my first attempt at smallmouth fishing...

....was exciting, but final results were not so hot. Had about 1 1/2 hours
to fish, and was tired of driving 20 minutes to a lake that hardly ever
gives up many nice largemouth, so decided to try SM fishing for the first
time ever. Went to the nearby Hocking River in SE Ohio, has reputation for
good SM fishing.

Never had any luck with tubes on LM, but had heard that they are real good
on SM, so T-rigged a Big Zoom Tube, watermelon seed color, on a 4/0 EW
Renegade hook with a 1/4 oz bullet sinker. I put the hook all the way
through the tube and skin hooked it.

I started casting up and across the river, hopping the tube and letting it
drift downstream, paying close attention to rocks/boulders and
logs/stickups. The exciting part of the day was the three BIG hits I got on
the tube. I swung hard with my 7 ft, medium heavy rod and 12-16 lb test
(can't remember what I've got strung on there, it was in that range
somewhere...), and all three times the fish was on the tube well enough that
I pulled him out of the water.

The bad part of the day was the fact that none of the three got hooked well
enough to stay on. It seemed to me that in spite of the extra wide gap
hook, the tube was too big for it and was preventing a solid hookset. What
should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller weight? Smaller
tube? I tried throwing a Stik-O, thinking perhaps I could get a better
hookup with the more slender bait, but got no takers.

SM fishing was fun, I could tell that all three fish were ready to rumble,
if you know what I mean. But it was a bummer to have all three of them come
unbuttoned. Esp. when my visual of the three fish put each one of them over
2 lbs, at the least. Nice Fish.

Advice?

Nate H.

I would try one of two things, assuming your hooksetting technique is sound:
1) Use a thin-walled tube, and/or 2) Use an internal jighead with exposed
hook if you can get away with it. And if you can get away with #2, I'd also
try a grub on a jighead.

Good luck. If you can find smallies and get hits like you did, you'll
certainly start landing them.

"NH" wrote in message
...
...was exciting, but final results were not so hot. Had about 1 1/2 hours
to fish, and was tired of driving 20 minutes to a lake that hardly ever
gives up many nice largemouth, so decided to try SM fishing for the first
time ever. Went to the nearby Hocking River in SE Ohio, has reputation
for
good SM fishing.

Never had any luck with tubes on LM, but had heard that they are real good
on SM, so T-rigged a Big Zoom Tube, watermelon seed color, on a 4/0 EW
Renegade hook with a 1/4 oz bullet sinker. I put the hook all the way
through the tube and skin hooked it.

I started casting up and across the river, hopping the tube and letting it
drift downstream, paying close attention to rocks/boulders and
logs/stickups. The exciting part of the day was the three BIG hits I got
on
the tube. I swung hard with my 7 ft, medium heavy rod and 12-16 lb test
(can't remember what I've got strung on there, it was in that range
somewhere...), and all three times the fish was on the tube well enough
that
I pulled him out of the water.

The bad part of the day was the fact that none of the three got hooked
well
enough to stay on. It seemed to me that in spite of the extra wide gap
hook, the tube was too big for it and was preventing a solid hookset.
What
should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller weight? Smaller
tube? I tried throwing a Stik-O, thinking perhaps I could get a better
hookup with the more slender bait, but got no takers.

SM fishing was fun, I could tell that all three fish were ready to rumble,
if you know what I mean. But it was a bummer to have all three of them
come
unbuttoned. Esp. when my visual of the three fish put each one of them
over
2 lbs, at the least. Nice Fish.

Advice?

Nate H.

Nate, you didn't mention it, but was the tube pulled down into the bend of
the hook, interfering with hook penetration? If so, you need a way to keep
the tube from sliding down and balling up on the hook.

The 4/0 hook was a good size; even a 3/0 should have done ok. Take a look at
the HP hook from Eagleclaw, which has a wire clip to hold the lure in place
on the strike.

The ball-jig or tapered tube jig with head inserted in the tube is another
good idea. If an exposed hook point is a problem, there are tapered jig
heads made for tubes that can be rigged as you did your T-rigged hook.

Joe
__________________
"NH" wrote in message
...
snip What should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller weight?
Smaller tube? snip
Nate H.

Nate,

I ran into the same problem lately fishing tubes on an overnight float trip. The smallies would hammer it and hang on but I couldn't get a good hook set and lost them all. The next morning I had planned on using the same approach. But right before we shoved off I decided to change.

I swithced to a carolina rigged 4" worm on a 2/0 hook. It didn't take long before everybody in the group was throwing this. We really loaded up on some nice smallmouth. I don't know if it was the worm or the fact that it was carolina rigged. I was just happy to be catching fish.

