectiveness!!!).  I can fish it like a Craw or Worm, but also Swim/Twitch it like a Jerk/Minnow style bait...all while remaining weedless...it goes anywhere.

Fish eat Tubes...period.  I'm with You on that one, Andy Sir!  FINE Job Bro!!!

[ctom]

I was out on the lake this morning in the nice 30 mph north wind and whitecaps....at about 40 degrees. Like the air temp, the fishing has cooled of a bit from last weeks adventure that had much better results. Crappies, sunfish and 1 bass today. On the whole the crappies were shorter today with a few being in the 11 inch area but the sunfish, man have they grown in a week.