I never paid much attention to gitzits until Tuesday, but now I see why smallmouth bass enthusiasts like them so much.
A "gitzit," or tube bait, is a hollow plastic tube with a solid head and multiple tentacles dangling from the rear. It does not resemble any natural prey item, but smallmouth bass anglers swear by it.
I first saw it in action in 1995 on the New River in West Virginia, which I floated with Miss Laura and a group of writers who were covering the Red Man All-American on the Ohio River. I was big into spider grubs at that time, but they didn't impress those New River smallies. The only person who caught fish was the late Howard Bach, a writer and mentor from Pennsylvania. He used gitzits.
Gitzits were never as popular among smallmouth anglers in Arkansas as spider grubs and twister tail grubs. In recent years they've been further overshadowed by tiny lizards and tiny Brush Hawgs. I've tried gitzits here and there, but I never had success with them.
Nevertheless, I have a great big bag of unbranded gitzits that I bought more than 10 years ago from a bargain bin. I got darn near a lifetime supply for $2. They're a two-tone pumpkin/watermelon color with green flake. After all these years they are still supple and still encrusted in a pinkish salt. It looks like the Himalayan rock salt that Miss Laura loves so much.
Locavores know that smallmouths have more highly developed palates than lesser fish, so maybe, just maybe, these gourmet gitzits might ring their dinner bell.
Another thing I didn't like about gitzits is that they were a hassle to rig properly. The easiest ways to fish them is on Texas or Carolina rigs, but their exposed weights snag in rocks. Hooks with weights molded onto the shafts conceal the weight inside the tube, but they are awkward to rig and they deaden the gitzit's presentation.
Recently I found a practical alternative, the Lindy E-Z Tube Weight. It is a miniature metal version of the gitzit, a tube that's closed at one end and open at the other. It also has an opening on the side at the open end.
Insert the open end toward the head of the gitzit. Pierce the tube with the hook point as you normally would. Thread the point through the open end of the weight and cant it downward through the second opening on the bottom. Your hook anchors the weight inside the tube. Work the hook through the tube as normal, with the point nestled atop the back.
This setup makes the tube virtually snagless. Without a weight pushing down on the head, as with a Texas rig, and without a molded weight bulging against the inside wall of the tube, it gives the gitzit a lithe, snappy action.
I made a lightning strike Tuesday to the Kings River in Carroll County, where I rented a canoe for a five-mile float through the Trigger Gap area. The water was very low, and the fishing was very slow. Smallmouths ignored my usual array of stuff in the few places I found decent cover.
The only conspicuous habitat was under fallen logs and big rocks in deep pools, which are increasingly less common in the Kings and almost every other Ozark stream.
Finally I relented and tied on a gitzit. I flipped it on the dry top of a fallen tree and let it fall down the side. The current swept it under the tree, and I felt a savage strike. It was a worthy fish, a broad-shoulder 16-inch smallmouth.
The next strike came from a deep washout behind a boulder, but my line broke on the hookset. That was a big fish, and I was disappointed. I was appalled when it happened again.
I cut a four-foot section of Fireline braid from a backup rig and fused it with an Alberto knot to the monofilament on my Lew's/Falcon Lowrider baitcast combo.
The last strike of the day came within sight of my truck. I cast to a small point of water willow and let the tube sit. A 14-inch smallmouth crushed it. The braid made for a quick and solid hookset, with no hint of stretch.
It made me wish for another mile, but solving that puzzle ended my day on a sweet note.
Sports on 09/06/2015