smalljaw67

The guy who the rig is named after, Ned Kehde , uses the Gopher Tackle Mushroom Heads in 1/32oz with a size #6 and a size #4 hook. To make it even better he pinches the barb down and still catches fish with it, the key is to use light line, rods and reels and a loose drag. Because small ball heads use smaller hooks doesn't really matter. If one wants a small ball head with a larger hook, well they are easy to find as a lot of custom guys make them, I pour 1/16oz ball heads with a 3/0 hook for fishing large grubs and finesse swimbaits in shallow water. I will agree that up until about 5 years ago, maybe a little longer, it was rare to see a 1/16oz ball head with anything over a size #6 hook but they are pretty common today and even with a #6 you can still catch bass pretty good as long as your tackle is light enough.

The mushroom head has a flat bottom side so a small stick worm with a blunt end sits flush with the bottom side of the jig. When it sits flush it slides through sparse grass and over rocks much easier without getting pulled down as Bass Turd has already mentioned. I like using a mushroom style head for Ned rigging the small stick worms but I like using a little 2.75" creature bait called a Yabby on a 1/16oz football jig. The reason is because with the small stick worm I'm using mostly moving retrieves that the bait is either above the bottom or just touching occasionally. With the Yabby it is the opposite, I'm drag it on the bottom, small distances but it is still on the bottom so the small football head works well. I used the small stick worms with light ball head jigs as well with good results and I'd say if you don't like the mushroom style head then by all means use the ball head, the mushroom is popular because that is what was preferred by Midwest finesse anglers.

It is just like oxblood, a dead ringer for an earthworm but not very sexy. As for earthworms not being in lakes, well TnRiver46 nailed it, when it rains worms come to the surface and a lot of them close to the bank end up in the water.

I saw rods listed as medium action before and I'm not talking power but action. Anytime I see a medium action rod with a different power like medium heavy it is almost always a moderate action but companies that do that typically list a moderate-fast as a medium-fast as well.

I fish with a lot of "older" baits in certain categories. Most of my medium diving cranks are Bomber 4As, 6As, and Fat Free Shads. I consider them to be classics but younger anglers call them old school. I also have a lot of discontinued lures not made anymore like the Heddon Dying Flutter prop baits as well as some early 90s Smithwick Rattling Rogues that were discontinued until KVD won a classic in 2005 with one, they have since reintroduced it but they didn't bring back all the color patterns and they work well as the fish don't see enough of them to get conditioned to them.

The Senko is super effective, it gets bit fishing Texas rigged, weightless Texas rigged, Carolina rigged, and wacky rigged as well as cut in half and used on a Ned rig. I feel for you as someone just getting into bass fishing, especially on your own, there is just so much available now that it is really easy to get overwhelmed and give up. I think you are doing it right, start with plastics, they catch fish in just about any situation and it will give you a good understanding of cover and structure and how the fish position themselves on those elements. One word about the Senko, it works so well that you may just stick with it for a long time, I've been at this seriously for more than 30 years and the Senko has been so good that I went 3 years without touching any other style of worm. Good luck in your fishing and never be afaid to ask a question, the guys here will give you all the help you need.

Right on brother!!!!!! I have a stash of them and in 3 colors, baby bass, clear, and coach dog. The Dying Flutter is a little more subtle than a devils horse and has a thinner profile and for some reason it hooks up close to 100% of the time. I can remember the last time I had a fish blow up on it that it didn't get hooked, if you ever find these at a flea market or yard sale don't hesitate to pick them up.

The term "flukes" is used as a generic term to describe soft plastic jerkbaits even though fluke is the Zoom brand.

I have the absolute best rod for those types of topwaters and it is a casting rod. The problem is the rod is discontinued but they show up every now and again on ebay. The rod is a Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'3" medium power, moderate fast action and it is a popper fishing machine! The handle is very short so it actually has more blank in front of the reel seat than most 6'6"" rods so you can get nice distance on a cast. The beauty is in the tip section, soft but not too soft so it allows you to work a popper with precision as well as small walking baits up to 1/2oz. If I had to find a rod that is close it would be the G.Loomis JBR 752C, I had that rod and it was also great for poppers and smaller topwaters, in fact it feels a lot like the Fenwick but it has a little less power, I wouldn't go past 3/8oz with it. For me a shorter rod works better for poppers and small walking baits, for my larger topwaters I've been using a Hammer Rods 6'9" heavy power as it has a mod fast action and that would be my next suggestion. The Hammer Rods 6'9" medium heavy, it is a like a half power over rated meaning it fishes like a stout medium but the action is perfect for 1/4oz poppers yet still has the power to use a larger model if you wish.

