[baldmountain]

I worked late last night so I played hookey from work this morning and went to the local pond to try a few flies. One of them was a bass bug tied on a plastic qtip body. It worked pretty well. I managed to catch a little bass and the fly got hammered by sunfish too small to actually fit the fly in their mouth. Because the fly is tied on a light plastic tube even a soaked deerhair bug floats like a cork. I used a Daiichi x150 hook behind the fly. The hook was a bit heavy and may have slid back from the fly because I left it loose behind the fly. One of the other things I noticed is that the tail NEVER got twisted around the hook bend no matter how badly I casted. I only brought my 4 wt single handed rod but I still managed to throw the fly pretty far. I assume because it is tied on a light plastic tube rather than a big metal hook.

The only negative I sould see is that the fly tended to spiral in the water, but that may not be a bad thing for a bass bug. (I tied the fly as a slider rather than a popper.)

 

[baldmountain]

I think I may change my mind. The reason is that I think the short hooks that are used with tube flies not hooking fish very well. I went 0 for 2 on fish I considered pretty well hooked, but lost both. These are fish I'm pretty sure I should have landed. The fact that there is another post on the board where people are discussing their landing percentage leads me to believe that we may be loosing more fish than we should becasue the hooks used with tube flies don't hold as well. Which is too bad because bass bugs tied on plastic tubes float like corks. Even if they strongly dive, they pop right back up. They float even if you only make a single backcast to dry them off.

On the other hand I could be wrong...

 

[baldmountain]

And the statistician in me thinks that an n of 2 is far too small to allow any inference. Keep fishing them and you may find you streak get turned around.

This is why I asked, because I don't have enough data. Just a frustrating day fishing.

OK, I'll give 'em another go.

Let me ask a slightly different question. I've been using Daiichi X510 hooks because that's what the HMH tube kit came with. They seem like REALLY heavy wire hooks. What's a good lighter wire short hook to use with tube flies?