Finesse Tubes for Spring Bass Fishing Virginia Article

Long, a Lake Pend Oreille angler of the year and serious threat to win any tournament on many Idaho, Washington and Oregon lakes, fishes a Vibra King Finesse Tube extensively for largemouths and smallmouths alike during spring and summer, having found the shape, size and natural action of this offering ideal for the waters he fishes.

Once summer kicks in Long will turn to various natural colors for tube fishing, usually seeking to match the color of the bottom of the lake he is fishing. However, throughout the spring, when the water remains cold and often is stained, he has found no rival to a black/blue flake Vibra King Finesse Tube .

“The fish aren't keying on abundant natural forage yet, and the black and blue really gets their attention causes them to react,” he said.

Long typically rigs a Finesse Tube one of two ways. Either he uses a typical Texas rig, weighting the offering with a 1/16 to 1/4-ounce Excalibur Tg Bullet Weight or he weights the offering with a specialized flat disk interior weight in the same size range. For either set-up he uses a 2/0 Excalibur Tx3 Point Hook.

“I always rig it weedless,” he said, “and getting a good hook-set never is a problem.”

Center-weighting balances the finesse tube, creating a natural swimming action and causing the bait to spiral when it falls. The spiral slows the fall rate and dramatically increasing Long's strike rate at times. “They'll come up behind the tube and just slurp it in when they'll only look at a Texas rig,” he said.

The center-weighting style most often comes into play during the summer, when baitfish become ultra abundant and the bass feed less opportunistically. However, Long often will experiment with both rigs and let the bass dictate their preferences.

When Long Texas rigs a Finesse Tube , he hops the bait along the bottom, using short lifts and closely follows the contour of the bottom with the bait. For the center-weighting approach he often uses much higher lifts to capitalize on the enticing falling action. The lifts are gentle, however, as he doesn't want to overpower the natural swimming action. He'll also swim a center-weighted tube slowly and steadily, allowing it to fall occasionally.

Long will fish a Vibra King Finesse Tube in many different types of areas. Some of his favorite types of cover for largemouth fishing are weedlines, pockets in tall grass, and downed trees. He'll eagerly pitch a tube right into the middle of a downed tree's branches. For smallmouths, he likes woody structure, both natural and manmade – especially pilings that support boat docks.

Long spools his reels exclusively with Silver Thread Excalibur for tube fishing, using a maximum line size of 10-pound-test. He has found that Excalibur offers an ideal combination of toughness and manageability, with minimal stretch.

This article is provided by Lurenet.com and is used with permission. jB0405.