This video is from 2020 by the way, you can check Arcasting's video footage to check, I haven't even gotten my boat in the water yet, it's being worked on by Michigan Marine Gear.

Big ol Smallie on Captain Wayne Carpentar's Xtreme Tackle Bass Tube, caught on a post-spawn smallie caught on Sweet Green™

Before I get into talking about Captain Wayne Carpentar's tubes and also other ideas fishing the post spawn during fish fly season, I want to say this is all about team work, supporting one another, helping out the local fishing economy in southeastern Michigan area and helping these small fishing businesses thrive, we're all interlocked and connected. When one fishermen shares a tip or bait on YouTube, another fishermen goes to a local fishing shop like Sportsmens Direct and buys that particular bait, that local family that owns the fishing shop gets a kickbait along with the bait designer which could be someone like Wayne or Jon Bondy. We all know we were hit hard by the 2008 recession, now we're dealing with this Corona Pandemic that has also hit smaller businesses pretty hard. I'm saying this, because there's certain locals in the area that get pissed off when you share a tip, hot spot, secret lure or even bring attention to our beloved Lake St. Clair that that may bring in out-of-staters like this video would. Look, everyone loves fishing for these gorgeous fish that are tremendous fighters, I get it, but there's plenty of water to go around for everyone out on Beautiful Lake St. Clair, so remember it's all about growing the sport and keeping our local fishing economy thriving.

Anyways, getting passed all that, I think Captain Wayne Carpenters bi-laminate and tri-laminate tubes are one of those secret lures that are lot of out-of-staters and locals are still missing out on, even me. Look, we're all set in our own little ways aren't we, when a fishing lure already works, why change? I'm talking about the much popular Strike King Coffe Tube baits, the Chompers Garlic scented Tubes, Berkley Powerbait Tubes, or maybe even the standard tube brait brands without scent like Yum, Zoom, Venom, Gitzit or even another local brand Crunchers. Here's the thing, a lot of these tube baits have your covered with highly advanced scents that are formulated in the lab to attract the pigs when they're most vulnerable during the spring time when they go on a feeding frenzy, but what happens when things get tough post spawn like during fish fly season, when small windows just open up periodically and smallmouth bass are finicky what they feed on. A lot of these tube baits are still missing something and that's where Captain Wayne Carpenter's bi-laminate and tri-laminate tubes step in which offers up to 2-3 advanced colors on one tube bait. He calls this natural forage technology, where you're able to match the hatch and target these stubborn smallies when they have lockjaw during summer months when they're mainly feeding on fish flies. But don't get me wrong, recently Arcasting and I went out, when we're catching these smallmouth bass and bringing them towards the boat, they're still spitting out gobies and crayfish.

What sets Wayne's tubes out from the others, is his tubes are much more detailed in the color schemes, his trilaminate tubes like the St. Clair Goby NFT offers up two three different colors on the tube. Wayne couldn't get into too much detail how he dips them because we all know there's copy cats out there, but if you look closer he dips it from the side, also somewhat internally. Out of the water the tubes look very extraordinary, but I'm telling you, when you actually see these colors underneath the water, when the sunlight reflects and refracks in the water bouncing off the two to three colors including the flakes and glitter, Wayne's custom tube baits become alive. It's really nothing like I've seen before, absolutely amazing. When I get around to it, I plan on doing some comparison underwater videos of the traditional tube baits to Captain Wayne Carpentars custom highly advanced custom tubes.

And look there's times I'm sure certain scented tubes will always outperform advanced colors no matter what, but who's the say you can't take a bottle of Strike King's Coffee Scent or Chompers Garlic G Scent and spray down Wayne's tubes to give them some more attraction power, I haven't doesn't this yet, but I would imagine the combination could be highly effective! There are times where you don't want to have any scent on your tubes at all, believe me, I mean if a smallmouth bass is targeting a certain prey that has a unique scent to it and he sees something that looks like a mayfly, but has a strong garlic scent, that may turn him off. That's why it's always good to have a wide variety of colored and scented tube baits or any type of soft plastic for that matter. I think it's also good to have 2-3, even 4 spinning rods equipped with different color and scented soft plastic baits to help you narrow down what these stubborn smallmouth bass may be feeding on during a particular day, also one hooked up with a drop shot setup with Wayne's 2 3/4" mini tubes, as he talks about in the video profile comes into play on certain days as well. You can also use your own intuition, read articles online about which forage is thriving and which is in decline, study the ecosystem and habitat around you when you're fishing,, see what the smallmouth are spitting up, also just look around on top of the water or drop your GoPro 8 down at your local lake to see what's down there, remind you they're waterproof. I know Wayne said he thinks the Goby population is in bit of a decline now and gizzard shad are kind of thriving more now, I'm not so sure there on decline, because I've dropped my action camera down there and I've seen them everywhere. However, each area of Lake St. Clair may fluctuate, it's a very big lake. Purchasing one of his books like Smallmouth Confidential or No Secrets on Lake St. Clair Volume 4 off Great Lakes Bass.com, going on his blog St. Clair Report is a great way to start thinking outside the box. I mean there's nothing wrong with learning how to fish for these bronzies yourself, I love a good challenge, but just learning a few tactics and tips from Wayne, then applying it to the own tube baits you like will most likely help you out.

