BASS-ACKWARD TUBE
by JR Chandler
I have thought up a new method
of rigging tubes and thought you might be interested. I can get
strikes when no other bait will work. When the tube is rigged
this way you get more action out of the tails and it skips better.
I can consistently skip under boat house doors that are only
2-3 inches off the water. With the tube rigged standard with
a wide mouth hook and internal weight I can only get about 50%
accuracy. The reason being is that the tube is going backwards
and when the tail-end hits the water it wants to jump up. So
I came up with a way of rigging it better so that the front of
the tube is hitting the water first.
Here is how I rig this tube:
I use a Mega-bite or Mega-lite hook that is about 1/4 to 5/16
shorter than the body of the tube.
I insert a split shot ususally 1/8 oz into the body and get it
down to the head. I sometimes will glue it in or if I make up
a bunch I use odorless marine grade clear silicone and squeeze
it into the body down at the front end around the weight and
then let it dry around the weight.
I next hold the tube with the head pointing away from me and
mark a spot where the shank bend will be in the tube body but
the eye will be even with the edge of the area where the tentacles
start. Then insert the hook point from inside the opening thru
your mark, rotate hook and bring it through the tube body in
front of the spit shot and out the other side. Then just skin
the point as usual.
You can now see the hook eye inside the tube body, the hook is
weedless and the head of the tube is pointing away from you.
When you have this rigged up, drop it into a bucket of water
and watch the tentacle action when you lift and set it back down.
This is the best spawning bed lure I have found.
Now watch how
it moves when you compare it to a regular tube rigging. The regular
tube rolls up and back as you lift it, but the other one comes
straight up. The hook set is much cleaner and I get mostly a
top of the mouth hook set.
JR Chandler
McMinnville, Oregon
