Drew Boggs
“I like a 4- to 5-inch tube for flipping, but most of them I’ve
seen are so meaty around the head that they take up too much
of the hook gap and cause hookup problems,” Boggs says.
He’s found several tubes that don’t suffer this design
defect. His go-to bait for 90 percent of flipping situations is a
Lake Fork Tackle Craw Tube or Big Bite Baits Craw Tube.
They’re both hybrid tubes with ringed bodies and extra pin-
cers on the sides. As far as “standard” tubes, Boggs uses a
model that’s no longer in production, but that has the right
characteristics for a good hookset.
“I’ve won a lot of money with it, but a lot of guys I compete
against continue to fish their beavers, [Berkley Havoc] Pit
Bosses and D Bombs,” Boggs says. “There are a lot of differ-
ent options out there, but in my opinion, none of them pro-
duces as well as the tube.”
To that effect, it’s worth noting that tubes come in dozens
of variations, widths, lengths and thicknesses. There are even
solid “tubes” that aren’t hollow at all. The build of the tube can
have a major effect on how the bait sinks or glides, in addi-
tion to how well it hooks up a fish. Bigger tubes – usually
called “flipping tubes” – are most popular for power fishing,
but many small tubes are also good “finesse flipping” baits for
times when fish won’t hit bigger, bulkier options. If one tube
doesn’t cut it, you can always swap it out for a different one.
The specific tubes and tackle used by Felix, Douglas and
Boggs are listed in the accompanying sidebar.
APRIL 2018 I FLWFISHING.COM
Once you find a tube you like and pair it with the proper
hook, you’ll find the tube to be a good choice for a handful of
situations.
Mixed-bag opportunities – Felix is a third-year FLW Tour
pro and former YETI FLW College Fishing champ who, as a
Minnesotan, is very familiar with targeting both largemouths
and smallmouths on mixed-bag fisheries. When faced with a
mixed-bag scenario, his confidence in the tube really spikes
because of the bait’s history as a smallmouth catcher.
“I really like flipping a tube if I’m on an Ozark-style lake or
the Mississippi River – some place where I’m not sure which
species I’ll be targeting and I stand a good chance of catching
either one on any given flip,” Felix says. “It’s all about efficien-
cy on those dual-species fisheries, and the tube is a great bait
to do that. If I’m flipping a big jig or a big beaver-style bait in
that type of situation I feel like the focus will be more toward
largemouths.”
Flipping “grabby” cover such as bushes – Douglas is a
huge fan of the tube on lakes where he’s fishing bushes dur-
ing the spring of the year.
“I like a jig more during the prespawn, but once we start
getting into the spawn and postspawn is when I’ll switch to
the 4- to 4 1/2-inch flipping tube,” he says. “I really like it on a
lake like Kentucky Lake because the fish pull up really tight to
the bushes over there. The tube doesn’t have any
appendages to get caught on limbs and other stuff, so it will
slide in and out much better than a creature or a jig. It also
has some bulk to it, so I can usually go to a little lighter weight
– like 3/16 or 5/16 ounce – and be pretty effective.”
Punching matted grass – A tube also works great in mat-
ted grass because of its streamlined profile.
“We flip a lot of milfoil in Minnesota during the summer,”
says Douglas, “and the tube is a great choice for that. It does-
n’t have a lot of action to it, but you can crash it through the
canopy and it really triggers those reaction strikes. It’s very
efficient because of the way it goes in and out of the grass,
and it gets lots of bites – large and small.”
Skipping docks – Like a flat rock, a tube has a smooth,
even surface for skipping under docks. It can be left to fall,
fished with a lift-rise action, or twitched under the surface to
Where Tubes Shine on a Texas Rig
Austin Felix
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