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Tube jig

A tube jig is a palm-sized bait fished at whatever depth you work it. At 1/8-3/8 oz on a jighead hook it wants a rod that is on the soft side of middling and bends only near the tip, printed as medium or medium-light. Strong around boulders and broken rock. In a river it works best where fish hold in the calmer water beside the current.

A hollow plastic tube with a skirt of tentacles at the back and a jighead pushed up inside it. Nothing about it looks like one thing in particular. That is why it works. Dragged on the bottom it reads as a crayfish backing away. Dropped on a slack line it spirals down like a dying minnow.

How to Fish It

Let it fall on a slack line and watch where the line enters the water. On the bottom, drag it a foot at a time with the rod tip low. Lift it over rock instead of pulling it through.

Rated for clear and stained water, because 3-4" of bait is found by sight and the water has to be clean enough for a fish to pick it out at distance.

It is sold 3-4", and length and weight move independently: though the range is narrow enough that weight is the one you are really choosing.

When to Throw It

Strong around boulders and broken rock. In a river it works best where fish hold in the calmer water beside the current.

A poor choice over clean sand or open water with nothing on the bottom, where the falling spiral is all it has left to offer.

Feeling an Exposed Hook

The hook rides exposed on a molded head, and the whole 1/8-3/8 oz of it is hook, lead and body in one piece. A short set is all it takes. Most bites arrive on a slack line as a faint knock, so the rod earns its place by reporting them at all.

1/8-3/8 oz rules a rod in or out before anything else does, and 2 profiles here cover it, in medium or medium-light, each with a card saying what it is bad at.

  • 7'0" medium, fast action spinning

    Length
    7'0"
    Power
    medium
    Action
    fast
    Casts
    1/8-5/8 oz
    Line
    6-14 lb

    If someone owns exactly one rod, this is the shape it should be. Its 1/8-5/8 oz window takes that weight without being at either end of it.

    Under-powered for pulling a fish out of matted vegetation or heavy timber.

  • 6'9" medium-light, fast action spinning

    Length
    6'9"
    Power
    medium-light
    Action
    fast
    Casts
    1/16-3/8 oz
    Line
    4-10 lb

    A light-line rod for when fish have seen everything else. Its 1/16-3/8 oz window takes that weight without being at either end of it.

    Not enough power to pull a fish out of grass, timber or dock pilings.

The One Fish It Catches

  • Smallmouth Bass

    Water
    freshwater
    Mouth
    bony
    Line floor
    10 lb

    Smallmouth bass pull harder than their weight suggests, so the line under this bait starts at about 10 lb. Smallmouth bass live on rock.

    Everything else this fish is caught on is on its lures page. This bait is one entry there, and not always the first one to try.

The Method It Belongs To

  • Tube Jigging

    Where it sits
    bottom
    Power
    medium-light or medium
    Action
    fast or extra-fast
    Difficulty
    beginner

    A fast tip lets you lift the tube over a rock instead of dragging it into one. It also shows the bite, which on a falling tube is the line moving sideways and nothing more.

    Pulling it through rock instead of lifting it over, which is how one snag becomes the whole afternoon.

Where This Decision Goes Next

  • Texas-rigged soft plastic worm

    Also soft-plastic, but fished on single hooks. Close enough to look like a substitution, far enough to want a different rod.

  • Find a rod that throws a tube jig

    Five questions, four of them skippable. Answer them and you get the rods that cast this weight for the fish you are after — or, if you name a rod you own, whether it is one of them.