tube flies for pike & bass?

Anyone using tube flies for warm water species? I have read the archive articles and am thinking of buying a kit to get started. Seems like it could be a neat deal. How do you keep them in a fly box?
Mike

I tied up some tube poppers for bass this Spring. Worked really well. I tied up trailer hooks wih various color and rubber leg combinations which meant I had a whole box worth of variety with just a few heads and hooks. I've tied some streamer patterns to use on white bass and wipers this fall. Haven't had much chance to use them yet, though.

Tube flies are great for any fish from a small trout to a sailfish. I just recieved the latest tube fly book from my local library "Tube Flies Two Evolution" with 213 paterns from 35 0f the worlds best tube tiers. You dont need a kit.

I tie my tubes on hollow Q tips useing the nut end of a bicycle spoke to hold the tube. Find hollow Q tips, I have old one from our medicine cabinet (not all are holow}. Heard Dollor General store has them. Take one to a bike shop to match the spoke with the tube, cut off a two inch length or longer at the nut end ,put in any vise add the tube and tighten the nut.
A model air plane store will have plastic , brass tube for the toothy pike or musky.


Tubes are great for fighting fish because the fly will go up the line when a fish strikes leaving only the hook in the fish mouth. Also large flies can be tied with smaller less weight hooks. Have seen some with a fly tied on the hook and the tube for a larger fly. Any box could hold a hundred flies and another box for a few hooks. Bill

That's a solution I hadn't thought of for a mandrel. My set-up is a fairly inexpensive tube fly adapter kit that HMH puts out. It's designed for the HMH vises but works just fine on any vise capable of holding, say, a #2 hook. It comes with the adapter, two mandrels, a selection of tubes (including some brass ones for fast sinking flies) and instructions. I found mine in the Cabela's catalog this Spring. There is also atube assortment available as well, though I've found the hollow Q-tips work really well, too.

I have tied a number of different tube flies mostly for bass ,brim and crappie.I use Q tips mostly.
I have tied Chernoble ants poppers,muddlers,deer hair heads on tubes for bass streamers,etc..
I use the HMH tube holding device.I have use brass tubes also on flies I want to sink faster.
I find poppers and chernoble ants work really well as just as strike indicators for dropppers.
Another excellent patern as a tube fly are the bobbie flies.

Oh one final pattern that is my favorte for bass and big bluegills and shellcrackers is
tied like a jig --I take a Q tip tube and put on wire in tool then I add a bead with a hole large enough
to pass over tube and I super glue it to tube nose.Next I take enough silica strands or rubber hackle to
cover tube as if it was a jig body.I add a soft piece of hose for hook keeper.Some times I add a hook with
rabbit hair or a piece of cut chamois tied to it to imitate a jig trailer.I believe a picture of this fly is in the archives.