imitate a bluegill. You can even swim it. Regardless of the
presentation, it’s the ability to access the waters under a
dock that really makes it a solid choice.
“When it comes to dock fishing, nothing skips better
than a tube,” Douglas adds.
All-purpose shallow fishing – Boggs is one who will
reach for a tube in water as cold as 40 degrees or as warm
as 95 during spring, summer and fall. He likes to flip one to
bushes, laydowns, docks and other shore cover, but points
out that a tube can be just as deadly around bluff walls and
rock, where he’ll drag or stroke the bait. And it’s his bait of
choice for flipping in water as shallow as one foot or as
deep as 10.
“About the only things I might change are the color, the
size of the weight and my rod,” Boggs adds. “I like a lighter
weight in cold water to get the slower fall and a bigger
weight in warmer water to make them react.”
A Few Notes on Tackle
As earlier mentioned, tubes don’t pair well with straight-
shank flipping hooks. An EWG superline hook is a much
better fit for a tube because it allows the bait to remain
straight and provides plenty of gap to allow for better
hooksets. The offset on the shank helps hold the bait in
place, and the point should be Tex-posed. Usually, skin-
hooking the tube results in a near-weedless setup that still
al lows good penetration on the hookset.
Weight selection can vary greatly based on the density
of cover being fished, depth, current and technique. Go
lighter for swimming and twitching techniques, or in
finesse situations, and heavier for punching through grass
or wood to elicit reaction strikes. Weight selection also
impacts the action of the bait and how much it glides “off
course” on the fall. Experimentation is the best method for
choosing the right weight, but the common range is 1/4 to
3/4 ounce.
Boggs’ weight choice is one he and a friend devised sev-
eral years ago before selling the design to Jenko Fishing. It’s
called the Creature Weight, and it features a unique
tapered head design that always turns “right-side up” as it
sinks. He says the design of the weight is such that it
accents the tube perfectly while enhancing the gliding, slid-
ing action.
“I can hop the tube with that weight and make it glide 3
to 4 inches to either side. Sometimes it’ll even go back-
ward,” Boggs says. “It makes it get nasty compared to what
you can accomplish with a bullet sinker.”
Jenko Fishing
Creature Weights
56
HOOK AND TUBE CHOICES
AUSTIN FELIX
Felix prefers a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline hook (top)
in combination with a 4-inch Poor Boys Baits Tube. If he’s
dealing with a lot of smallmouths he might scale down to a
3 1/2-inch tube with a 3/0 EWG. Either way, he thinks it’s
important to modify the hook by slightly widening the gap
so the hook point lies parallel with the bait and not in line
with the line tie. This helps cut down on lost fish.
JOSH DOUGLAS
Douglas also likes a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline
hook (top) or a Trokar TK190, which is a wide-gap,
straight-shank tube hook, in combination with a 4-inch
tube by Get Bit Baits.
DREW BOGGS
Boggs prefers a 4/0 Mustad Grip-Pin EWG hook for pair-
ing with 4-inch tubes such as the Lake Fork Craw Tube and
Big Bite Baits Craw Tube, and for 4 1/2-inch tubes. He uses
a 5/0 for 5-inch tubes. He also flares the hook gap slightly
so the point rests parallel to the tube wall instead of turning
inward.
FLWFISHING.COM I APRIL 2018