Ned rig fun

[frugalangler]

Had a buddy call me late last Friday evening, suggested we head out to one of our near by lakes Saturday morning and do some fun fishing. How can I resist?

Hit the water a bit (30 minutes) before dawn but plenty of light to get to our first spot. He's never fished the Ned before, and wanted to learn, but was sure there would be a top water bite so that's what he started with. I started with the Ned.

Second cast of mine landed a feisty 12" smallie, and he just shook his head as he twitched his popper again. Said, how can you even see to cast that thing let alone catch a fish that quick?

He persisted thru about 6 other baits for 30 minutes more to no avail, they just were'nt having anything to do with his baits. I persisted with the Ned for about 6 more lively smallies!

Ok, he finally picked up a Ned outfit and first cast landed his first Ned fish.

By the end of the day (about 11 AM) it was stinking hot and he needed to get home anyway, so we quit with a total of about (exactly) 70 smallies between the 2 of us. Not all keeper size, biggest ran 18", but for a fun day with a good friend, I'm grateful.

[Eric Low]

Going to try it out tomorrow for the first time. A bunch of us are taking servicemen and women out on Great Pond for a Tribute to Service event. Rigged tubes, senkos and pop rs for my anglers but I will mess with the Ned rig on 7' 3" 2 power rod 6lb floro 1/15 oz for the little fishing that I will do. It is all about them but a chance for me to experiment a bit to be sure that we are on fish. Should not be a problem for me on Great Pond.

[Curt]

Going to try it out tomorrow for the first time. A bunch of us are taking servicemen and women out on Great Pond for a Tribute to Service event. Rigged tubes, senkos and pop rs for my anglers but I will mess with the Ned rig on 7' 3" 2 power rod 6lb floro 1/15 oz for the little fishing that I will do. It is all about them but a chance for me to experiment a bit to be sure that we are on fish. Should not be a problem for me on Great Pond.

Sounds like fun. Be sure to let us know how it goes 

[Curt]

@frugalangler Must have been a blast to catch that many smallies!

Question: Did that lake have any weeds on the bottom or was it clean, hard bottom?

[frugalangler]

Question: Did that lake have any weeds on the bottom or was it clean, hard bottom?

Most of the lakes in my area are reservoirs and the terrain is fairly rocky - this lake is just near the edge of the flint hills, so has a fair amount of rock. There are a few in the area that are in farm land areas and they have a significant grass.

So, the Ned is a great choice for obvious reasons - it works the bottom in these lakes well. As I believe I'd posted previously, the Ned originated in this area - popularized by Ned Kehde, but was used in general by the likes of Harold Ensley, Virgil Ward, Chuck Woods, Bob Carnes, and many other legends of early.

Another thing in my area that I've found is a contributing attribute of the success of the Ned - our lakes are becoming infested with Zebra muscles, and I frequently find a small one skewered on the point of my hook, and Sunday I even had one clamp onto the line about 3 inches above my lure, something I'd not encountered before. What I believe is happening is the lure bounces off of a muscle bed, the noise attracts fish in the area, and they come investigate. I've found better success when in areas where the muscles are prevalent, as I believe the fish feed on the muscles, and take the Ned because it's there and a bigger piece of food than a small muscle.

Also, of interest, if you listen to Ned Kehde speak of the technique - he frequently speaks more of finesse fishing than Ned rig fishing - and what I believe is that it's NOT the bait that is the magic, it's the technique - generally very small light baits fished on very light line and rods presented very slow and methodically - I've used a multitude of jig heads and also baits and have absolutely found this to be the case - it is not necessary to have the 'Ned Rig jig head' or the classicly advertised Ned Rig bait (Z-Man TRD). Change your mindset about fishing and adopt finesse and you WILL catch many more fish. Now, if there is a downside, you WILL have to weed thru the smaller fish to get a bigger one, but the likely hood of getting the bigger one is much greater with finesse especially in tough conditions like post front blue sky days.

[JackJ]

Are you guys just using this Ned Rig in place of a shakey head?  Or in conjunction with it?  Or in your area do you not normally do shakey head style fishing?  That is predominately what we do around here.

Shakey head style is what I won last Saturdays tournament on, and had two fish over 3 lbs.

[frugalangler]

Yes, we also use shaky heads but I personally have found they are a little different presentation - they don't swim as well as the Ned, but yes they (shaky heads) also catch fish. I personally have seen much larger numbers on the Ned, and since we know big fish will eat them (recent Big Bass in our tournaments on Neds) I have gravitated to it and it's much more economical for me as well.

[Curt]

Change your mindset about fishing and adopt finesse and you WILL catch many more fish. Now, if there is a downside, you WILL have to weed thru the smaller fish to get a bigger one, but the likely hood of getting the bigger one is much greater with finesse especially in tough conditions like post front blue sky days.

No doubt about this at all 

Over the years, the 4 inch Slider worm (by Charlie Brewer) has fooled bass up to 6 lbs. for me on many, many occasions, when other baits wouldn't even get looked at.

As I was going over this past Saturday's tournament in my head on Sunday, I realized that I should have scaled down and tried the SLider worm or even a 3 inch stick worm, either Texas rigged or on a Ned Rig style head. I probably would have gotten bit several more times during the day and won the tourney, since I already had a spot or two that I know was holding fish.

Oh well... live and learn 

Thanks @frugalangler for the info 

[JackJ]

Being a predominately spotted bass fisherman, 90% of my fishing is finesse.    I normally use a Big Bite Baits 1/8 oz Fin Twist Jighead and a Big Bite Finesse Worm.