dart head vs tube

[Team ngc]

I wanna know when its better to throw a dart head rather than a tube I catch tons of fish on both and can't decide which is better during times of the year
Thanks
George Corp

[nipples]

Common sense never fails George. When the fish are eating dart heads, its better to throw a dart head. When the fish are eating tubes, it's better to throw a tube. When the fish want a drop shot, give them a drop shot. etc. etc.

It's never "better" to throw one bait versus another based on anything other than what the fish want. It doesn't matter what time of year it is. It doesn't matter what conditions. Listen to the fish. The fish will never lie to you, a fellow angler might.

[Oldschool]

Cap & gown; worm inside the tube and your problem is solved.
Don't trust those bass, if their lips are moving they are lying.
My advice; go with lure that is catching the larger size bass.
Tom

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Easy answer, have them both tied on and use them often..It probably won't take too long to find out which is catching the most or the largest..I am not an Oroville expert by the stetch of anyones imagination, including my own..There have been days when I caught them only on tubes, other days only the darthead, and still others the best bet was a flick-shake..Chances are on any day you can catch them on any of the above, trying to figure out what is best when can be nothing but fishing fun..

mac

[FinesseKid]

Given the goofy responses posted I bet you are frustrated. I think I understand your question and I think I can give you a respectful answer.

Although what others are saying is right in the simplest terms, My guess is you dont want to have a tube and a darter head tied on all the time taking up two rods on deck. Heres my advice:

Throw a darter head when YOU want to put action on the bait. This goes for the fall and retrieve as well.

Throw a tube when you want a natural falling motion. 90% of my tube bites occur on the fall. In fact I even prefer to texas rig a tube. When the weight slides down the line and then slowly pulls the tube down it falls with a perfectly natural motion. If I dont get bit on the fall I can work the bottom like a texas rig worm.

I hope this helps a bit.

Jason

[Kevin Evans - Kap]

You have to throw em and let the fish tell you what they want that day, maybe both baits even. This time of the year I think the biggest fault folks have is fishing em way to fast.
A tube is always tied on and ready to go in my boat, a dart head as well this time of the year on our Motherload, Gold country lakes. Change up your weight sizes to increase or decrease your baits fall fate.

my 02 cents,
Kap

[Oldschool]

Try drop shotting the tube.
What may seem as a goofy response may appeal to bass that have been conditioned to traditional presentations.
Catching small bass indicates that you are presenting a lure to the most aggressive and less experienced bass and you need to change what you are using and location.
Tom

[milehi]

A tube is amost as good as it gets (jig #1) for shallow, cold water fish, late winter thru the spring.

[ash]

my .02 funny I was going to say on structure lakes a dart head when the fish are suspended or you are fishing more vertically and a tube for a horizontal presentation. Each one has a benefit there is something about that lil worm that can entice fish to bite, but most of my darthead fish come on a lift and fall.

The tube for me is a Finess presentation for when my jig bite tapers off, so for me I go to the tube when my jig bite doesnt get going or drops away - sometimes this can get fish in the boat. When fishing bait imitations I like the tube as I can go heavy and still have a compact bait with the hidden weight.

When flippin its kinda the same deal for me the tube is a follow up bait or a flip bait for me when the fish stop responding to the more agressive moving baits.

[dockboy]

Darters do well on the fall for me, shake on a semi slack line and let them hit bottom, pick up and repeat. Lose a lot of them that way too, but it works. Fishing suspended fishing works well to. Horizontally, a shakey head and tube are good searching bets. A split shot is really effective for searching out fish too, much more effective horizontally than a drop shot for covering water. The tube and worm oldschool had mentioned could be effective. Trout fisherman use the same setup to catch wild trout, why not bass? If it boiled down to realistic imitations, why does a Fat Ika or Brush Hog catch so many fish when they look nothing like standard bass food

[Cooch]

George,

As I read your question, I ask myself, is he referring to using a darter head with a Tube Vs a Texas rigged Tube? Or are you actually referring to a darter head with some other form of plastic like a worm, grub or other plastic, Vs a tube on a darter head?

First, for me, under most conditions, I use a darter head with any plastic, for suspended or open water fishing. I'll use the Texas rigged set up, when my bait needs to be on the bottom or I'm pitching and flippen heavy cover. There will be times though, where depending on the conditions and fish activity, you can do either or, and one style may fit the situation better than the other. For example, if yer fishing standing timber or Willow trees fer spots, that un-exposed hook of the T-rig, will certainly fish through the cover of the branches a lot better. But if the fish are biting real finicky like, maybe the exposed hook of the dart head rig will git ya more hook ups. This will certainly warrent the trade off of more lost darter heads hangin up on the branches vs the T-rig which will not hang up so much.

You might also find a simular situation with bottom bouncing. If your using the T-rig, especially if ya got a hard bottom with no cover, if the fish seem to be short striking and not taking the bait, just slapping at it, the exposed hook of the darter head might resolve that for you and better suit the conditions. I could sit here and describes for hours various situations you could run accross. There are no rules. There is no written in stone, Best time, best bait or best technique. We only have our experiences to rely on.

It really all comes down to you making the decission, which bait and tactic is working for you, at that moment for the conditions you are presented with. The more confidence you have in a given bait, the more fish yer gonna catch. The key for you is ta git out of that confidence box, when they are not biting the bait ya choose ta show em, that my friend, is a trial and error process, one that we ALL go thru every day!

[Oldschool]

Garry Garland sent me prototypes of his Gitzits in plain smoke color back in the late 70's. Dick Trask was perfecting dart heads and round split shot presentations a few years later. It's been over 30 years that these presentations became a staple for the weekend bass tournament anglers. The amount tournaments or money that have been won on darts, tubes and split shot is staggering.
Tinkering with tubes is easy and most skilled anglers have tried lots of combinations from inserting worms, scented foam pieces and narrow structure spoons. Tubes went from Garlands original Gitzit to giant Tora tubes and traveled across the country to the east coast, great lakes and Mexico.
You couldn't design a better jig to wedge into rocky cravices than a dart head, it should be moving, not dead sticked. If you like to work the bottom zone consider a (Brewer) slider jig, great jig for finesse presentations and still wins a lot of weekend money.
Tom
PS; Lower Otay's lake record 18.75 lb bass was caught on a Charlie Brewer slider jig w/ 4" worm, as I recall