Great Lakes Tubes
From California to British Columbia to the Great Lakes tributaries, tubes can help improve steelheader's success swinging streamers for steelhead. Rick Kustich has fished with tubes almost exclusively for the past three years. Kustich says he likes the ability to easily integrate weight into a pattern by tying his favorite Great Lakes steelhead streamers on long copper tubes. When he fishes for steelhead on his home waters, they are usually holding deep in cold water and won't move far to take a fly. The heavy tube sinks quickly to the fish's level.
Kustich does not integrate the junction tubing into his fly, but instead leaves ample room at the rear of the pattern to connect it onstream. This provides several advantages: The flies are easier to tie, you can replace the tubing without ruining the fly, and you can adjust the length of tubing to place the hook at different areas in the pattern. While these patterns are not as easy to cast as ones tied on plastic tubes, they do get down quickly.
Thanks to Atlantic salmon and steelhead fishers, tubes have opened a new frontier in fly-tying techniques, but the possibilities do not just stop there. Anglers who enjoy fishing streamer flies for trout, smallmouth bass, pike, and stripers may soon create patterns that can improve their fishing.
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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