tube flies for pike & bass?

[mhedlund]

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

[Bluegill222]

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.

[William Fitzgerald]

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

[Bluegill222]

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.

[mudni]

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.

[mudni]

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.