I just got home from a 7 day trip to Pomme de Terre lake.  I fished every morning while I was there.  The first day the bass hit spinnerbaits, crank baits, and buzz baits pretty well.

After day one they wouldn't look at those baits and wanted plastic.  Tubes, lizzards, and brush hogs worked for a day or so.

Each day the fish moved deeper and deeper.  They wound up being between 27 and 30' deep.  We wound up catching 139 black bass with about 1/3 of them being keepers.  However, we never had any good fish on the entire time.  I talked to a couple of different T fishermen and they were being won with a bare keeper limit and 1 (3-4#) kicker.  Since I am not a T fisherman any more and never was very good, I guess it wasn't so bad of a week.

OK here is the something I need explained by all you pros.  During this whole week I never boated a single jig fish.  I tried weights from 1/4 to 1 oz with various heads and skirt components and a bunch of colors.

What I need help understanding is why they would hit this melon pepper tube and not the melon pepper jig.  I fished them both on a bank where there were feeding fish.  I caught fish on the tube before I threw the jig and on the tube after I threw the jig.  I ran the bank 3 times with the jig being on the second run.

Must have been that bright colored weedguard  .

Couldn't tell ya. slimmer profile maybe, size of the actual craws.

Heck I don't think I caught 139 bass all year 

Tube looks and acts more like a bait fish, and they have switched to a shad diet. 

The craw trailer is only one of many that I used last week.  I couldn't get fish to take any jig with any kind of trailer. 

I did get them to take a tube that is half again the size of the one in the pic and it was a black neon.   

The reason I fished that jig with the craw is that my wife's best friend's husband fished with me Mon am and he caught fish on a nasty looking tube similar to the Lake Fork Craw tube, that had craw pincers attached to it.  So I thought the jig/craw might work but it too failed.

Steve, yes I always fish that kind of weedguard with the heavy hook jigs.  I never cut it or thin it.  I do sometimes flare it for a slower fall and more snag protection.

Let me explain; I don’t have the foggyest……..
I’m one of those guys that thinks that if they are not hitting the jig there is no sense in throwing any “bottom hugging” bait. Obviously I’m wrong! I applaud your thought processes.
My jig bite has totally gone away. The last few (and they have been very few) trips I have made I have not caught one jig fish. When Greg and I went we had three quick jig bites; I missed two and he landed his. Four hours later we had not had another bite. I can honestly say that I don’t understand!

I agree with Jack.

You'd have to ask a bass to know for sure.  I've experienced similar things though.  I fished a tourney once where my partner was catching them good on a green spider grub while I could not get bit throwing a green jig or even a green tube!! 
Obviously must be something about how it moves in the water a little differently,.. rather than how it looks!

ps:  The first half of the season, most tourneys here were won that same way,....1 kicker fish along with 4 barely legal ones!

What size line were you throwing the tube on??   I think it's mostly the difference in the size of the two baits. Laying on the deck of the boat they look close to the same size, but under the water, when the skirt on that jig flares out, they are FAR from the same profile. That lake is so full of shad that are the same size as that tube that I think the fish really get keyed in on eating smaller baits.

You see this often in the fall with a square bill crankbait. There are alot of days you can throw something like a LC 2.5 and not get many bites and switch to something like a small Bandit crankbait and catch one after another.