Tubers and river fishers

[joedog]

Anyone ever try this set up?

“I like plain old green pumpkin – no other color is needed,” he said. “Most river anglers rig a tube on an insert jighead. However, I rig the tube with a 1/8-ounce internal weight and a wide gap worm hook – Tex-posed like many anglers do when flipping a tube.”

His smart rigging offers excellent snag-resistance for dragging along the chunk rock and wood debris on the bottom of river eddies and holes.

To rig the tube, he takes a 1/8-ounce bell sinker (with ring wire line-tie), inserts it into the hollow tube body and pushes it to the head of the lure. Then, he inserts the point of a 4/0 wide gap hook into the head of the tube and feeds it through the wire eye on the bell sinker, bringing the hook point out of the side of the tube about ¼-inch behind the head. Then he measures the hook along the tube, pushes the hook point back through the body and out the other side. The last step is to lightly bury the tip of the point under the skin of the tube.

Hughes casts the weighted tube upstream at a 45-degree angle, allowing it to sink to the bottom and tumble with the current. The 2ube is his most-versatile rig, and he throws it in fast-moving shallow water and slack areas of deeper holes, and anywhere in between.

[keithdog]

I haven't done "exactly" that with a bell sinker like shown, but I have been using a special tube weight for years with an internal rattle that's rigged the same way. Never tried it in a river though, only in lakes.

[dhaddix]

Joedog, although I don't specifically fish rivers, I pretty much ALWAYS rig my plastic tubes that way, and it has become quite a confidence bait for me over the past few years. No doubt that the green pumpkins or watermelon candy colors make excellent bluegill and/or crawfish imitators, I also throw a smoke or white with flake for shad imitators in impoundments. This design not only makes the tube extremely weedless/snag resistant, it also gives the tube a wonderful spiralling fall in slack water.

I can tell you, however, that you will lose some fish when rigging this way. I don't know how to overcome it, but that sinker will cause the tube to ball up on the shank of the hook and the point won't penetrate. Maybe someone smarter than me can tell you how to overcome that, I would be all ears. I fish tubes a whole lot rigged that way and it's dynamite.

Just my 2 cents. Best of luck with the rig and let me know if you can overcome the problem I have with them.

[dhaddix]

Forgot to add, Ike has an excellent video somewhere on YouTube where he talks about how having the bulk of the weight farther from the line tie makes a larger spiral for the tube. If the weight is closer to the line tie, it produces a tighter spiral. Just something else to think about if you fish any slack water.

[Mac2]

Would it still work to hang a 16th ounce bell sinker outside on the belly of the hook instead of internally, free to swing and slide and to bump against pebbles and the like on the lake bottom? When it hits small debris it would possibly rock and flair the tail as well as making a noise with the collision...... One would probably have to use a more gentile long arm cast, but it would still cast well and could possibly vary the spiral at times as well.... Lot to think on.

[joedog]

Keith, dhaddix, thank you for your input.
Mac, ya I think it would work.
This setup was more of a smallie setup for rivers. The reason for the weight inside the tube was to prevent snags on the rocky bottoms. Those bell sinkers are a magnet for getting stuck between two rocks, so are traditional tubes with forward (nose insert) weights. Anyone who has tried drop shotting in rocks know what I mean.
The idea of the weight behind leaves the nose spongy plastic and will almost bounce off rock.The hanging weight 'may' interfer with hook sets, not sure. Kind of like if you fish a tube weightless it will get less snags than internal weighted.
Now I think it would also be good for vegatation anywhere and if you have a rocky bottom pond or lake, would also work there.