A few tube questions

[Nick Kuhn]

Well Wisconsin opener is May 3rd and I'll be up there. For this year with gas prices and all I'll probably spend more time at the cabin and the lake there than lake hopping for ski's this year. So I figured I'd start targeting our lakes most abundant gamefish (bass never had been very abundant until a few years ago when the population exploded).

Anyway I'm hoping to start fishing them with more techniques. I've picked up some tubes and was wondering what structures you liked to fish them in, and where you would use them as opposed to other plastics like worms and swimbaits.

[Fever]

In my experience a guy can use a tube in the same places that he'd use any other type of plastic. As far as depth it all depends on how you decide to rig it up. I usually fish my tubes texas rigged with a small tungston bullet sinker and a #2 worm hook. You could use a jig head with the head exposed or tucked inside your tube's body. You could also carolina rig the tube. As far as depths go you can fish them anywhere depending on the weights you use, the wind, and the waves. I like using tubes around docks, reeds, weed lines, and in the shallower thicker slop for pitching into pockets. You could also pick up some small insertable rattles that you can put inside your tube to add a subtle extra attractant. I think this rattling resembles the crayfishes exoskeleton sounds as comes into contact with bottom structure. I've had sucess dragging the tube very slow across the bottom and occationally hopping it with slight rod tip twitches as well as a slow steady retreve (like a swim bait). Alot of times you'll get a strike as the tube falls. You'll see this more than you'll feel it. Watch your line. Hope this helps.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fever pretty much states it... fish the areas that have fish in them and then decide which lure will work best for the area... Dont pick the lure and try to find an area for it to work.

However, tubes will work just about everywhere and can be rigged an endless amnt of ways, held back only by your imagination.