Sunday, July 10, 2011

Catching Large Stripers by Trolling the Tube and Worm

By Captain Ryan Collins


The tube n' worm is not any secret and for good cause. Tubes are affordable and may easily be made in your own home. Tubes catch sedentary bass as well as stripers which are aggressively feeding on baits which the tube is not going to mimic.

A tube will continue to work if bass are feeding on mackerel. A tube will also produce if striped bass are feeding on sand eels. Obviously a tube will give you results if striped bass are feeding on 24 inch long worms. Which leads to the debate about exactly what a tube n' worm rig actually imitates.

I strongly believe bass mistake tubes for ribbon worms and large sandworms which often inhabit New England waters. These worms can grow to a length of four feet. Large sandworms and milky ribbon worms in many cases are reddish-pink or orange in color. Sandworms and ribbon worms also are likely to swim through the water in a gyrating or spiraling motion.

A 24 inch long ribbon worm, swimming through the water, possesses a strangely similar likeness to a correctly trolled 24 inch long red tube.

Should you be a striped bass that is used to chasing speedy pogies and ink filled squid, then catching a worm needs to be about as simple as it gets. It might be the human equivalent of hitting up the drive-thru over investing the energy needed to prepare a turkey dinner.

In this sense, I think stripers have a "why not?" mindset towards tube n' worms. I believe that even if bass are honed in on much different bait, they may still consume a big worm because it's so simple to capture.

Capitalizing on Time Spent On the Water

Enough time is spent on the water in search of fish, as we discussed last week in Developing a Strategy for Finding Big Fish.

The last thing I would like to do is waste time tinkering with different techniques and lure options after I ultimately identify an area holding cow sized bass. Unusual is the time that a tube n' worm won't catch a fish, when trolled through productive areas.

This will make it easy to feel confident, understanding that the tube will more than likely prove tempting to a passing striper, regardless of weather conditions or the presence of a particular bait.

Trolling three different tubes at three different depths through an area holding stripers will quickly let me know what length/color tube and what depth will be most productive. Once a couple of fish are caught, I will have a pretty good sense as to the most productive tube and depth. A quick modification to the other two tubes is all that is required.




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