Targeting Striped Bass With The Tube And Worm

"Fish on!" I remember screaming in the cabin at my still sleeping Dad. We had been trolling for just a few minutes and we already had a hook up-which was a great start.

I was still learning how to catch striped bass and this was the first time we had experimented with trolling obnoxiously large tube and worm rigs-36 inches in length and longer. I had doubted their effectiveness because of their sheer size, but had heard rumors and seen pictures depicting big striped bass eating big tubes. However the striper I had hooked did not feel so enormous.

"Are you sure you have a striper on?" asked my father. "There is barely any bend in that pole."

My dad spoke the truth. My heavy duty boat fishing rod and 45 pound lead core was not being tested by this striped bass. Within about a minute I had the leader at the rod tip. My father and I looked in the water, half heartedly expecting to see a fouled tube and worm or a piece of kelp. I reeled the tube up and flicked it into the boat.

"You have got to be kidding me," I said to myself as I looked down at the deck. Flopping around wildly was a striped bass no more than 18 inches in length. Apparently I had successfully learned how to catch striped bass with tube and worm rigs-however this striper was micro-size.

"How in the world did that little guy expect to swallow a tube and worm nearly twice his size?" asked my father. My only response at the time was-"I have no idea."

It was my first tube and worm striper fishing experience and I still had a long ways to go as far as learning how to catch striped bass. Back then I really had no idea why a bass that small would ever attack a tube and worm twice its size. I have never heard of an 18 inch schoolie striper being caught on a foot long bunker spoon. Why then is it so common to catch micro size striped bass on macro size tube and worm rigs?

I believe this fact serves as more evidence that striped bass think tubes are either milky ribbon worms or large sandworms. Because these worms are very fragile creatures, even the largest worms will break apart easily when attacked by a fish. A small striper would have no problem nipping off a piece of a four foot long worm. The front end of the milky ribbon worm is firm and tough. The rest of the worm is very soft.

So it would make sense for striped bass to target the tail end of a milky ribbon worm. The same theory holds for sandworms-nipping at a huge sandworm is like taking little bites of a Fenway Park size hot dog. An inexperienced tube and worm fishermen who is in the midst of learning how to catch striped bass may think it would be necessary to include multiple hooks down the length of a tube in order to hook an interested fish. However, the bass' natural instinct to nip at the tail end of a large worm make successfully hooking a striper on a tube with only one tail hook possible."

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