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.