(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Bass University co-founder Mike Iaconelli learned to “snap a tube” in the Northeast, but decades later he’s surprised that it has stayed confined to that region. As soon as you get anywhere south, he said, “it’s still kind of a foreign thing.”
He’s sort of happy to keep it that way, with many anglers believing it’s only for northern smallmouths, because he’s used it effectively for spotted bass on fisheries including Lake Martin and Lay Lake, and for largemouths on diverse tournament venues like Seminole and Lake Fork.
Why does it work so well? It’s because the spiraling action of a properly snapped tube triggers bites. There’s a big difference between a hunger strike and a reaction strike, and this technique makes non-feeding fish react. Furthermore, it’s more of a finesse presentation than stroking a jig, so he can rely upon it to produce from mid-spring to mid-fall. It replicates forage all over the country, as long as you “match the hatch” from the palette of available colors.
To do it right, you need the proper equipment, and that starts with a single-dipped, thin-wall 3- or 4-inch tube. He pairs it with a slender elongated jighead in which the weight is spread out over the length of the hook. While a 60-degree line tie might work for dragging or hopping his tube, when he wants it to spiral a 90-degree, “straight up and down” line tie is best. He’ll use anything from a 1/4-ounce VMC to a 3/4-ounce model, with 3/8- and 1/2-ounce versions doing most of the heavy lifting.
He’ll cast the tube beyond his target zone and allow it to fall on slack line, because nearly 20 percent of the bites come on the initial drop. Then, with his rod starting at the 2 o’clock position, he’ll snap it past 12 o’clock. Instead of a long single snap, though, he’ll make two pumps to get to that position, and then let the jig fall, following it back down with a slight bow in his line. He’ll keep doing that until the lure is past where he thinks the fish are living, sometimes all the way back to the boat. In clearer, cooler water, he’ll move the insert head far to the front of the tube to create a tight spiral, while in warmer or dirtier water, or when the fish are more active, he’ll move it back in the bait for a wider spiral.
He throws the tube on a 6’6” or 7’ medium-action spinning rod paired with a 30- or 40-size reel. As compared to a 20- or 25-size reel, that allows him to hold more line and “bump up a little bit in line size.” He prefers gear ratios no lower than 5.8:1. Seventy percent of the time he fills the reel entirely with fluorocarbon, usually 6- to 10-pound test. It’s dense and it sinks, thereby maximizing the spiral. If, however, he’s fishing over 30 feet deep or around heavy cover, he’ll use a main line of braid with 1 1/2 to 3 feet of fluorocarbon as a leader.
While the technique is gradually spreading, Ike noted that it’s still new enough on most fisheries that you’ll “catch fish you never even knew existed.”
If you want to learn more about Ike’s tube snapping system, including the different colors and flakes that best match certain types of forage, check out his complete video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
