I just bought a tube fly adapter for my vise, got an assortment of tubes, and thought I’d give them a try on some flies for bass (black and white varieties)and maybe bluegills. There were a couple good ideas in the current Fly Tyer magazine, but I was wondering if you fine folks out there might have any ideas or experiences, both tying and fishing 'em, that you might be willing to share.
Oh yea! The tubes I use are Scoubidou and here is my first snake (seatrout pattern, and cut me some slack, it was my first one)…
Here is a web page on scoubi tube flys & snakes:
http://www.seatroutfishing.net/stepbystep.htm
For bass & pike I’d suggest much larger hooks however.
I do Bluegill, I found a tube fly, presumably used for steelhead, and I removed the rusted chrome hook, about a #2 and put a #4 3xlong, 2xstrong streamer hook on a new leader, loop to looped it and tried it on the local silver salmon, but while doing so, I hooked smallmouth bass. This at a time when I’m not used to catching them. I can’t wait to try it on the lake for LMB come March or so. The smallie strike was quite violent by the way. The pattern was that of a minnow, bright, mylar tubing body, many strands of tinsel tied in at the bend. Pretty simple to tie I’d think. In the water the tube fly is, how to say, ‘dazzling’ I guess. Oh and it floats but since I was using a sink tip, that wasn’t a problem and I even got near takes before stripping the fly under while waiting for the flyline to sink. This all took place on relatively still or slow moving water where silvers congregate before heading upriver. Hope at least part of this helps Bluegill !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
Thanks for the ideas and info guys! that snake looks like it might have some real potential, and it gives me a couple ideas to play with.
MontanaMoose-- minnow imitations were what I had in mind for my tubes, glad to have the confirmation that they work!
I’ll let you know how my tying efforts turn out, maybe if the water here softens up a little I might even be able to try them out. It’s gonna be a long winter waiting to give these guys a real test drive 
There are “Tube Flies” and there are “Snake Flies” True “Tubes” have a hard tube with the leader going thru the tube to the hook. Look up " Snake Flies Ian Finylas’ on Google for snakes used for sea run trout in England. Snakes do have a mylar type tube but they are tied on mono with a eye and hook attached. I tie and use both — can be used for bluegills up to big Pike and Musky—big flies with little weight for eazy casting fishyfranky–I just check your fly agajn and now realized it is tied on a tube—sorry. the snakes are usually without the tube. The eye on Ians snakes are hard to form if you never tied flies without a vise. BILL