Will Wetline

A Z-Man Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. Midwest Finesse jig caught the interest of this this 3.96 lb. smallmouth.

Those are beautiful fish!

Very nice!

Good fish, Mitch!

Good work, guys! Congratulations to you for figuring out an effective pattern and thank you too for such a well written account of your efforts.

Here's a 3.77 lb. smallmouth that ate a Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. Ned (mushroom) jig head worked slowly at a depth of approximately 20'.

Keep on casting, kiddos - you can do it!

Good work, young bassmasters!

You guys are good and you're gonna get 'em!

Blue- My home water is ideal for the Spin Bait: it's got a healthy population of smallmouth swimming in water so clear you can see bottom in 20' on a bright day. Re the Eagle Claw Lil' Nasties - I am not faulting the quality of this hook. I'm dragging them through rocks of different sizes and shapes and when I don't hang and break off, I do damage hooks. This is a price I'm willing to pay because there are big smallies that hang out in this habitat and, often enough, they intercept the bait before it hangs. I just have to be diligent about inspecting hooks after every presentation that that got hung but I managed to get back. I will do the same when I'm fishing the heavier wire Owner 5313s. I'm molding 5313s because I want to to be able to safely put more pressure on the huge smallies in my imagination on 8 lb. line and land them.

The air temp was 52º and the water temp was 60.2º at 7:30. The north wind was blowing about 20 MPH. I much preferred this to the 97º heat two days ago. I didn't know how this radical change would effect the smallmouth's appetite, though. I love the way smallies try to rip the rod from my grip when they attack a 1/2 oz. tandem willow spinnerbait burned a foot under the surface. Didn't happen this morning. Maybe they'd like a Spin Bait 80 sashayed deeper. That got the cold shoulder too. Alright then, I'd nag them with the Ned rig. Action wasn't fast - a fish would move up every half hour or so. This was my third trip with this 3/32 oz. mushroom jig head and Z-Man Finesse TRD and it is now secure on my "go-to" list. Late morning the wind calmed to maybe 10 MPH. Smallies like a Super Fluke Jr. behaving erratically (worked like a Spook) over rocks on a breezy day. You can argue with me if you like, but I say this presentation is as exciting as topwater. It drives the bass mad and sometimes the same smallie will attack the Fluke several times before you get a solid hookup. Next outing I will take the few minutes needed to apply sunscreen so my face won't match my shirt. Let's look at this trip's tools for snookering smallmouth, top - bottom: Zoom Super Fluke Jr. with #1 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap Red. The smallies will chew the red off. I don't care. Gold plating is just fine with us. The Ned rig. The several other colors I've tried worked too. That slightly bent hook is an Eagle Claw 500BP ("Lil' Nasty"). It's plenty sharp and it's inexpensive: $5.55/100. I haven't lost a fish because one bent out, but I have turned the points on several. For the next batch I mold I'll be using Owner 5313s in size 1 at the budget busting price of $30.62/100. These are one size smaller than the ECs I've been using but made from a heavier gauge wire. This well used Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 accounted for one smallmouth. It will get more play when post spawn smallies are hungry and cruising flats. All up it was a fun day on Quabbin with 15 smallies. None were big (3.24 lbs. best), but all were feisty.

The above suggestions are very good.

I'd say those bass were worth the trek. Congrats, Smokinal!

Oomph! Those are some serious smallmouth, A-Jay.

Great trip!

