Fishing with tubes
Sea Wassp, tubes are a great choice for Stripers. I prefer to use a wire line set up when running my tubes. I find the wire cuts through the water better than lead core and gets me to the depths I want quicker than monofilament. The other great thing about fishing with wire line is that you feel every pound of that fish when you are reelin em' in, there is absolutely no stretch to it. You really need to experiment with the tubes to find which ones are working best. I keep an assortment of black, purple and red tubes in the box. They vary in length from 24" to 36", some are weighted and some are not, and also range from .5" to 1" O.D. I use varying lengths and tests of monofilament leaders, I vary it depending on where I am fishing. The monofilament leader will range from 30 lb. test for relatively sandy bottom to some beefy 50 lb. test for the rocks. I attach all leaders to the wire line using a 30 lb. barrel swivel and vary the length from 4'-15'. Again, this is where the experimenting comes into play, you really need to vary it up to find the combo that works. As a rule of thumb, when I use a long leader, generally greater than 8', I will use a tube that is weighted.
As an example, this past Saturday I was trolling an area that ranged from 14'-20', relatively sandy bottom, and was concentrating on a 9' hump where I had some previous luck. I like trolling the tubes slow, any where from 1.6 to 2.0 knots in low wind conditions. I also continuously reel in/out to adjust for depth variations. For this area, I was using 6' of 30 lb. mono and a 24", purple, unweighted tube. I would let out the wire until the 100' mark hit my rod tip in the 20' deep areas and bring it in to around to 60'-75' in the shallows. You want to try to keep it as close to the sea floor without hanging up on the rocks or picking up cabbage.
I prefer to use sand worms on my tubes. We have experimented with eel chunks, power worms, pork rinds and squid; however, in my opinion, nothing can compete with the worms.
In addition to the tubes, you may also want to try an umbrella rig or bucktail jig. For the umbrellas, i have both eel and shad set ups with varying colors. Again experimenting is the only way to find which one is appetizing for the day. On 7/7, I was trolling Elbow Ledge, off the coast of Newport, RI, we began using tubes but only produced one fish after numerous passes. We then switched to the umbrella rigs, first starting with the eels which did not produce anything. We then switched to the shad set up and we kept ourselves busy for the rest of the tide, even producing one double. It all depends on what the Stripers are in the mood for. As for jigging, I prefer to use a 3 oz., white, Smiling Bill bucktail jig with red Uncle Josh's pork rind attached. I use the same set up and methods as tubing but vary the rhythm and length of the jigging until I find a combination that works.
Hope I could help, Best of luck.