As many of his bed fishing colleagues try to find the best way to jam a 5/0 hook into a 3-inch craw-
fish, Ish Monroe sometimes has the opposite problem — finding a worm hook big enough to fully penetrate the 7-inch tubes that he prefers.
Those tubes, sometimes used for halibut, more closely resemble a portion of a baseball bat than they do the finesse-oriented Gitzits of days gone by. Monroe is a believer, though, as well he should be — a monstrous Tora Tube was a key element in his Elite Series win on Amistad in 2006. A four-day catch of 104-8 should be enough to make anyone buy into the big bait mojo.
“Think about it this way,” he said. “Imagine you’re a parent at a playground watching your kid. If you see other kids get near him, you’re going to pay some attention, but if a giant, grumpy, hairy dude comes around, you’re going to say something or do something immediately. A tiny bait is like those kids. The big tube is that giant dude.”
