Thanks Albie, Kayak Carl has grown in popularity, and it's easy to see why. He puts a lot of thought into the tubes he makes and how they will present in the water.

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Some people sent me some PMs and e-mails asking about the T&W. I'll preface this by saying there are quite a few guys out there who are amazingly talented at this. They're certifiable maniacs when it comes to T&W fishing. That probably happens once you start to use this and see how it produces. It's addictive as hell.

Others out there have a lot more experience doing this. To some of them, as mentioned, I have a deep gratitude for their generosity and patience in showing me.

I'll try to list here some of the things that have worked for me.....

Remember the techniques I describe below are best suited to trolling shallow areas with structure. If you want to try other areas, such as bridges, etc, you'll have to decide how to modify the techniques accordingly.






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Tube and Worm techniques for shallow water with structure:

1. Depth: I'm fishing 5-15' of water, any deeper and it seems they won't hit. (That could have a lot to do with the weight, as mentioned in point #2) This T&W advice is tailored to fishing rocky shoreline and shallow flats with rocky areas.

2. Weight: Weight is anywhere from 3/4 - 1 oz, depending on the tide and area. This is an important factor. You want to be touching bottom at times without hitting it constantly and picking up a lot of weeds. One thing I learned is you have to be flexible enough to know when to change the weight at the different tide stages. If you're fishing low tide, you need to adjust, but you still need to troll structure and rocky shoreline, or points off those areas.


Variations: You would have to adapt differently in deeper water or when fishing different structure like bridges. For example, when fishing bridge areas, you might need 1-3oz in weight to get you down where the bass are holding. This would all depend on stage of tide, moon phase (which determines curent flow and strength), and where the fish are feeding on that particular night.


As for weights, some who have a better handle on it than me fit the weight right in the top body of the tube. This allows the T&W to move more naturally under water and makes it less susceptible to snagging.

If you don't want to do that, I would recommend you place a very short length of 100# leader right before the top swivel, and tie your egg sinker into that 4" length so it's as close to the swivel as possible.

Pics of the ones I use are in this thread:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...?t=6408&page=5

3. Sandworms: if you think of a T&W as a "sandworm delivery system" you're already thinking better than most anglers. The tube and the action is what brings the fish in, the blood from the sandworm is what seals the deal and provokes the aggressive strikes.

Some people recommend a whole sandworm. I'm on a budget and can't afford to burn through 12 dozen each time out there. Also, bait stealers like porgies will peck at your offering without getting hooked when you have worm pieces dangling everywhere. I use a 1-2" piece, only enough to get the blood scent in the water, and change frequently. If you go 5-10 minutes without a hit, you're doing something wrong trolling, or you need to swap for a fresh worm piece. I generally get 3 baits out of each sandworm.

4. Tube size: different people have different theories on this. What has worked for me is 15-23". A good friend made me up some with #5 circle hooks. The hookup rate with these is great as they are all hooked in the mouth corners.

5. Colors: black and red are great colors. Others have done well using bubblegum color in murky or deeper water. I'm still experimenting and will be trying some smaller ones in bright primary colors with smaller hooks, for porgies.

The problem with smaller tubes is figuring the weight and kayak trolling speed combinations needed to keep them consistently near the bottom. The fish are always there when there is bait around. If you don't keep in contact with the bottom, you would never know that.

6. Trolling speed: Many recommend about 1mph. I don't have electronics right now, so my speed estimates are subjective. I try to keep in contact with the bottom. If the wind or current is pushing me faster than that, I have found it better to troll against either of those so I can better control the speed. In fact, when I really started paying attention to that and the presentation, I started catching more fish.

7. Presentation: A key mistake I made when I first started this was I didn't have the horizontal rod holders. You can get these "Scotty-type" at many kayak shops, or Cabelas. These allow your rod to be used like they do on the boats, with the T&W moving along the structure in a relatively smooth parallel action. Having the rods placed vertically hurts your hookup chances because the T&W will dance up and down too much, and the fish will miss it.

I compensate for this lack of proper holders by holding both rods tightly in a vice-like grip in my hands as I pedal along, kind of like Yosemite Sam. The rods are held at a right angle to the kayak and in a perfect horizontal direction from the water. I'll have the holders soon. In the meantime, the hits that come while you're holding the rods like this are like a jolt of lightning, and very addictive.