Tubes

A hollow body with a skirt of tentacles — the spiralling fall smallmouth cannot leave alone, and a flipping bait for largemouth.

Soft plastics are the biggest family in bass fishing: 36 shapes, each designed for a rig, a depth and a mood.

• Shape = design purpose: fish, worm, craw, creature, tube, frog
• Finesse tier vs power tier: the same shape at 3.5 in and 7 in is two different techniques
• Tail type decides the action; body decides the fall
• Rig it the way it was designed to be rigged

A tube is defined by its hollow body: a jighead inserted inside gives the bait a spiral on the fall that no other soft plastic makes, and the tentacle skirt breathes at rest. Standard 3.5-4.5 in tubes on internal heads are the smallmouth bait on rock; 2.5-3 in finesse tubes go on Ned-style heads and drop shots; solid-head 4-5 in flipping tubes go on heavy offset hooks into wood and grass.