Which is Best Depends on the Angler Situation

By Steve Price
Few lures have ever enjoyed as much instant success as the plastic tube jig Denny Brauer used in winning the last year's Bass Masters Classic. Now named the Flip 'N Tube and manufactured by Strike King, it is one of several "oversized" tube jigs now seeing a lot of use by the bass tournament pros.

"A tube jig falls a little differently than a regular jig, and it gives the fish something else to look at," explains Brauer, who used the tube jig to win another major tournament less than a month after winning the Classic.

"Which lure is best? I don't think you can really say one is better than the other, because so much depends on the mood of the bass on the day you're fishing.

"I will say this, however," emphasizes Brauer, "which is that the tube jig has definitely shown me that bass can become accustomed to certain lures and simply stop biting them. They don't necessarily change locations and they aren't necessarily less active. They just stop biting a lure that continually invades their private space."

As examples, Brauer cites both his Classic victory and his follow-up win on the Potomac River. In pre-tournament practice for the Bass Masters Classic, the Daiwa pro located and caught bass on a standard jig, the lure he's made famous over the years with his pitching and flipping presentation.

On the one official practice day of the Classic, however, those fish would not touch a jig. He picked up the tube bait and pitched it into the same exact spot he had just worked a jig and caught a 3-pounder, then had another hit on it at the very next tree he approached.

On the Potomac, Brauer caught bass for two days on his tube jig, then had to switch to a regular jig the final day when the tube bit slowed dramatically.

"We have learned that oversized tube baits like mine are not simply clear water lures," says Brauer. "Fisherman have been doing very well with these lures in Arkansas for several years, flipping them with sinkers and heavy line into thick cover and dingy water just like a regular jig.

"A jig falls straight down while a tube is slightly more erratic," says Brauer, "and maybe it is that slight difference that creates a strike impulse. I know I've seen fishermen go down a shoreline throwing spinnerbaits and never get a bit and then watched someone follow with a crankbait and fill the boat, so there's definitely something to giving the bass a different lure to look at."

Brauer uses wither a 1/4 or 5/15 ounce slip sinker, a 4/0 hook, and 20 or 25 pound test Stern line when fishing his tube bait, along with a 7 1/2 foot Daiwa rod (which he designed) and the Team Daiwa TD-X103HVA reel. This is exactly the same rod/reel/line combination he uses with normal jigs, which is one reason he likes the tube so well.

In warmer weather, Brauer suggests using a screw-in type sinker when fishing a tube bait in thicker cover. That way, the weight an bait will sink together as one unit. He used a regular slip sinker at the Classic because of the thin cover and extremely shallow water.

"It's not so important that you use either a tube bait or a jig," Brauer continues, "but rather, that you realize the type of mood the bass are in and change lures and presentations periodically until you start getting bites.