Entry 264-4

Fishing Isn’t Just About Tournaments with Chad Brauer

Day 4: Strike King’s Best Sleeper Bait

Question: Chad what’s a sleeper Strike King bait you fish a lot that most people don’t know about or don’t fish very often?

Brauer: The flipping tube. If you look at all the new products coming out on the market today, you see that there’s a trend away from the flipping tube. How long as it been since you’ve used or talked about the flipping tube? Many people have forgotten about how deadly the flipping tube was and still is today. Fishing lures are kind of like ladies’ fashions – trends come and go. Today, the trend is away from the old flipping tube. The flipping tube was very popular in the late 1990s, but then a number of creature baits came to the market and a lot of dead stick baits, like the Zero and the Z Too, which all caught fire. These lures have been hot new baits for not only Strike King but also for many other fishing-tackle companies.

For me, the Strike King flipping tube will get me as many bites, if not more bites, than virtually any other lure on the market. This may be because the bass are seeing fewer flipping tubes now than they used to see. Most people are either flipping a jig or a creature bait. Very-few anglers are still flipping the tube. But during the spawn and the fall, when the bass often tend to be finicky, you can’t beat the Strike King flipping tube. The flipping tube has lost a little bit of its star power since the late 1990s. However, it’s still a bait I rely heavily on, and it’s as effective, if not more effective, now than it was when it was first introduced.

Question: What color flipping tube do you like?

Brauer: My No. 1 color is green-pumpkin because that color matches a lot of baitfish colors like the sunfish and the bluegill. Too, I like the smoke colors and the smoke with red flake, and in dirtier water, I like black neon. These are colors I use the most, and I carry them with me every time I go bass fishing.

Question: Are you using the Coffee Tube any, and what do you think of it?

Brauer: I really like the new color options with the Coffee Tube. When I’m fishing clear water, I like the green-pumpkin with the coffee browns in it. That color to me is about as perfect a representation as a bluegill or a crawfish as you’ll find.When I have confidence in a color like that, I’ll fish it longer than when I’m fishing with a color I don’t have confidence in, and I’ll usually catch more bass with it.

Question: Chad, when you’re fishing the tube, in what kinds of places are you fishing it?

Brauer: I fish the tube any place I’d fish a jig, except when I’m fishing the tube as a jerkbait without any weight. I like to cast the flipping tube out with nothing more than the weight of the hook to get it down about 6- to 12-inches below the surface. Then I’ll twitch it like you’d twitch a jerkbait, which makes the tube a different type of bait from what the fish are accustomed to seeing at that water depth.

Question: When you’re fishing the flipping tube as a jerkbait, are you casting it on spinning tackle?

Brauer: No, I’m still using bait-casting tackle, but I will come down in line size. I’ll probably be casting the tube on 10- or 12-pound fluorocarbon when I’m working it as a jerkbait. I like the fluorocarbon because it helps to sink the tube a little bit more than monofilament does. I’m fishing the tube with a No.4/0 Mustad tube hook.

Question: How far are you able to cast the tube with no weight?

Brauer: As far as I need to, because if you’re stealthy with your boat as you make the approach to the target you’re going to cast to, you can cast that tube with bait-casting tackle anywhere you want to cast it.

Next: Why and How Sexy Shad Works to Produce Bass

Contents:

• Part 1: It Ain’t Just About Tournaments
• Part 2: I’m Still a Jig Man
• Part 3: Fly ‘Em High on the King Shad
• Part 4: Strike King’s Best Sleeper Bait
• Part 5: Why and How Sexy Shad Works to Produce Bass