Here's a hand dipped crappie tube.

[Les Young]

My first time trying something this small. I took a piece of fencing tie wire which is around an 1/8' in diameter & dipped in yellow & then redipped the head in a black grape junebug & then ran them through my home made tail cutter press. They're 1.5 inches long.

[ctom]

Those look nice. Good job and kudos on finding something to fit your needs [fence wire]. The cutting looks professional so your tool must be a real dandy. Congrats on that too.

[Les Young]

Tom thanks.  i have the block that has utility knife blades in it & i took some metal & made a pretty heavy duty press & attached the block on a shaft on the press. When cutting tube tails i dip them in worm oil & then press the cutter handle down a time or two & done.  I've even cut tails on the baits from my essential series senko molds & remove some of the material to sort of mimic the zman hula sticks.  I have an angling ai double dipper tube mold too so i use it quite a bit.

[efishnc]

P-R-I-M-O

[ctom]

I have some 1/8" stainless steel rods that I have dipped tubes with. I even used coat hanger wire at one time. There's no end to what a guy can use to make simple tubes. 16 penny nails make a decent tube form.

[Les Young]

P-R-I-M-O

Thanks.

[Les Young]

I have some 1/8" stainless steel rods that I have dipped tubes with. I even used coat hanger wire at one time. There's no end to what a guy can use to make simple tubes. 16 penny nails make a decent tube form.

Yep i'm going to get some that i like the diameter of & make a few dipping blocks so i can make a bunch at one time. I'd like to be able to make about 50 at a time.

[ctom]

Show that block when you get it perfected. It would be interesting what it looks like and how you use it.

Honestly, I don't use tubes but maybe once during a summer season. I have a real passion for paddle-tailed baits like the Thump-Its when it comes to crappies and pannies. When I was cutting my teeth on plastics 45 years or more ago though I ordered every color and in both sizes that Bass Pro offered and two packages of each. Tubes were all I used for three years and during that time I never bought live bait of any kind except during the winter. What an education that was. lol

Les...are you in an area where you can ice fish? Those 1 1/2" tubes can shine under the ice when chasing crappies if you focus on the fish at mid-column, the ones that show up on the flasher for ten seconds then fade out again. Hang that tube a foot above the mark. They'll hammer it.

[Les Young]

Tom i'm on deep highland lakes so no ice here except in extremely unusual conditions.  I was just experimenting but am thinking i'll use shad style bodys & tubes mostly. May fish an occasional minnow, but not much i'd say& will vertical jig for crappie a lot because i do know they get deep here in warm weather & the dead of winter too.

[ctom]

I can't possibly fish all the water around me. My focus is a reservoir type of lake just north of two 12 miles that has a super crappie fishery. There are at least 20 decent Mississippi River spots all within 45 minutes of home. The river has some huge crappies, depending on the location and pool #. I focus primarily on pools 4 and 5 but hit the pool 6 area on occasion too....Andrew Lamberson's home waters. My favorite body of water is Lake Superior but that's not crappie fishing: Lake Trout and Salmon.

[Les Young]

Lake Cumberland, Green River Lake & Dale Hollow here. 90% of the time I’m on Cumberland though since I grew up on it.

[ctom]

I know the names but have yet to visit any of those. I know that they are classic lakes. Would these fall under the heading of TVA lakes?

[Lamar]

I know the names but have yet to visit any of those. I know that they are classic lakes. Would these fall under the heading of TVA lakes?

  Yes

[Les Young]

I know the names but have yet to visit any of those. I know that they are classic lakes. Would these fall under the heading of TVA lakes?

Yep  & any  of the three can be unbelievably tough.

[Lamar]

Yep  & any  of the three can be unbelievably tough.

 I have fished all three of them and will say for the time it takes me to drive there I have better choices else where. But I'm not use to fishing water that is gin clear and 50 feet deep at the bank either. I guess if I lived there I would figure something out.