Tube Flies Revisited

Tube flies are flies tied on a plastic or metal tube rather than on a hook. Our leader is passed through the tube and then tied to a short hook. The hook is then joined to the tube fly by a flexible plastic sleeve. Because hooks are separate, they are interchangeable, making a tube fly system very flexible. Tube flies have become standard offerings for big fish on the other side of the Atlantic simply because they are better. Some advantages are:

Tube flies use short shanked hooks, regardless of tube fly length. We lose many fish on long shanked flies due to their leverage. Tube flies hook more fish while losing fewer.

A tube fly system requires far fewer hooks than a regular fly collection, making hook maintenance and carrying easy. We all know the importance of using sharp, strong hooks. We can use single, double or treble hooks with the same tube. We can select barbed or barbless depending on regulatory requirements. We can vary the size or weight of the hook, and we can substitute stainless steel hooks for saltwater, all with a single tube fly!

Tube flies make sense for fishing Atlantic salmon in the fall, because they allow us to use small barbless hooks with large tube flies, maximizing survival of released salmon.

Because they are separated from hooks, tube flies suffer less from the wear and tear of fishing and last longer.

The Baby Gaspereau is a great fly for sea-run brown trout that are feeding on this beautiful and flashy little silver and emerald green fish. When huge schools of juvenile gaspereau are migrating to the ocean they attract predation from above and below by sea birds and big browns. This creates a unique and highly exciting fishing opportunity, where browns seem to favor these little delicacies to all other available food.

Here are hook and tube versions of the fly:

Baby Gaspereau – Hook Version

Thread:                      Black

Hook:                       Mustad 34011 stainless steel saltwater streamer hook, size 1

Body:                       Silver Diamond Braid (rust & tarnish proof)

Wing:                       8 strands of silver Flashabou,

over which is emerald green bucktail, over which is dark green or black bucktail, over which are 2 grizzly rooster saddle hackles.

Throat Hackle:         Webby fluff from the base of a white rooster hackle

Head:                       Black coated with Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement

Eyes:                       Yellow/black Stick-On Eyes coated with 2 coats Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement or 5 minute epoxy

Baby Gaspereau – Tube Version

Thread:                      Black

Tube:                       Hard plastic tube, 2 inch

Body:                       Silver Diamond Braid (rust & tarnish proof)

Wing:                       8 strands of silver Flashabou,

over which is emerald green bucktail, over which is dark green or black bucktail, over which are 2 grizzly rooster saddle hackles.

Throat Hackle:         Webby fluff from the base of a white rooster hackle

Head:                       Black coated with Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement

Eyes:                       Yellow/black Stick-On Eyes coated with 2 coats Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement or 5 minute epoxy

Hook Sleeve:            Flexible plastic

Hook:                          Super sharp, short-shanked single, double, or treble hook

Please stay on the line …