Good Luck, river smallies are the best.
Ronnie

Originally Posted by NH

....was exciting, but final results were not so hot. Had about 1 1/2 hours
to fish, and was tired of driving 20 minutes to a lake that hardly ever
gives up many nice largemouth, so decided to try SM fishing for the first
time ever. Went to the nearby Hocking River in SE Ohio, has reputation for
good SM fishing.

Never had any luck with tubes on LM, but had heard that they are real good
on SM, so T-rigged a Big Zoom Tube, watermelon seed color, on a 4/0 EW
Renegade hook with a 1/4 oz bullet sinker. I put the hook all the way
through the tube and skin hooked it.

I started casting up and across the river, hopping the tube and letting it
drift downstream, paying close attention to rocks/boulders and
logs/stickups. The exciting part of the day was the three BIG hits I got on
the tube. I swung hard with my 7 ft, medium heavy rod and 12-16 lb test
(can't remember what I've got strung on there, it was in that range
somewhere...), and all three times the fish was on the tube well enough that
I pulled him out of the water.

The bad part of the day was the fact that none of the three got hooked well
enough to stay on. It seemed to me that in spite of the extra wide gap
hook, the tube was too big for it and was preventing a solid hookset. What
should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller weight? Smaller
tube? I tried throwing a Stik-O, thinking perhaps I could get a better
hookup with the more slender bait, but got no takers.

SM fishing was fun, I could tell that all three fish were ready to rumble,
if you know what I mean. But it was a bummer to have all three of them come
unbuttoned. Esp. when my visual of the three fish put each one of them over
2 lbs, at the least. Nice Fish.

Advice?

Nate H.

I don't think I could use an exposed hook where I was fishing -- way too
many sticks and rocks, I think. It did seem to me that on the hookset, the
skin-hooked point of the hook was pulled into the middle of the tube instead
of heading into the fish's jaw where I wanted it to go. Perhaps I rigged it
incorrectly? Would I be better off trying a true Texas rig?
..
"Joe Haubenreich" (removethis)swljoe-at-secretweaponlures.com wrote in
message ...
Nate, you didn't mention it, but was the tube pulled down into the bend of
the hook, interfering with hook penetration? If so, you need a way to keep
the tube from sliding down and balling up on the hook.

The 4/0 hook was a good size; even a 3/0 should have done ok. Take a look
at
the HP hook from Eagleclaw, which has a wire clip to hold the lure in
place
on the strike.

The ball-jig or tapered tube jig with head inserted in the tube is another
good idea. If an exposed hook point is a problem, there are tapered jig
heads made for tubes that can be rigged as you did your T-rigged hook.

Joe
__________________
"NH" wrote in message
...
snip What should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller
weight?
Smaller tube? snip
Nate H.

For smallmouth--try a SILVER BUDDY


"NH" wrote in message
...
...was exciting, but final results were not so hot. Had about 1 1/2 hours
to fish, and was tired of driving 20 minutes to a lake that hardly ever
gives up many nice largemouth, so decided to try SM fishing for the first
time ever. Went to the nearby Hocking River in SE Ohio, has reputation
for
good SM fishing.

Never had any luck with tubes on LM, but had heard that they are real good
on SM, so T-rigged a Big Zoom Tube, watermelon seed color, on a 4/0 EW
Renegade hook with a 1/4 oz bullet sinker. I put the hook all the way
through the tube and skin hooked it.

I started casting up and across the river, hopping the tube and letting it
drift downstream, paying close attention to rocks/boulders and
logs/stickups. The exciting part of the day was the three BIG hits I got
on
the tube. I swung hard with my 7 ft, medium heavy rod and 12-16 lb test
(can't remember what I've got strung on there, it was in that range
somewhere...), and all three times the fish was on the tube well enough
that
I pulled him out of the water.

The bad part of the day was the fact that none of the three got hooked
well
enough to stay on. It seemed to me that in spite of the extra wide gap
hook, the tube was too big for it and was preventing a solid hookset.
What
should I have done differently? Bigger hook? Smaller weight? Smaller
tube? I tried throwing a Stik-O, thinking perhaps I could get a better
hookup with the more slender bait, but got no takers.

SM fishing was fun, I could tell that all three fish were ready to rumble,
if you know what I mean. But it was a bummer to have all three of them
come
unbuttoned. Esp. when my visual of the three fish put each one of them
over
2 lbs, at the least. Nice Fish.

Advice?

Nate H.