Team9nine

And that is probably the safest bet. "Ned Rig" is an ambiguous and ever changing term. It has been captured by Zman and the masses, and is constantly evolving. Even Ned himself has no control over the term. It has been interesting (and sad) watching the whole thing play out. Fortunately, there is a Ned system It is called "Midwest Finesse," and it has more defined boundaries. The media hasn't been able to screw that one up yet, and probably won't. It is where Ned himself lives and plays, along with the rest of us 'originalists.'

My first guess is just the opposite. There appears to be no shortage of small fish prey in this lake, mostly baby bluegills, and eliminating most of the shoreline moss is making it easier on the bass to feed - much less places to hide for the little guys. My main concerns are oxygen levels and copper poisoning, but so far no obvious detrimental affects other than the toilet blue water color

They've been treating the heck out of the small lakes I've been fishing trying to knock out the algae. Three weekends in a row, and the water is almost a cobalt blue color. Still finding a few bass willing to eat my finesse baits though.

It might, but it certainly has been weakened. Best to just trash those hooks you've bent and reshaped. It will eventually cost you somewhere down the line if you don't. You can get by just fine with a little heavier rod like a medium, but ideally it will be a little slower action, not a fast or x-fast.

You need to make a trip or two to Cat or Coon. The beauty of crappie is that you can "practice" on several hundred fish on a single weekend. Some waters it might take all year to see those totals of bass. The bite is very similar though. HL is a nice exception for the bass. Ned is the bass substitute to a large degree, along with the dropshot, and you've already mastered the former. The only limiting thing is that you get a lot more "lift" bites (push) with crappie than you will with bass.

Jewel Squirrel Head jig with Zoom finesse worm - 1/8 oz.

I use Zman stuff, plastics and ShroomZ. Don't need their new jigheads though because I fish all lightweight stuff on finesse outfits. I don't need heavy wire hooks for what I do, and am perfectly happy with the original wire keeper version. I fish the style, not the bait.

Haven't seen many reviews yet. Heavier hook will be appreciated by many I'm sure. Lots of complaints about the original metal welded keeper, so not surprising they went with a different design. I'd have to believe it works fine with their plastics since they designed it - I'll never find out though

Agree with what you're saying, especially the part about Zman in all this...and the part about most people not caring. I understand that modification and evolution is the nature of the game. Makes some of us sound like curmudgeons. Look at it from the other side though when we constantly have to listen to/read people complain about their hooks are too small or weak, they're always bending out, it won't work in my weedy pond, The problem is it always gets hung in brush - what about a weedless version, my 3/16 oz head works fine, and I can then throw it on my baitcasters, why can't I just use any jighead, etc., etc., on and on. Gets old listening to gripes from people wanting to modify the system to fit their needs, but who don't seem to have even a rudimentary understanding of the original system, and that all these "problems" were never problems to begin with. They only arose when you tried to do something with the Rig that the system was never intended to do in the first place.

Not surprising they came out with this for all the non-"Midwest Finesse" Ned Rig guys who can't ( or don't want to) follow instructions The keeper probably isn't an issue since most won't be using them with Zman plastics anyway. Kind of inevitable, like the Big TRD was. it's all about the money for Zman ?

More crappie Lots of pressure bites tonight. Good practice ?

Silhouette theory is bogus, but contrast isn't - they're not the same. In your example, lure color becomes irrelevant because the fish is stuck underneath the bait, and the only source of light (at night or under low light conditions) is from above. As such, all baits which are opaque will silhouette and shadow the same. Once a bait goes subsurface, and when you have stronger light from above, contrast comes into play, and so does bait color. In these instances, light often gets reflected/scattered off particulates in the water, and light can actually come from nearly any direction. Additionally, the bait relative to the fish and any background can be extremely varied. In these cases, bait color, and especially contrast can play a big part in getting bit.

...And this is why I love spending so much time out in open water tossing lightweight jigs for crappie - the best way to learn about pressure bites. It's how I showed Wheeler.

When I was fishing tournaments, I'd say it was 90/10 in favor of bass, and the 10% only came after all the tourneys had ended. Now days it is much closer to 50/50, maybe 60/40 with a nod to bass. Crappie get a good chunk all year, as do walleye at certain times of the year. Bluegill spawn gets some attention also.

As wrb alluded to, fishing in some environments almost guarantees the occasional breakoff, and rocky rivers would be one such case. That aside, I can make a couple suggestions. One would be to use actual fluorocarbon leader material for it's harder composition and supposed better abrasion resistance. The other option is to be specific in your line selection. I lean heavily on available data in this regard. Outside of the newer Tatsu line I've begun using, I previously only used 2 brands of fluoro - InvisX and Toray Superhard Upgrade. This was based on all the Tackle Tour test data that showed InvisX with the best knot strength and Toray SH with the superior abrasion resistance. And while I have no way of proving it, I'd like to believe that using these lines and metrics is likely responsible for my lack of breakoffs and other issues I mentioned that seem to plague so many.

If it makes you feel better, I looked back in my records and found 2 breakoffs for you. One was on August 11, 2013 on a hookset. The other was the week of June 23, same year when a bass got on the back side of a metal culvert and eventually sawed off my fluoro - honestly. I don't count hang ups in the mix because those likely get broken off no matter what line you're using if the lure retriever fails to come through. I will also admit I have broken off a time or three this year on my fluoro leader after failing to retie after catching 20-30 bass on a bait, but I chalk that up to stupidity on my part and not a fault of the fluoro. Beyond that, I would have remembered breaking off any big bass or expensive baits - we don't see a lot of the former around here, and i don't buy a lot of the latter. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a couple more breakoffs I don't remember, but when you catch 2,000+ bass a year, the random anomaly becomes easy to overlook.