I remember an older kid who stopped me in the hall and asked, "Do you want a piece of abc gum?" Immediately, I was suspicious - upperclassmen don't deign to speak to those beneath them. "What's abc gum?" "Already Been Chewed!" he yelled in my face. Then he spun me around and gave me a wicked noogie. Chalk that up to a rite of passage. Let's fast forward fifty years and float me on Quabbin Reservoir. The weather had been kinda funky for a stretch and this day was supposed to be cloudy with variable winds. Maybe the smallmouth would like an abc TRD. One great feature of Z-Man's proprietary plastic, ElaZtech, is that dozens of bass can chew on a piece before it needs to be replaced. It's likely the jig will be lost long before the appeal of an ElaZtech bait is gone. I've read that you can remove a TRD from a Ned head jig and put it back on bassackwards for a few more fish. Game plan for the day was to check my milk run of flats, ridges and humps, but I wasn't expecting particularly active late pre spawn smallies (water temps: 55.4º - 56.1º) without sun and wind. At the first location, a sandy, rocky ridge that drops off into deep water, I tried a deep Shadow Rap Shad, a T-rigged Hula Grub and a Biffle Bug on a football swing jig. What they wanted was a TRD on a 3/32oz. Ned head cast from Do-its Midwest Finesse Jig Mold. At another spot I was really ready for them to go nuts over a Super Fluke Jr. walking the dog a foot under the surface. They ate a Ned rig that was dragged, paused and made to tremble on the bottom at depths of 10' - 20'. On a long time favorite rock hump with a precipitous drop off one side, I hoped the smallies would be on top looking for prey. That meant the Fluke or Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 would get 'em, right? Wrong. There were a couple of good fish here but I needed to go over the deep edge to show them a bait. The first took the TRD differently than most of the other bass' bites on this bait: during a pause, I saw the line jump. I reeled down and swept the rod to the side. Remember, when using fine wire hooks (.031) and light line set firmly but don't overdo it. She weighed 4.89 lbs. I lost a second fish, another good one. I had been bumping rocks and hadn't taken the few seconds to check the hook. The point had turned. When I got home I stripped to bare skin and gave myself 40 lashes with a 7" Senko for this lapse of diligence. So, in all it was a fun day. There were five smallies landed beside the ones who got their pictures taken. I would have preferred the fish to have been up and active enough to have taken a livelier presentation than the drag-and-pause, but I'll tell you this, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: When the fish are non-aggressive . . . Ned rules!

Bluebasser86 and Darren. don't want me to mention the name of the rig that caught this 4.89 lb. smallmouth so I won't.

Preface I wrote this report to pique the interest of anglers on a couple of "local" forums read by anglers mainly from Massachusetts and surrounding states from whom, with two exceptions, I have not heard Ned's name mentioned. My interest came from the wealth of information on Bass Resource and I thank everyone who contributed. My introduction to this report will be old news to most BR readers so go right to my day on the water with the Ned rig or review Mr. Kehde's interview on the evolution of this extremely effective finesse presentation. It's worth studying. "So who's Ned?" you ask. I'm talking about the venerable Mr. Ned Kehde of Kansas who, for the past five decades or so, has been practicing and promoting "finesse" fishing - light lines and small baits for bass. Open the link below to learn more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqGTzPt6TIQ&t=11s Here's a video produced by Z Man who worked with Ned developing this finesse presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1CNKnbmMKU When Do-it Molds introduced their Midwest Finesse Jig Mold with Wire Keeper I had to have one. Living and fishing in Massachusetts, a state which prohibits lead jigs weighing less than an ounce, I cast these from an alloy of 88% bismuth/12% tin which is approximately 85% the weight of lead. Bismuth's expansion while cooling is not a problem with this mold; just grip the sprue with linemans pliers and lift up and out. I took my Ned heads to Quabbin Reservoir on yet another cold, blustery morning in this year's goofy spring. Starting setup was a Finesse TRD on a 7' medium power St. Croix Premier. 8 lb. Silver Thread AN40 copolymer filled a Stradic 4000. With #1 and 1/0 hooks I want a light drag setting and a "soft" rod. Here's my first customer: Actually, this was my second. Line control was nearly nil in the wind and a few casts prior to #1's arrival, I felt a fish on once I got the slack out. Good weight which must have grabbed the bait on the drop. She was on for only a few seconds, though. The merry month of May you say? Not this day. But I was able to block out the cold, the wind and the rain for a brief period while I gave a 3 lber. its photo op. The weather hadn't fully immobilized me yet so I hoisted this 2 1/4 lber. for a pic. This little one tapped Ned toward the end of the retrieve. I had been dragging, twitching, trembling, shaking and occasionally bopping Ned along the bottom thinking the water's still too cold (55.2º) for a swimming retrieve. By 9:30 I had worked this area thoroughly and headed Outside to the wide open spaces after pulling up both hoods and zipping the parka's collar over my mustache. Here's what didn't produce: deep diving suspending jerk, GYCB Hula Grub, Spin Bait 80, the Ned rig. Hmph. Water temp out here was 52.9º. Maybe should have tried a blade bait. As on the last trip, my morning hot spot was cold in the afternoon. There was still time to check another location on my way back to Gate 43, a long ridge which dropped into deep water. Here I decided to try the TRD on the lightest outfit I use on this very clear water reservoir, a 6 1/2' ML St. Croix Avid paired up with a Stradic 2500 spooled with 6 lb. Tatsu. Was it windy at 3:00? Well, I dropped anchor into 20' and let out about 60' of 1/4" nylon. It dragged. The heck with it - I'd drag and cast. Why is my brow furrowed holding this cute little 2 lber.? Because not long before this fish ate the TRD I lost a smallmouth well over 4 lbs. I don't rush fish on 6 lb. line and, after playing Big Mama carefully for a minute perhaps, she spit the bait -ptooey! - on her third jump. AARGH!!! Nevermind. Ah, redemption. This mama of slightly less than 4 lbs. made me feel much better. Played her for quite a while, in the water, in the air, away from the anchor line, under the boat until I was able to slowly slide her into the flat-bottomed, rubber-bagged net. Whew. At this point I've had enough. Nine hours in the cold, rain and wind made this gray bearded bassmaster feel a bit blurry. I'll be back in a couple of days though, and you can be sure that Ned will be aboard.

