Its all about the tube

I'm always on the look out for new tube products and I recently managed to get my hands on a small set of the new "TubeWorx" tube system from Toby Merigan at Funky Fly Tying. Over the last 6 yrs I've seen the benefits of fishing for pike with tube fies......There are are a number of top pike fly fisherman here in Scandinavia that solely fish with this kind of system.......the greatest exponant that comes to mind is Niklaus Bauer from Sweden. Even talking with Johan (aka - DJUZA) who writes "The Piketeaser blog" last night on skype, he stated that he will only fish solely with tubes this season.

So what do I look for in a tube system....well I like to keep my fishing simple and for anyone looking to start tying some tube flies, this Tubeworx tube system doesn't come any simpler. Outer plastic Tubes come in either clear, solid plain coloured and fluoro in 3mm diameter/200mm lengths which is all you need. coupled with that you get the 1,8mm inner tubes also in clear, coloured & fluoro that slide inside the outer tubes allowing you to slide your cone down over if your looking to add a bit of weight to the front of the fly. I got a packet of 3mm clear tubing and a packet of multi coloured tubing to try out. What I like about this system is you can use clear outer tubes and still add colour to it by using the 1.8mm solid coloured or fluoro inner tubes.

Tubes come in a vast range of solid colours as well as glow in the dark fluoro, which interests me a lot cause I've been fishing here at night on a number of occassions with fluoro glo in the dark materials....and well lets just say that pike certainly aren't shy of a bit of bling in the dark!

Cones are simple to use and also come in a multitude of different colours....nuff said really!

Metal tubes come in either Brass or Tungsten (would like to see alluminium added to that list) and range in a multitude of colours as well as sizes between 6mm, 10mm, 13mm, 15mm, 20mm. My one gripe with this set is that it lacks hook retaining tubes of any size. To be fair though most tube systems these days................and I'm trying and testing a number of them at the mo..... all seem to forget that us pike fly fisherman, use much bigger hooks which have over sized eyes that
need much larger softer hook retaining tubes to slide the hook into the back of the tube fly...Textbook error in my eyes! Anyway I've since spoken with Toby and this problem is getting rectified. I've used this system for my two tube baitfish patterns for the Fantasy pike fly challenge and will do a small tutorial using this tubeworx system in the next couple of weeks. Overall probably one of the easiest and cheapest tube systems around that has a lot of really cool features thrown in. Get hold of Toby at "Funky fly tying" for any enquiries!

Tube fly combination tails

Heres a cool concept for all you guys that like to fish with tubes for Pike. I was sent these a few weeks back by Fabrice Boucher that have interchangable tails or heads depending on the colour combination you want to fish with. The tail end where the hook slides in gets pushed into the main body tube which allows for easier splitting of the fly once you've hooked a pike. Not only that but one can make the tails however long you want to as well. These flies are super light to cast & are a combination of synthetics and fur (craft and icelandic sheep hair)


Thanks for these Fabrice,I'll give them a good run in the spring mate.

Pete Gary's dual tube 2

I've been slacking on the tube fly front so far this winter. will have to get my finger out my arse soon as the days are getting longer and spring is just around the corner........only three & a half months to go! *****

Tubefly tube to hook construction

I have had several people get hold of me over the last couple of weeks with regards to the construction of my tube fles and how do I attach the hook on to the tube. Well I use Eumer tubes but any tubes will suffice if they slot into each other.Here Ihave the large tube at the bottom,the XL Tube in the middle & the XXL tube at the top.

I start by placing the large tube onto my tube tying needle and start wrapping my thread directly at the back of the tube. Most times one would start wrapping his cotton further along the tube purely because this is where you would be sliding in your hook from but as pike hooks have much larger eyes and wouldn't fit inside this tube,one needs to construct it and having a base of cotton at the back one can super glue the next section of tube on which will stay tight.

Imagine now I have finished the fly itself and I'm now going to make the hook system for the back.I cut a small piece of the XL Tube 6mm long.Superglue the cotton and then slide the XL Tube over the large tube

Like so
I then place a blob of superglue over the XL tube & slide the XXL Tube over that.

Like so. Then cut to the desired length. The XXL tube is a soft tube which I like to have around 10mm long

Slide your wire leader (I use LOOP Pike wire) through the front of the tube out the back.Tie onto your hook and slide the hook into the tube. Although the XXL Tube is soft it just holds the hook in place but is soft enough to allow the hook to be pulled out of the tube, thus allowing the fly to move freely away from the pikes mouth up your leader. Once you start using pike flies this way you'll truly see the benefit of how practical it is.Not only will your flies last a hell of a lot longer but one only needs to replace the hook once its either damaged,blunt or rusty.