Tube Jigs Vs Jig And Pig

[Mitch f]

Like it or not, this time of the year you need to be throwing a jig at least some, if not all day long. The jig is and always has been my favorite lure to fish...Because I love it so much, I spend more time throwing it than anything else. In Missouri Im partial to a jig and pig style, but up north in the Great Lakes and their tribs, I've had much better luck with tubes. A tube resembles the profile of a goby as well as a crawfish and I suspect thats the reason they work so well up there.

I know some great fisherman that throw tubes in Missouri with success, but for some reason I havn't gotten there yet. Strange, seems the farther south you go standard jigs are more popular. I've known a bunch of guys that fish the chain lakes along the Tennesse river system and none of them throw a tube. Don't really know why because they are extremely versatile with dozens of rigging techniques.

Just curious what your preference is and why?

[Kayser]

I'm a fan of dragging texas-rigged tubes through heavy brush and for use in rivers. I can throw it on spinning tackle, making it great for smaller fish. I like a big jig-n-craw for fishing big water- bigger profile, added rattle, bit of flash in the skirts, and a football head comes through chunk rock really easy. Put it on a baitcast to throw a mile and help pull up the bigger bites.

[Dutch]

I use both. I always have both tied on. My feeling is the tube will catch more fish but the jig will catch bigger fish most of the time. I've caught fish from here to south Texas.

[Guest]

Deleted

[Mitch f]

I am in the same boat as you Mitch. I have tube jigs in my tackle box, but they rarely see any action. In fact, I don't think I have had much success anywhere I have fished with them. No doubt that they are successful for some, just not me.

Like I said in the initial post, I've had good success with dragging tubes in the great lakes, escpecially Erie, St. Clair, the Detroit river, Menominee river, Clarion river, even Canada. But I've also found that fishing jig and pigs in those same regions didn't work quite as well.

[Al Agnew]

I think I tend to fall into habits, and it's a habit that, if the water is a bit murky, I'll use a jig and chunk, if it's clear, a tube. Can't really tell you why. Except occasionally in cold weather, I almost never use both in the same day.

[Quillback]

I was fishing Table Rock last Thursday with my buddy Jeb. I was up fron throwing a tube, he was in back throwing a jig, I caught 12 on the tube, he got around 10 on the jig. I wasn't dragging the tube, I was hopping it down steep chunk rock and bluff banks. I like a tube sometimes because I like to t-rig it with a light weight and get the slow death spiral effect a tube gives you on the fall, a different presentation than you get with a jig. Fish around here see a lot of jigs, not as many tubes.

[rps]

I am a fan of do nothing. Old Charlie Brewer style. Small, short (3-4") baits reeled so slow they bump the bottom. Short worms, half Senkos, Fish Doctors.1/16 head. 6# line. They work on bad days and kill on good days.

[fishinwrench]

In clear pools in the late Fall/Winter toss a big dark colored salt impregnated tube on a standard 1/8 insert head close to where you think a Smallmouth might be, let it glide to the bottom on a tight line, take up ALMOST all the slack, put your finger on the line.....and just hold it motionless for as long as you can stand it (for me that's about 30-40 seconds).

There's something about seeing that tube swim to the bottom and then just sit there that will make them pick it up and move off with it. The really cool thing is that this first starts to work for me when the leaves get bad making almost any other presentation impossible.

Standard jigs and worms don't work for this, only tubes, and preferably big fat ones. Its gotta be the way they sink that gets their attention.

[Mitch f]

In clear pools in the late Fall/Winter toss a big dark colored salt impregnated tube on a standard 1/8 insert head close to where you think a Smallmouth might be, let it glide to the bottom on a tight line, take up ALMOST all the slack, put your finger on the line.....and just hold it motionless for as long as you can stand it (for me that's about 30-40 seconds).

There's something about seeing that tube swim to the bottom and then just sit there that will make them pick it up and move off with it. The really cool thing is that this first starts to work for me when the leaves get bad making almost any other presentation impossible.

Standard jigs and worms don't work for this, only tubes, and preferably big fat ones. Its gotta be the way they sink that gets their attention.

I do a similar tactic with a jig, but it needs to be close to cover. They know its there and can't stand it. They come out of the cover and nail it. I never caught a really big one doing that though.... Maybe I'll try a bigger tube