# Strike King Bleeding Tubes



## benpecc1 (Sep 2, 2008)

Has anyone tried using strike king bleeding tubes for smallmouth? How have they done? I'm thinking about getting a pack before i head up to beaver creek on Saturday morning.


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## macksmallie71 (Apr 30, 2008)

Bleeding tubes work well, But I just buy solid colors and mark them up with a 
sharpy or dip and die, seem to work just as well i think, also you can come up with your own colors..

good luck


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## MDisbrow (Jul 14, 2006)

I like their Coffee Tubes alot. Bought a bunch of them on sale. Probably my most successful tube bait on Erie.


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## metzbgsu (Jun 28, 2008)

benpecc1 said:


> Has anyone tried using strike king bleeding tubes for smallmouth? How have they done? I'm thinking about getting a pack before i head up to beaver creek on Saturday morning.


I tried some white bleeding tubes last weekend out in the mouth of the Detroit River. Caught a few nice smallies on them, but was getting a lot more action on dark green and black tubes.


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## ryosapien (Jul 5, 2008)

for my money gitzit has the best tubes followed by case plastics. always in black, pumpkin seed, dark olive, and green pumpkin.


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## mossboss (Aug 3, 2005)

MDisbrow said:


> I like their Coffee Tubes alot. Bought a bunch of them on sale. Probably my most successful tube bait on Erie.


I agree 100%.great smallie bait!


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## bassmaniac (May 10, 2004)

I like the YUM Vibraking tubes in the 3 1/2" for smallies and 4 1/2 for flipping. The bigger ones are half solid for texas rigging. The ribs on those move alot of water.


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## Bass_Hawg (Apr 12, 2004)

SO I have never really fished with a tube. What hooks are you guys using? Do you use a jig head type or what? I want to learn to fish the tube. Bought some coffee tubes but how do I rig it and work it??? Any help would be appreciated. Didn&#8217;t mean to hijack this thread but the subject came up so I thought I would ask.


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## metzbgsu (Jun 28, 2008)

There are 2 ways I primarily fish tubes, but there are a few others as well.

One way, and the way I use about 99% of the time, is with a tube jig head. The head slides into the opening in the back of the tube. You just slide it to the front carefully and leave the hook hanging out the back. Then you simply pop the eye of the hook up through the sidewall of the tube and attach your line so that it looks like this...










There are a few common shapes to them, some even have rattlers on them. The heads are pretty similar in shape either being a cylinder or cone and some have wider gapped hooks...all of that is personal preference. But basically they look like this...










I also will sometimes take a 3/0 or 4/0 hook and texas rig the tubes. If I do this, I usually throw a tungsten tube weight in which keeps the tube sitting horizontal. That last part is just personal preference...but either way has worked for me. If you do texas rig it, I recommend a wider gapped hook. Here's a texas rigged tube...










Fishing them, on the lake, I usually bounce and drag them along the bottom while drifting with the tube head in. Texas rigging though, you can float tubes along which I occasionally do and sweep your rod forward to make the tube dive..

You can also do a split shot which will keep the floating tube above weeds if the bottom has some growth. Carolina rig it if there is some deep structures you want to suspend the tube over. When fishing around an isolated structure, if you use a normal jig head you can get the tube to stand up on the bottom (sort of like shaky rigging a finesse worm). You could also drop shot them as any floating soft plastic has nonstop movement and looks like a baitfish. I think that matching the hatch is extremely important with tubes!


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## Bass_Hawg (Apr 12, 2004)

Thanks For the Great Reply metzbgsu.

I have been fishing them with a weighted Jig head and will continue to give it a shot.


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

Ohio Pro Lures Super Tubes. They are big fat suckers for LE smallies. Color 45.

http://ohioprolure.com/c-7-super-tubes.aspx


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

I used to smash smallies on the pumpkinseed tubes right on the lighthouse breakwall in lorain. they also caught lots of gobies. this was a few years back. now I been flyfishing instead. but boy those pix of the tubes bring back memories!!!


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## CO_Trout (May 10, 2008)

Bass_Hawg said:


> Thanks For the Great Reply metzbgsu.
> 
> I have been fishing them with a weighted Jig head and will continue to give it a shot.


It may depend on where you fish, but I have only manage to catch *1 catfish* when fishing with a tube for this *year*

I have tried and tried, asked many questions of members on this site and still the tube has not produced any fish. I fished almost entirely the GMR south of West Carrolton.

My advise is that if you can fish with someone who uses tubes regularly and can teach you on the spot. They may be OK. 

Otherwise, I think that _it has been the biggest waste of money_ I have ever spent on fishing.


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