Gitzits or as I use the generic term, tube jigs, are one of the best ways to fish in ultra clear water in our area, that being the Lake Erie Western Basin, Lake St. Clair and some parts of the Detroit River. I like to use the tube jig in and around structure when targeting bass. It's designed to be used as a drop bait, not to swim back to you. You must constantly be aware of where your bait is at all times as you cast it out and let it drop, spiralling down to the bottom. It is usually fished in waters up to 15' deep. Use a spinning reel on a 6-6 ½ foot medium light to medium action rod and 4-8 lb. premium monofilament line for best results.

How to fish a Tube Jig

• Insert a light (1/16 - 1/8 oz.) lead head jig with a 2/0 spring wire hook into the inside of the tube, pushing the jig's eye through the top of the tube. Cast the bait letting it spiral down like a dying baitfish.
  
• Let the bait fall on slack line but be aware of your line at all times. Any movement of the line will indicate a strike while it is falling. Reel down, and with a snap of your wrist, set the hook.
  
• If the bait reaches the bottom, gently raise your rod tip until you feel the bait. Do this two or three times and if it feels funny, set the hook. If you do not feel anything after the two or three lift and drops, reel in and repeat the process.
  

• Use tube jigs while searching for large mouth bass in the shallows
  
• Rig it weedless by using a Shaw Grigsby High Performance hook in the 2/0 size with a small weight inside the tube.
  
• Use as light a weight as you can get away with without losing the delicate feel of the tube bait.
  
• Fish the tube bait around docks and brush with no weight, the slow fall will drive bass crazy.
  
• Out in open water for smallmouth, fish the outside edges of large deep weed lines or large weed beds. As the day progresses, throw a weedless tube rig inside the weeds as bass tend to go deeper in the weeds as the sun rises.
  
• Tighten your drag down for a better hook set. Once the fish is away from cover let off on the drag and let the bass tire itself out. The advantage of a longer rod comes into play here as it does the work of tiring the bass so you can land it.
  
• Use different styles of lead heads ( round, darter, and chicklet are a few) to do different kinds of fishing with the tube. Each one produces a different type of fall.
  
• There are many different types of plastics used in the process of making tubes. Use a soft plastic for open water fishing and a harder type for cover fishing such as brush and Lilly pads.
  
• There are also many different colours to use but stay with the basics of greens and browns for imitating crayfish and clear or pearl with metal flake colours for imitating baitfish. These are not hard and true colours, but day in and day out, produce the best.
  
• When throwing light lures like a tube jig, you are bound to get tangles or loops in your line because of the tendencies of a spinning outfit to twist the line as it is reeled in. To help eliminate those tangles and loops, I suggest that you manually close the bail on your reel and pull the line snug in front of the reel and then reel up the loose slack in your line.
  
• To fish tubes in a river I recommend that you cast up current and reel in the slack as the tube jig comes up to you. Use a heavy enough lead head to keep your bait at the desired depth that you want to fish. Throw into current breaks and eddies as this is where the smallies like to hide and wait for baifish to come by.
  

Leo

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