Someone 'splain tube flies to me please

[John Sv]

Hi,
so I get the reason for tubes, it is more that I am wondering about all of the types of tubes. For instance if we are trying to get flies down deep why are the flies tied on plastic tubes with a weight, as opposed to metal tubes.
Thanks in advance.

[Carl Blackledge]

John,

Not sure if I understand your question totally....here goes, I tie some of my saltwater flies on tubes to save the fly from destruction from the fish and the guide in removing the flies from the fish's mouth.....after the hook-up and during the fight lots of time the fly will come lose from it's rubber keeper and slide up the leader away from the fish's mouth and also out of harms way. If I wanted to "sink the fly" I would do so with a sinking line. Most of my tube fly fishing is in Mexico and I want my flies within two feet of the surface .

Carl Blackledge

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I am not the best person to answer this but I will try.


1) You don't have to tie the fly on an expensive hook.

2) It is a fact that long shank hooks are not as good as short shank hooks for keeping fish hooked up.

3) I guess you can tie a fly on a cheap plastic tube and change the weight to match the situation?

4) You can tie flies any length you like.



I am sure others will have better answers.......

.

[Darian]

John,.... I too have been confused by when to choose to use a plastic or metal tube. The metal tubes don't appear to be heavy enough to make a difference in depth while trolling or using a fast retrieve. Using a plastic tube without a separate weight means the fly would probably ride in the surface film. Carls comments about how he uses them makes sense.

When I started using tubes to tie flies on, there were copper tubes lined with plastic(??). They were anywhere from 1" to 3" in length and relatively heavy. Plastic or whatever material tubes were available as well. Now, I don't seem to be able to find the metal tubes for sale any longer. I don't bother using tube flies any longer unless under special situations.

[John Sv]

Thanks guys. I get the positive of tube vs not tube, was more wondering why plastic tube vs metal tube. The comment about the metal tubes not making much difference in sinking answers my biggest question.
Thanks everyone!

[Terry Thomas]

From experience, metal tubes are a pain to cast and I don't believe they offer as much action as a plastic tube. Now there are also a variety of disks (solid and perforated-plastic or metal) available to add action to the tube flies. Check out the Pro Tube site, an excellent product line.
T.

[JD]

How do you get a nymph to sink? Do you use beads, weight on the shank, split shot, line weight, or something else? Same idea with tubes -- more than one way to solve a problem. Some like the metal tubes for extra weight, but like Terry, I prefer other ways to get the fly down when necessary. An unweighted fly can be easily sunk deeper in the water column if necessary, but a weighted fly cannot be as easily adjusted to fish higher, and to me is therefor less versatile. YMMV.

[SST Flies]

Coming from Washington in the Puget Sound region I can add a little to the aforementioned answers to steelie patterns... Before shanks became the "big hit" many of us were fishing tubes regularly on the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound rivers for winter steelies. Perhaps (a good guess here) 98-percent of our flies were tied on plastic tubing simply because we used 10-feet of T-11 or T-14 on short 3 to 5 foot level 15# leaders- effectively getting us into "the zone." Although it might not have made much of a difference we discovered that we could slightly bore out colored brass beads/cones to the Pro Tubes to add a little "flavor" and hopes of reaching a little deeper in the column. For sea run cutthroat flies the style of Muddlers and Carey Specials lend themselves well when tied on thin tubing of Bic ball point pins. A couple of helpful hints I can add here is that hook placement can be adjusted if a "keyhole" or hook retainer is not used (as pictured below) and smaller tubes are interchangeable and/or strung for articulation/color schemes.

Winter box for the Hoh River with/without brass beads:





Not the greatest of pictures, but hopefully you have the idea..



Articulated tubes separated by glass beads:

Three small tubes



Two different colored tubes separated by glass beads



Of course any traditional pattern can be converted to a tube fly:

[John Sv]

Gotta check back on threads I started! Thanks for the insight and photos!