I spent a lot of time last week staring at my sonar screen. Even while adjusting lines and rigging gear, that sonar screen was kept firmly in the edge of my peripheral vision. Occasionally I would get a glance of what could be a mark, my head would jolt around and I'd leap forward to get a closer look at the machine. It's no mystery why my neck is slightly sore.
I find it amazing how so many of us striper addicts have no trouble whatsoever devoting 4, 8 or 10 or more hours with our eyes fixated on a small electronic box, waiting for some pixelated arches, or a red blob to scroll across the screen, indicative of a school of striped bass. In what other aspect of your life can you demonstrate such patience?
Maybe you spent this past week vertical jigging like it was going out of style. Odds are your wrist and shoulder are feeling a bit tender, due to the entire day you spent wiggling a 6 or 7 foot long graphite stick. Or perhaps your forearm is burning after a full day of snapping 100 yards of wire along the bottom, the entire time eagerly anticipating a jolt from the other end of the line, which meant you finally fooled one of Cape Cod's often mind-numbing finicky stripers.
However you spent your week fishing on Cape Cod, one thing is for sure. Most of the schools of bass out there are on the finicky side, which means you must demonstrate extreme patience if you want to catch them.
How to Tube & Worm Cape Cod's Finicky Striped Bass
This past week while fishing on Cape Cod we managed to scrounge up some awfully nice fish by trolling the tube and worm. Sure it's not as much fun as slaying fish on top water plugs, but during this time of the year you take what the fish give you. Difficult to fool fish that refuse to bite are the name of the game during early August.
My friend Brian and I found this out the hard way when we encountered schools of blitzing stripers last week. Initially we became excited upon seeing the fish crushing bait on the surface, figuring they would be easy to fool with plugs and lures. Yet a few well placed casts right into the maelstrom, that produced not even a sniff of interest from the bass, left us scratching our heads wondering what in the world was going on.
In moments like these the tubes go into the water, and low and behold within 5-10 minutes the starboard side rod bent over and a few colors of leadcore were stripped from the reel, under the strain of a nice 20 something pound striper. Clearly the fish wanted nothing to do with our plug selection, however they had no trouble whatsoever slurping down a nicely presented tube and worm.
Tube and Worming 101
In this week's podcast I will touch upon some of the most helpful tips I can think of to help you put a nice striper in the boat this week using the tube. I'm just going to speak about what has been working well for us over the past 7 days, in hopes that maybe you can utilize one or two tidbits of information in your own Cape Cod striped bass fishing excursions.
To listen to this week's podcast, click on the image below:
In addition to the tips and strategies I mention in the podcast, you may also want to check out these completely free articles and resources on tube and worm trolling for striped bass:
Tube and Worm Trolling for Big Striped Bass
Top 10 Tube and Worm Tips for Monster Bass
What Does a Tube and Worm Imitate?
Tube and Worm Trolling Mistakes We All Have Made
Tube and Worm Advanced Techniques for Big Striped Bass
A Sure Bet for Big Bass in 2013
NEW Members Content
This week we published additional "How-To" tube and worm content for My Fishing Cape Cod members. My goal with these MFCC member videos is pretty simple; to share what has worked for me in hopes of it helping you. We'll cover everything from how to spin up your own lethal weightless tubes, to tube and worm trolling gear and everything in between.
***Please remember that if you have been on the fence about joining MFCC, then now is definitely the time to do it. After much thought I have decided to limit 2013 membership to 500 total members.
More members = more tech support, which for me means more time spent behind the computer and less time on the water.
Placing a cap on membership will help provide me with the time I need to develop new fishing content, and improve the overall MFCC experience.
Click here to grab one of the remaining memberships.
How to Make your Own Lethal Weightless Tubes
Over the years I've purchased many different types of tubes from bait and tackle shops. I have tried weighted tubes, tubes with spinners and odd colored tubes like purple and pink.
Through it all I have always come back to the super simple, homemade, weightless tube. I prefer to make my own tubes for many different reasons, but the overall residing reason is they seem to work better than any tube I have ever purchased. In the below MFCC members video I show you my super simple process for spinning up your own lethal weightless tubes.
If you are a MFCC member, simply click on the video image below to watch. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up by clicking here and then return to this page to view the video:
Tube and Worm Gear
Catching a nice bass on the tube and worm is not as simple as just tossing a tube behind the boat and waiting for a bite. You really need to have the correct gear in order to do it right. There are of course many different setups that work when trolling tubes, but I always prefer to keep things as simple as possible.
In this MFCC members video I share with you one of my most basic setups for tube and worm trolling. I also show you how to rig up your own setup in a way that will help maximize your odds of tube and worm trolling success.
If you are a MFCC member, simply click on the video image below to watch. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up by clicking here and then return to this page to view the video:
Looking Forward
I'm really looking forward to this coming week. It's been just 48 hours on land and I am already chomping at the bit to get back out onto the water.
I hope you have a fun, productive and safe time fishing this week. As always I enjoy hearing how things are going for you, so please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog, or send me an email via [email protected] and let me know how things are going.
Tight lines and take care,
Ryan
