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Paul Schell

Tube flies for saltwater inshore fishing

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Paul, I've tied a few simple tube flies for bass & for shad during their spring spawning migrations. But, have never tried it for any type of saltwater. I have considered it for Striper fishing which I think it could work well. I've got some big offshore poppers & sliders that are made on tubes. (Rainy's, I didn't make them.)

 

I would expect that it would work fine in place of standard streamers that are fished in open water, such as for Snook, especially when tying with hair such as bucktail. Not sure how well suited they would be for flats type fishing particularly when fishing them around snags or weeds.

 

What type of ideas do you have? I would be interested in seeing what you come up with.

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I have gotten into it a bit. They work great on the flats for all the usual species

post-18514-0-01936900-1393113317_thumb.jpgpost-18514-0-23793700-1393113332_thumb.jpg

post-18514-0-69662600-1393113352_thumb.jpgpost-18514-0-95226700-1393113365_thumb.jpgpost-18514-0-17082500-1393113377_thumb.jpgpost-18514-0-21792200-1393113405_thumb.jpgpost-18514-0-41188500-1393113477_thumb.jpg

 

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If you use plastic tubes you can make a real long lasting dressing with a hook that can be replaced easily when it hits kelp, rocks, rough ground etc. There are stainless steel tubes available that will survive salt too but I fish plastic with appropriate sinktip lines.

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Andy, those are all great! But, what about flies you might fish on the bottom, like crabs or the many Charlie/Gotcha types? Have you done anything like that with tubes?

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That's something I haven't tried yet. I did tie a few clousers with lead eyes to sink them but haven't had a chance to try them. That was one thing I was wondering as well is how to get them to ride hook point up or keep them from snagging the oysters and rocks. I guess you could stick the hook eye in the conjunction tube tight enough to keep it point up but I don't know if that would work. I have used these around oyster bars at high tide but they ride well above the snags. So far when I want to fish the bottom, I would just flip to a normal fly. I am really curious if anyone has any advice on tubes on the bottom

 

Dave, that's a great shot of the trout's gullet. Could you post a pic of the fly?

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Andy, sticking the hook in 'upside down' works great so long as the tube is dressed to encourage it not to flip over.

I tie shrimpy crabby types on tubes. My fly for Lil Daves swap is a tube.

The many many salmon patterns like bann shrimp, allys shrimp etc transfer well to salt water.

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Andy, here's a picture of a red headed tube deceiver much like the orange head in the pic.

P1020653.jpg

 

Tied these for a swap, Swamp Rabbits. Big trout killers.

P1030153.jpg

 

Quick & Easy

P1020596.jpg

P1020611.jpg

 

Fat girl on tube, you can really see the way the fly comes up the line leaving the smaller hook in the jaw…Less leverage for the fish to dislodge the hook.

P1020623.jpg

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Gentlemen thank you for all the info. Flies look great and by the looks they are taking fish. So far tied only one tube fly. It is a blonde series fly. Still must figure out how to judge the length of the tube. Was in the fly shop the other day and was shown some deep channel clouser eyes by Hareline that I think would work well if the tubes were not to large in dia. Again thanks one and all. Paul Schell

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I was thinking about this also. I read somewhere that if you are using it for blue fish also, and the fly slides up the leader that other blues may hit it and cut through the leader. That would be the only thing to stop me.

 

Jeremy

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Great article in the April May issue of Fly Fisherman Rosenbauer of Orvis. Have tied a few more flies but have no clue about posting photos.

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Take a look at Pete Gray's Phly Welding. He does a lot of tubes for salt water.

Cheers,

C.

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