What is your favorite way to rig a tube? I have always fished tubes on a jighead. What are some other options that work well?

Jason Erlandson

Jason, thats a great question. I would say, the majority of the time I just plain texas rig it. I do a little goofy thing I call a "Deitz Rig".. its a bobber stop and very small glass bead.. a tungston sinker and then a larger glass bead in front of the tube. This allows for some movement of the sinker to make noise, but still acts as a pegged sinker to get it through weeds... I also have drop shotted tubes with quite a bit of success, and its a very good lure to drag behind a carolina rig.

Unless smallmouth fishing in open water, I will simply texas rig my tubes. I use a tungsten weight (size depends on depth and cover) a bobber stop above it to peg it, and a 3/0-4/0 hook. I will either use a 4" Berkley Pro flippin tube or a Outkast Triple Dip tube. I have also started using Lake Fork Craw tube with some success.

I like rigging them texas rigged with a bullet weight as well but have also really got into rigging them with an inserted EZ-tube weight this year. You can easily skip the tube with the inserted weight up under docks and overhangs. I also used this weight on the Miss. river this summer around wood and rocks and felt that I didn't get hung up as much (especially around the wing dams)

Do you get you beads at bead shops Deitz?

st. croix I bought a couple of those EZ-weights what kind of hook do you use with your tubes? I just used a gamagatsu EWS worm hook cause its all I had around

Craigums- I'd rather not admit this, but I got them at a hobby shop, I think it was Michaels or something like that.. I use the smallest one I can find for the front bead.. then I use a size 8 I think faceted bead behind that.. you can get some great colors as well.

Did you find them while your were buying some new fabric for your secret scrapbooking hobby? :P im just kidding man

Let's get one thing straight. Michaels is a craft store! No further questions on that one...

I have rigged my tubes texas style (texa-posed) but rather than the bullet weight be exposed (in front/on top of tube) I insert the weight, sometimes even a large split-shot into the body of the tube which makes it significantly easier to skip and it is also much more weedless. The tube also has a more erratic action as it sinks. If you were wondering, you rarely loose the weight when rigging this way as the business end of your hook will keep the weight inside the hollow body of the tube.... Speaking of tubes.... Deitz, to coffee tubes really taste like coffee? j/k kind of piggy backing the garlic comments from other post.

fever

i love fishing tubes. i usually use a 4/0 hook texas rigged, and EZ-weights or a bullet weight infront if i want to go deeper. I have also used 6" tubes (yums i think) that were really skinny rigged like a wacky worm with pretty good results. StrikeKing bleeding salted are my brand of choice.

i like fishing them texas as well. there is times that i will put them on a tube jig, but 80% of the time, i will run it texas rig.

I rig texas style, carolina rigging & on drop shots. Either way I'm burying the hook into the tube for weedlessness 90% of the time. I have on occassion used a tube with a jig head inside it, with exposed hooks. This works great on rocky shorelines for smallmouth fishing.

A crazy way I will sometimes rig a "used" tube that has been ripped up via the texas rig route is to rig it backwards with the skirt up front. Kinda tricky to get it rigged right but when it is, it is a big changeup lure to throw, not many other lures out there look like that.

I fish tubes on a "bite me" tube jig with rattles and exposed hook. I find it to be a very versitile rig that can be used slow,fast, bounce of the bottom, snap it out of weeds and so on. When I first started fishing them I expected the exposed hook would be a problem. Not the case. I always have one tied on. Good Fishing!!

where does a guy find the bite me tube jig?

It is called the rattlin tube jig. Got to bitemejigs or put that in google. I have also seen them at Gander but limited on weight choices. I order mine online. Good Fishing!!