Bottom line though, Captain Wayne Carpenter has you covered with whatever forage you're trying to mimic and match-the-hatch with his line of Xtreme Bass Tackle Tubes. He has tube bait colors that will match gobies, fish flies, emerald shiners, crayfish and even perch. Even some pretty wild super bright colored schemes that may work when the water is turned up, like the fire tiger color which just blows me away.

You won't find these two tone and three tone colored tube baits anywhere else online or at any of the franchise brick and mortar stores. This is why it's important to keep our Mom and Pop fishing shops in thriving and also support local bait creators like Wayne that are full of ideas, who are not looking to market gimmicks, but quality custom baits that can actually work, give you that edge when fishing conditions get tough. Remind you Captain Wayne Carpenter has 20 years experience in designing baits and has also guiding on lake st clair for a very long time. I've learned a lot from him in just a short period of time, I hope to communicate with him more and think outside the box, because again, even though you may have a set of fishing lures that already work pretty good, sometimes there's lures, tips, and tactics that may work great, better, and overall make you a better fishermen. And that's the bottom line! No way do I think his natural forage technology is just a gimmick! His tubes work and they not only work great when times are tough like post spawn and fly fly season, but they also hold up better than traditional tube baits. Even even if you start to get a tube that starting to break apart near the eye which is common or get a tear in the body, pickup some of the Mend-It glue and you'll be able to repair his tube baits, extend the life of them tremendously.

Getting to the post spawn and smallmouth bite during fish fly season with Wayne's tubes. Arcasting and I plan on getting out more soon, end of June we was doing pretty good with sweet green on Wayne's tubes which was talked about on his blog St. Clair Report, but once the fish flies had a big hatch early July, that definitely put a hamper on the bite and that color a bit. We plan on getting out and switching between a wide variety of his different colors, see which one's work, see which one's don't. We got out Monday July 6th and the Great Lakes Perch seemed to be the ticket, early morning Arcasting got 3 right off the bat, then the bite went cold soon as temperatures heated late morning and afternoon. We moved around a lot, went to deeper colder water, even towards the colder water at the mouth of the Detroit River. Sometimes conditions are so bad just make it impossible for a good outing, but study the habitat around you, do some sight fishing. We saw smallmouth surfacing in 15 feet of water between the Grosse Pointe Farms pier and the freighter channel, I think that's somewhat near the dumping grounds. So what were they feeding on? Of course Fish Flies/May Flies, so it may be a great idea to even throw a weightless tube and let it sit on top for awhile slowly sink, then twitch it every so often.

When working the Xtreme Bass Tackle Tubes, for the most part, when we've been catching smallmouth bass on Wayne's tubes, we've been casting them out, letting them sit on the bottom. I've gotten a lot of smallmouth bass hitting them right after freefall and letting them sit after the cast for 10-15 seconds, but a lot of our smallies were hitting when we were dragging them along a rocky structure along the bottom near the mouth of the Detroit River. On a 7-8 mild windy day, we were letting the wind do all the work mostly, but sometimes move it a little, bring the rod tip up, moving hear and there, not much though. On other days like the morning, when it's dead calm out, even though you can still drag it a little wind, you have to let it sit, you have to raise your rod a little more frequently so often, but Arcasting still got three smallmouth bass very quickly on mostly letting it sit. I think it might be worth a try to use your trolling motor at a 1-2 speed to drag the tubes along rocky bottom on a super calm glass morning.

Arcasting is itching to get a new PB, so it may be a great idea to maybe head over to the channel and throw one of his 5" tubes on a 5/0 Crunchers jig head, try working 15 to 20 to 25 deep water. I was throwing a Strike King 10XD over there for musky one year, got like a 5 pound smallmouth bass. Overall, I think you'll lose consistency throwing bigger lures like a 5" tube, but you may hook into a monster pig, crush your PB, maybe even set a new Lake Record who knows...

Captain Wayne Carpenter definitely thinks outside the box, love is natural forage technology idea, but it would maybe even try a hard bait like a zara spook or jitterbut now after this big hatching, Arcasting and I buzzed by Fords Cove area and saw bass fishermen walking the dog, hint hint. Also a bubble and a fly setup which no one ever uses anymore, is also a likely alternative. If you seen my recent video at Kent Lake, I got a largemouth bass near 4 pounds on that setup, it can't hurt trying something like this when we all know fishing gets kind of tough during this time of year. I say, never give up, think outside the box.

I think a lot of bass fishermen have forgotten all about the bubble and a fly, I plan on getting out soon to try this setup for smallmouth and largemouth bass out on Lake St. Clair. I mean this is really where you can match the hatch perfectly with a realistic looking mayfly, actually tie a artificial you can buy from Bass Pro or a local Mom & Pop Fishing Shop, then use an A-Just-A-Bubble to cast it out, not having to go to something like a real authentic fly fishing rod, which has kind of a steep learning curve.

Ya know I've heard Spy Baits work really great during fish fly season, even a ned rig. Seems like lures where you really slow down the pace and have a realistic action to them when you just let them stand still or reel very slowly, let the waves and motion of the water work these baits, both the spy bait and ned rig do this when they stand still, again so does a drop shot rig and wacky rig. Looking at these two videos here, underwater the spy bait's props turn giving off a vibration that drives the smallmouth nuts, then the ned rig naturally waves back and forth sitting straight up from the bottom on the mushroom head.

If you have any other lure to try out during Fish Fly Season, have some tips, be sure to join the Michigan Fishing Forum and share down below.