FS Digest

I've never used tube flies, and I'm not even sure they're completely legal for some of the rivers I fish. But I happened across a couple a while ago, and looked into it a bit. From what I've seen you use a bare hook on the back end. I'm wondering if I could just use a simple small streamer instead, as I usually dont carry bare hooks in my vest, and I'm not particularly interested in buying a pack of bare hooks just to try these tube flies. Anyone have any experience with this? I'd likely be casting them to pike or brook trout, and may try it while salmon fishing just out of curiosity.

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by unsuccessfulangler

FS Digest

I fish tubes all the time. They have their place, but aren't for all applications. For smaller trout waters, smaller streamers would likely work better for smaller trout, but where tubes really shine is:

- reconfig the fly for different waters - if you can only use a single hook on one water, but are allowed double hooks on another, you can change them up. You can also use a smaller hook if you are getting hits but no hookups

- if you are fishing rocky water (riprap), and your hook gets blunted, you can change the hook but keep the fly

- long shanked hooks. Some fish strike the tail of a long fly (rangley style) but the long hook shank can be crowbarred out of the fish's mouth. A longer shanked tube with a small shanked hook (I prefer Gamakatsu octopus hooks) is far less likely to be crowbarred out of the fish's mouth

- When fishing toothy fish like pike, it is possible for the fly to move away from the pike's mouth and might not get as damaged. This is a bit of a crap shoot, but it does happen

As to carrying hooks, as I said, I like the gammies, so I just carry packs in my bag, and it works fine. I fish mostly in Manitoba, a barbless fishery, and areas in British Columbia that are barbless as well, so I get barbless gammies.

As to legality, I've never heard of any issues with tubes. Only place I can even think might have something is the Russian river in Alaska, but no first hand experience where a tube might be against the regs.

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by stephenmjay

FS Digest

Thank you for the detailed reply! I'm over in Labrador, and our province is a little behind the times on a lot of things, fishing included. I'd say most anglers haven't heard of a tube fly, let alone fished one, so in regards to regulations they're likely a grey area on most salmon rivers.

Do you think a simple streamer tied behind a tube would work? Especially If I could find colors similar to the tube? I may never end up using them, but I'm intrigued. They're almost obnoxiously big though, especially for salmon, I'd likely put them down immediately.

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by unsuccessfulangler

FS Digest

I think streamers would work, yes, but given you are going for salmons, look at Global Fly Fisher for some ideas. They have a keyword search page just for tubes, and it is where I got alot of my original ideas from them:
https://globalflyfisher.com/keywords/tube-flies

Lots to choose from, including how to get started with tying and fishing tubes.

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by stephenmjay

FS Digest

PS: jealous of your angling opportunities in Labrador.

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by stephenmjay

FS Digest

It would work yes. But using bare hooks that you can replace at any time without losing the fly is a big advantage. Also, those stinger hooks rarely pop out once you get a solid hookset. Much higher landing % compared to streamer hooks. Take a look at Gamakatsu C14s. Not the only option, but that's the one I use for salmon tube flies.

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by Charging_Krogan

FS Digest

Awesome, thank you.

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by unsuccessfulangler

Ron620DVS Loc: Guntersville Alabama

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