GREAT LAKES
it was “When in doubt, let
TUBING
more line out.” I listened, and routinely caught fish that were
I got the chance to go
more than 60-yards away
to a media event last year in
from the boat.
the Niagara area in Lewiston,
Once I got the hang of
N.Y. and like many of you, I
it, I was able to catch more
had heard so much about
than 30 bass on the tube,
tubes being the ultimate lure
including my then personal
for smallmouth bass. Having
best 4-pound, 10-oz
been invited to the event by
smallmouth. I was able to
Strike King, I knew that there
return to the event this year,
would be a plethora of their
and broke my personal best
Coffee Tubes and Tour Grade
again with a 5-pound, 8-oz
Tube heads available.
I was correct, and as I rigged up my Lew’s Tube Special with 8-pound-test
My Current Personal Best Smallmouth 5 pounds, 8 Ounces Caught on a Coffee Tube.
Photo by Frank Campbell
smallmouth out of the Niagara River 300-yards from the Lewiston, N.Y. city landing – on a tube with
Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon
Frank Campbell.
line and a 3/8-oz tube jig intent
on doing damage the first morning.
Frank Campbell of Niagara Region Charter Service, and the coordinator of the event paired
LEARN REGIONALLY, APPLY NATIONALLY
me with Mickey Grant from Trailer Hook Pal and his
While I won’t have near as much call to fish a
friend Bruce Blakelock of Riverside Sportfishing out
tube on my lakes here in Alabama, with the possible
of Lewiston, New York. We met Captain Bruce and
exceptions of Lake Martin and Smith Lake, I know how
headed down to Buffalo and out onto Lake Erie, while I could bring the lessons I learned with Bruce, Mickey
Bruce and Mickey were catching fish, I was skunked
and Frank back to the lakes of Northern California.
for the better part of an hour.
I – like many anglers struggled on Folsom, Oroville
What I learned was that the way I fished a tube
and Shasta when the fishing required a finesse
in California would not work on Lake Erie or Ontario.
application, and strong winds rolled into an area. I
Well, to be more truthful, it would work – if I could get remember so many times being frustrated while
the lure to the bottom. That is not such an easy task
trying to throw a six-inch worm on a 1/4-ounce
to accomplish on The Great Lake with the current and darter head in heavy winds. I remember wishing that
the winds that drive anglers around the lakes.
the winds would die down long enough so that I could
While I was doing what a typical bass angler does, perch myself in position and wok the lure through the
casting in front of the boat and trying to work the lure structure I knew held good fish.
back to me, my tube was never reaching the bottom
After my experience at the Niagara Area media
despite the fact that it was the heaviest tube head I
events the past two years, I would now position my
had personally thrown.
boat upwind of the target, throw the lure out behind
Bruce and Mickey taught me that I needed
me and let the boat drift across the structure. I may
to learn the drift method of fishing a tube. What
have to use a heavier head, and I might have to let
that entails is positioning the boat at the top of
out more line, but I’ve learned something fishing in
the structure you’re intending to fish, then casting
upstate New York that will likely help me elsewhere.
upwind of it. While the boat is drifting with the wind or
I’ve also learned that my own perspectives – built
current, I was to pull the lure behind the boat, allowing through years of days spent on the water – can be
the wind to “drift” the boat along the structure.
incomplete, and if I try to experience more, through
The one rule I was taught was that if I can’t feel the
study or on hand application, I can become a better,
bottom, I was to let more line out. More specifically,
more complete angler.
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