Tube Bait Fishing for Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass

Why Tubes Still Dominate Rocky Water

Soft plastic tubes have been around since Bobby Garland introduced them in the 1970s, and despite fifty years of tackle innovation, nothing has truly replaced them for catching bass on rock. Smallmouth anglers on the Great Lakes still reach for a tube before anything else when the boat pulls up to a boulder field or a craggy Lake Erie reef. There's something about the way a tube spirals on the fall and sits on the bottom with those tentacles waving that bass simply cannot ignore.

I've fished days on northern smallmouth lakes where a tube outfished everything else 5 to 1 — not because we weren't trying other stuff, but because the fish flat out wanted that profile. When smallmouth are locked onto crawfish, a tube is as close to a perfect imitation as you'll find.

Anatomy of a Tube and Jig Head Selection

A tube bait is a hollow-bodied soft plastic cylinder, closed at the front and open at the back with a skirt of tentacles. Standard sizes run 3 to 4 inches for most bass fishing, though 2.5-inch micro tubes are deadly for panfish and stream smallmouth.

The internal tube jig head is what makes this bait unique. Unlike Texas rigging or shaky head rigs, a tube jig head sits inside the hollow body with the hook coming out through the top of the plastic. The weight and hook are hidden inside the bait, giving it a clean, natural profile.

The most common tube jig head styles:

• •Round head — Standard choice. Works everywhere. The round shape lets the tube rock and tip over on the bottom, which triggers bites during the pause.
• •Football head — Great for dragging over rocky bottoms without rolling. Keeps the hook point riding up.
• •Standup head — The weight is shaped so the tube props up on the bottom with tentacles waving. This is a smallmouth killer on current breaks and deep rock piles.

Weight selection depends on depth and current. For shallow water (under 10 feet), a 1/8 to 1/4 oz head is right. Deeper structure or moderate current calls for 3/8 to 1/2 oz. Lake Erie walleye and smallmouth anglers regularly throw 1/2 oz tubes in 25 to 35 feet.

Rigging and Color Selection

Insert the jig head by pushing it up into the tube's hollow body. The hook point pokes through the top of the tube — you can leave it exposed for better hookups or skin-hook it Texas-style for less snags in heavy cover. On clean rock, I always leave the point exposed.

You can also Texas rig a tube with a regular worm hook and a bullet weight pegged to the nose. This setup works better in wood cover and vegetation where the internal jig head might wedge into branches.

Colors to stock:

• •Green pumpkin — The single most versatile tube color in existence. If you only buy one, make it this one.
• •Smoke with silver flake — Mimics baitfish in clear water. Deadly on Great Lakes smallmouth.
• •Watermelon red flake — Crawfish imitation. Excellent on rocky lakes from spring through fall.
• •Brown/orange pumpkin — Another crawfish match. Great in stained water or on red rock bottoms.
• •Black/blue — Stained and muddy water standby. Works better than it has any right to.

Brands worth trying: Gitzit (the original), Strike King, Luck-E-Strike, and Gary Yamamoto. The Yamamoto tubes have a softer plastic that gives better action but tears up quicker.

How to Fish a Tube

The drag-and-hop retrieve is the bread and butter. Cast the tube to a rocky point, ledge, or boulder pile. Let it sink on a semi-slack line — watch for bites on the fall because that spiraling descent triggers a lot of strikes. Once it hits bottom, drag it slowly across the rocks with your rod tip, then pop it up 6 to 12 inches and let it fall again.

The fall is when most bites happen. A tube falling on slack line spirals and glides in an erratic, unpredictable path that looks like a fleeing crawfish. On a tight line, it pendulums straight back — less appealing. So after each hop, drop your rod tip and feed a little slack to let the tube do its thing.

On current — rivers or Great Lakes drift fishing — pitch the tube upstream and let it tumble naturally with the flow. Keep light contact with the bottom, feeling the weight tick along rocks. Smallmouth stack up behind current breaks and boulders, and a tube drifting into their zone gets crushed.

In clear water, longer casts matter. Smallmouth in gin-clear northern lakes are spooky, and a tube landing 10 feet from the boat will send them scattering. Make long casts with light line and a spinning rod. I run a 7-foot medium-light spinning rod with 8 lb fluorocarbon for this kind of fishing.

Great Lakes Tubes: A Category of Their Own

Tube fishing on Erie, Huron, St. Clair, and the connecting rivers is practically a religion. Charter captains and tournament anglers on these fisheries have refined tube fishing into an art form. The standard Erie rig is a 3.5-inch smoke or green pumpkin tube on a 3/8 oz internal jig head, fished on 8 lb fluorocarbon with a 7-foot medium spinning rod.

During the spring smallmouth migration, anglers fan-cast tubes over 15 to 25 foot rock transitions and drag them painfully slow. The key is contact with the bottom — you want to feel every pebble. When a smallmouth picks up a tube, it often feels like your weight just got slightly heavier. It's subtle. A lot of first-time tube anglers miss bites because they're expecting a thump.

The numbers these baits produce on the Great Lakes are staggering. It's not uncommon to boat 40 to 60 smallmouth in a day during peak season, with quality fish over 4 lbs mixed in. When you're logging that kind of action on CatchVault, the tube usually dominates the lure stats.

Target Species

Smallmouth bass are the primary target, but largemouth eat tubes just as readily — especially around docks, riprap, and chunk rock banks. Rock bass, walleye, and even channel catfish hit tubes. In streams, spotted bass and river-run smallies eat small tubes fished on micro jig heads like candy.

Tubes shine from early spring through late fall. They're particularly effective during the prespawn when bass move up onto rocky flats and points, and again in the fall when crawfish are molting and bass are gorging before winter.