Buck would simply tell you to "Get the heck out of the trees!" But Catt and fishballer have the other two pieces to the puzzle. That is first, forget the trees exist and look at the bottom of the lake bed for an answer. Somebody likely has a fairly high def map of the area. Next, determine if a thermocline exists, because if it does, you have a breakline. Combine that breakline with the ones formed by the edge of the forest and the likely creek channel running through the cove, and you have narrowed your search area tremendously. Now look for structures on the map that mingle with the breaklines, as well as individual breaks, and you should have some solid areas of where to focus all your efforts.

Baitcasters, I run a lot of 8# and 10# fluoro for throwing Shad Raps and jerkbaits; 10-12# for mid and deep cranking; 15-16# fluoro for jigs, spinnerbaits, pitching, chatter baits; 20-25# fluoro for swimbaits and A-rigs. Honestly can't remember the last bass (or bait) I broke off...it's been many years. Thank you very much, MassYak

Here's what I know. I fish braid with fluorocarbon leaders extensively on spinning outfits, primarily 4-8# test of various lengths. Going this route puts much more stress on the fluoro leader, and both connecting knots, than if you were running straight fluoro, which I do on nearly every baitcast outfit. Over the past several years, I have landed numerous state "best in class" sized fish this way, including double digit sized hybrid stripers, channel and flathead cats, as well as buffalo and grass carp to near 40 pounds. If there were significant issues around fluoro, I would have experienced them by now.

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You missed option 3 - both. I only bring what fits in my pockets from shore. In the boat, I obviously bring more, but still a lot less than you might think - about 6-10 3600 size boxes depending.

Takes some discipline and a little creativity. In the boat, I drag a few more 3600s myself (still much lighter than most), but from the bank, it better all fit in some pockets or it isn't going with me. Some days, like when I'm going on a frogging trip, the only bait I bring is the one tied on my rod

Lowrance HDS 8 - buddy's boat - it reads great in DI mode.

Warm spell moving through this last week and again next. Highs near 90 will temporarily halt our fall fishing progress. No rush, as the crappie have begun grouping up a bit as they move in from their main lake summer homes. A couple pics from this weekend.

Sure - No doubt, having more tackle means you have more options, and more specific ones at that, but the drawback is it cost you a lot of money to buy the baits, then likely the different combos to fish those baits, plus you have to haul all of it around to the lake each trip because you feel like you might end up needing something you left back at home. In addition, you're going to have a lot of decisions to make. Just in the shallow water you'll need to figure out whether to throw a spinnerbait, your new Teckel Sprinkers, a Plopper (what size and color?), maybe a Spook or a buzzbait,..how about a Senko, or a Pop-R. Don't forget your pitching outfit, and be sure to bring plenty of Rage Craws, beaver style baits, some brush hogs, the newest punching deal, and try them all, because you just never know which one they'll like better today...and we haven't even made it out of the first cove yet...oh, and don't forget the Ned outfit! One thing is for sure, you'll have the love and appreciation of the tackle manufacturers I just want to go out fishing for a few hours, have a good time, and catch some bass. So, lets use @bagofdonuts example. You bring 4 outfits and a huge backpack to carry everything to the lake with you so you can "cover all your options." I grab a single rod/reel outfit along with a pack of my favorite color Zoom flukes. In that bag of flukes, I throw in a couple EWG and dropshot hooks, a couple bullet weights, 2 scrounger heads, 1 underspin body and a split shot or two. The whole thing goes in my back pocket. Now, when we arrive at the lake, I start by tossing my weightless fluke along the bank, next to laydowns, in behind docks, and along the weeds, basically covering some shallow options. If the weed growth is thicker, I can twitch the bait over the moss and let it settle in holes, work it through pads, etc. If I get some halfhearted swirls in the weed openings, I can simply add a bullet weight to my outfit and now pitch the holes and work it slower, or do the same around laydowns and bushes along the bank. Otherwise, no bites, so I start moving out a bit. By pinching a split shot on the line at the head of the bait, I can now fish down a few feet into the opening of docks, the deep ends of laydowns, or the deeper weedline edge. Put a fluke on one of the scrounger heads, and I can now work the bait like a crankbait, paralleling docks and weedlines, fan casting the flats, or throwing out into deeper water and counting the bait down to various depths. I can even rip it and let it drop trying to trigger bites like a spoon or Trap. Not as aggressive, rig it dropshot style and pitch the deep weedline or very ends of docks, finessing a few bass along the way. If a group of schoolers comes up, I'm ready, going back weightless or tossing it on an underspin. If it turns out we need to go deeper to catch them, I can peg the bullet weight above the bait and fish it like a Carolina rig, dragging the bottom. If it's brushy down there, back to the Texas rigged version with the bullet weight, working it through the limbs. If the fish are even halfway active today, I've done a pretty good job of covering all the available depths and speeds, around most every cover option the lake has to offer - all with a tackle pack that fits in my back pocket giving me supreme mobility and less hassles - and cost me almost nothing. I probably have caught my share of fish, also. Of course, this is just an example and not all encompassing, but hopefully you get the idea. You don't need a lot of tackle to effectively fish a body of water and catch some bass.