For wacky rigging a 4" soft stick bait I use a size 1 Gamakatsu Octopus circle hook and go up to a 1/0 when fishing a 5". When I switched to circles several seasons back, I'd remind myself to simply reel down until I felt the fish then reel, understanding the way these hooks work as roadwarrior explained above. Do not sweep set! Here's a funny memory of my first take on a circle hook: The smallie grabbed the Senko and ran like a bass outa hell! I missed this speedster because the hook pulled out when the line tightened up. After that experience though, my hook up ratio has been high.

From opening day until the first week of July. I am a low tech smallie guy who rents a boat, chooses a location and drops the anchor. (No sonar, no electric.) If you're new to The Q, get the Quabbin Reservation map from www.necartographics.com. I change locations and presentations from pre spawn to post but when they're set up in their summer patterns I'm in my air conditioned tackle room making baits because I don't like heat and humidity and I can't find 'em when they're roaming thousands of acres of open water under their prey. d**n Yankee . . . That was an unnecessary and unkind comment to a brother bassmaster.

You don't have to modify the mold at all if you thread wrap a wire form onto the hook shank and secure it with a drop of thin super glue. http://www.barlowstackle.com/WB400-Keeper-Wire-Form-P2534.aspx http://www.barlowstackle.com/WB800-Keeper-Wire-Form-P3024.aspx

Expensive, but I've been pleased with Simms.

Very space efficient and quick too, T9 and OE. It may be that I've been overly concerned about keeping the hair straight. I can understand that a few jigs per mini bag or a full Plano compartment would minimize movement.

Bdnoble84, dry them completely before storing with whatever method you use. The past couple of seasons I've used slit foam in a Plano. Note in the last photo the top 1/4" foam to keep them snug when traveling in a chop. I keep all the foam in place with double sided tape. I prefer this system to plastic bags because I can see my entire inventory at a glance rather than picking through multiple ziplock bags in Plano compartments. To tame fluffy marabou, moisten fingertips and compress the plume. Then it will be narrow and you can place them side by side in foam slits 1/2" apart. There are boxes that fly fishermen use designed with "nubby tack" rubber or slit hard foam that would work with lighter jigs. These are not inexpensive. I'm going to stick with the slit foam in a Plano storage system.

You weren't hurt, I hope. Allen, how/why did this happen?