The Tube Jig

One of the common sense thoughts when prepping for spring fishing is to try upsizing your lures. Fish are looking to fill their tummies quickly without the effort of chasing down 100's of appetizers swimming among them.

My lure choices have become complicated. By choice-it's fun to experiment. And of course, the confidence in me always says, "Well...if I caught 50 on 'this one' today, I can catch 60 on 'that one', tomorrow. Truth-while I may just not remember a selection where that actually happened, it's otherwise never happened when it comes to the basic tube jig. Bonus-almost 90% of my trophy fish in the last eight years? Tube jig. How many trophy fish in the last couple of years? Two or three. Maybe. Because...I haven't fished the tube jig much the last couple of years.

First two or three years learning these Mississippi mud waters, all I carried was yellow and pearl tail tube jigs, and blue and pearl tail tube jigs. Paired them with Arkie jig heads. Walmart was my tackle shop. Done. Spent a lot of time fishing and little time playing (with tackle) like I may or may not do, now. No tackle box or tackle pack. Just multiple pocket cargo pants. So, when I was prepping belt pouches for spring the other day an at the moment thought came to me, "Just concentrate on the tube jigs, until all the reasons I stopped using them prove to be true. Or not." And so it's been, 80%-90% the tube jig so far, this late winter. So much so, I recently left my next to last yellow tubie in the arms of the sycamore tree that fell into what used to be one of my best crappie lakes-haven't fished it for a couple of years, either. "No problem-Walmart's five minutes from me." Well, Walmart doesn't seem to even carry the yellow version of the Creme tubie, anymore! A quick browser scan of the Bass Pro Shop inventory for a version of the yellow Creme tubie and I may-or may not-be able to get it there. "Limited stock." I've reached an age now that, if I'm not fishing I'm relaxing in the middle of my mini-Bass Pro Shop and fly shop...in my living room. Don't even care to be shopping at the happiest place on earth-the aforementioned Bass Pro Shop. So I asked myself, "I've done the deep dive into fly and lures tying-why can't I tie something that mimics that yellow tubie?!" If you're a fisherman at the obsessive level approaching mine, then you know you're going to want to carry that yellow tubie even if you do tie something to mimic it. "Just in case."

When I returned from Bass Pro Shop (only 15-20 minutes from me) having indeed moving the "Limited Stock" of yellow tubies to the status of, "Not available", I pulled up behind the fly tying desk to tie the furry twin to the tubie. I'm deep into crappie madness now. And fishing brush from the bank, I'm using my homemade weedless jig heads 90% of the time. There is an option to add the weed guard AFTER tying the jig, but I've found it unreliable in addition to being cumbersome and sometimes even painful. So now, I'm about to tie something on the tying vise with a weed guard approaching an inch in length, sticking out. The fly tier is having a, "Oh...geez...", moment right now. I was prepared for a 50% chance of failure. Next, what to use. Marabou feathers for a tail has an action that makes even the most stubborn fish "eat", sometimes. But it also has an action that screams like an over caffeinated kid bouncing off daycare walls. Crappie are lazy. So, I decided to start with the higher percentage chance of a stiffer tail. (Chicken) neck hackle to mimic the pearl tail of the yellow tubie. For the yellow tubie copy cat-yellow chenille. Other than negotiating that annoying weed guard sticking out-tying doesn't get much easier than this. And who knows, this may look just different enough yet just close enough to that yellow tubie, Denise (local fisheries biologist) may ban my tie. LOL (Ties are shown next to a plastic tubie, for comparison. The hackle tail will become less stiff, when wet.) Interestingly it took review of the photos to realize the tie body is considerably thinner than the plastic version. I think...there's a higher percentage chance that this is a plus, But if the tie version doesn't work as well, I'll be double or triple wrapping that chenille! And simply adding another single or double wrap to these two experiments!

That personal best largemouth bass from the mud lakes I fish up here and pictured in my grip, at the beginning of this blog? Yeh, look close at her mouth-yellow tube jig.