Intro | Tube Fly Advantages | Waller's System | Great Lakes Tubes | Rigging the Tube

JAY NICHOLS

Tube flies—flies tied on metal or plastic tubes rather than the shank of a hook—have been around since the mid-1940s. Joe Bates in Atlantic Salmon Flies and Fishing attributes the first tube fly to Winnie Morawski of England who tied it on a hollowed turkey quill. Their effectiveness for Atlantic salmon is well established, and according to co-authors Mark Mandell and Les Johnson in Tube Flies, pockets of anglers on both coasts of the United States have experimented with tubes for saltwater species since the 1950s. A handful of steelheaders have known about the effectiveness of tubes for a long time, but an increasing number of anglers from British Columbia to the Great Lakes are discovering that they can hook and land more fish with tubes.

Tube flies increase hooked-to-landed ratio, make casting large flies easier, and allow you to change the hook style and adjust where it is placed in the pattern, depending on the fish. For aggressive early-run fish you can place the hook well inside the fly; for fish that short strike or nip at the fly in colder water temperatures, you can adjust the hook so that it trails behind the fly. Jay Nichols photo

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In most situations where you use a long-shank hook—from slim profile patterns to large rabbit leeches—tube flies offer too many advantages to ignore. Large profile steelhead streamers often catch their share of fish, but they have limitations. Big flies are generally tied on long-shank hooks that are heavy, hard to cast, inhibit the motion of the fly, and sometimes help fish throw the hook. Long flies tied on short hooks often result in missed strikes because the hook is positioned too far forward in the fly pattern for good hooking. Flies with stinger hooks trailing behind the pattern solve some of these problems. More steelhead anglers are realizing that tube flies provide a better solution to improve the performance of their flies.

A short-shank, offset hook such as a Gamakatsu or Owner (above) is a crucial part of Lani Waller's tube system. David Siegfried photo

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Perhaps no one in the relatively small group of Northwest tube fly devotees is more convinced about the effectiveness of tube flies than legendary steelhead angler Lani Waller. Though tube flies were not new to him—he had used them in Russia for Atlantic salmon and in bluewater for marlin in the mid to late 80s—Waller was introduced to tubes for steelhead by guide Bob Clay on the Kispiox in 1997. Waller recalls thinking at first that the short-shank egg hooks Clay used looked much too small for the 20-pound-plus Skeena-system steelhead. During one week that year, Clay landed every one of his fish with his tube flies, but using conventional flies Waller landed only 60 percent of his hooked fish. Waller became a believer.

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Jay Nichols was the managing editor of Fly Fisherman when he wrote this article for the Feb. 2005 issue. He lives in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

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