Often all you have to do is make a cast and watch your line. Given enough current to carry a YUM Vibra King Finesse Tube and a few feet of water for the offering to drop through, a smallmouth is apt to nab the bait before it ever hits bottom. The line will suddenly race upstream, prompting you to set the hook sharply and get ready for a jump.
Other times, you’ll have to work the offering, swimming it across the top of a set of shoals, hopping it along a gravel bottom or using some combination of twitches, cranks and pauses.
Tubes are tough to beat for stream smallies during late spring and early summer. They spiral enticingly when left to fall freely, dart when hopped and move just like real crawfish when swam steadily with the line held tight.
Stay on the small end of the spectrum when you select tubes for stream smallmouth fishing, using 3-inch YUM Mega Tubes or 3.5-inch Vibra King Finesse Tubes. The Mega Tubes are a little shorter, but the Finesse Tubes offer a narrower profile and added action from ribs.
Rig either tube on a leadhead with an open hook if possible. Insert the leadhead into the tube before tying it on and push it all the way up to the solid part of the head before pushing the eye through. For a Vibra King Finesse Tube, be sure to line up the angle of the head so that the hook comes out the slot in the ribs.
If you’re fishing around brush or other “hangy” cover, use a Texas rig instead, rigging with a 1/0 or 2/0 Excalibur Tx3 Point Hook and a 1/4 to 1/8-ounce Tg Bullet Weight, depending on the amount of current and the depths most smallies are using.
If most fish are down deep in big pools, an alternative technique for fishing a Finesse Tube or small Mega Tube is to tie a drop-shot rig, using the same Tx3 Point hook and pegging the line with a 3/8- or 1/4-ounce Tg Drop Shot Weight. With a drop shot, you can really slow your presentation to fish big pools thoroughly.
Silver Thread Fluorocarbon is ideal for fishing YUM Vibra King Finesse Tubes and Mega Tubes, whether on leadheads, Texas rigs or drop-shot rigs. Added toughness and a quick sink-rate are both important for tube fishing, and low visibility can be highly beneficial in smallmouth streams, which often run quite clear.
Water color, of course, also affects bait color selections. When streams run clear, start with natural colors, like green pumpkin and Arkansas shiner. Good craw-imitating colors include crawfish green flake for a YUM Mega Tube and red shad chartreuse for a Vibra King Finesse Tube.
When a big rain brings mud or even a decent stain to a smallmouth stream, turn either to black/blue flake, which offers a tremendous amount of contrast and is highly visible in dirty water or to something bright, like sunshine pepper copper flake in a Mega Tube or firetiger in a finesse tube.