No weight for river smallmouth, I use a 2/0 hook for a 4" model and a 4/0 for the 5" fluke. I actually fish a River Rock Jointed Jerkbait but super flukes, caffeine shads and the like will all work well. Make your cast and let the fluke sink about 2' of so and give it 2 hard pops and let it sink for a second or two and repeat. That cadence seems to work on fish that aren't very active but the active fish will also hit it when fished in that manner. You'll be able to tell how active the fish are by the strike, inactive fish will often just be there, the bait sinks and before you can pop the rod the line will be tight. Active fish will practically rip the rod out of your hand, if you get bit like that a fast retrieve that keeps the bait almost on top of the water is what you will want to do. You also need to remember that there are times they won't hit a fluke at all, that is when a tube or a finesse worm or ned rig is the way to go.

It may be a non-issue to you but he paid money for it and it should be right. Chipped paint is fine if you make the thing for yourself of it happens after use but right out of the package is unacceptable.

I'm guessing these are made for a certain technique but I could be wrong. I can see them being used on something like the donkey rig (tandem fluke rig), a 3-way swivel works for that but I know some don't like having a 3-way due to weeds. This would work as it is a smaller profile but keep your eye open on those as the intended use will pop up soon rather than later.

If you do flipping style jigs most of the time then I'd go with a Anvil Apex which is rated to a 7/0. I have a Griffin Odyssey Spider, it is rated to 4/0 but I have done 6/0 heavy wire hooks and it worked well but if I was doing that size all the time I'd go with the Anvil Apex. What will happen is if you tie a lot of jigs with a vice not made for that you'll wear the jaws out quickly, they will hold for a bit but you'll soon notice they will begin slipping with maximum pressure applied. The problem with really cheap vises is once the jaws go you may as well throw the vise away as they are that cheap that they don't make jaws, just the vise so you buy a new one. You don't need a top of the line vise but if you plan on doing more than a couple dozen jigs a year then step up and get a decent vise capable of handling the intended size hooks, it will be a lot less frustrating in the long run.

There are guides to this and I've read them but I'll give you my take. I like copper lenses, they are like the "jack of all trades" color, they do a great job from overcast to bright sun and everywhere in between. I also have green lenses that I like, they offer some contrast and take away glare and brightness without making things dark like gray lenses. A lot of the lens colors depend on which glasses because amber in some brands are yellow and in others they are more of a copper so be aware of the differences. Amber lenses in most brands I use or have used are bright, they are excellent for overcast and low light conditions and offer a lot of contrast. Blue is one of those colors you see that are almost always mirrored, and mirrored glasses tend to be liked by guys fishing salt water or sailing in the ocean because they reflect a lot of light and reduces glare even more than polarization alone.

Owner Twist Lock Light hook, 2/0 for the 4" fluke Jr. and 4/0 for the 5". Ever since I started using that hook my flukes have lasted longer and I don't miss fish, if they eat it I'm landing it unless I break off. Keep in mind that it isn't a heavy wire hook but it also isn't light wire like the name, I'd say it is a standard or medium wire hook. Those hooks are the very same that Gary Yamamoto designed to be used with the Senko and when you how long a fluke normally lasts when using that hook you can see why it would be perfect for a Senko.

I have witnessed bass being caught on chicken liver and also hot dogs while fishing for catfish. I asked a fisheries biologist about it and he said that the fish was close by and likely hungry but you won't consistently catch them on those baits. He told me a story about guys using dough balls for carp and catching a fair number of bass on them and he had a good explanation. He said that they figure at least have the time bass catches on those types of baits are due to small minnows and panfish nipping at the offering and a bass comes in and ends up catching the bait rather than the intended target.

A round bend treble hook is a regular treble, you basically have 2 types, round bend and extra wide gap (EWG). There are also other variations like short shank, heavy wire, light wire and cutting point and needle point. Angry John is correct about which baits are better suited to which treble hook. General rule of thumb is that baits that bass often just swipe at will have a better hooking percentage using a round bend. Baits that get fully engulfed are better suited to an EWG style, the reason for that is a round bend has more of the hook point exposed while an EWG has a hook point that is facing in toward the hook shank. With more of the point exposed a fish swiping at the bait is more likely to have the hook point get stuck than the EWG. The EWG hook normally holds fish better as the fish has less chance of throwing it because of the wider gap and inward facing hook point.

Texas rigging a worm is the one technique that works in any kind of condition. The thing that makes the T-rigged worm so good is that you can throw it in weeds or open water, on hard bottoms or soft bottoms and you can fish it fast or slow and it will work. Congrats on sticking with it and landing some fish, well done!!!!!!!!!!!!

I use a popper a good bit and I can agree the Zell pop which is now the Boss Pop is really good. I can tell you that I have a lot of popper and I separate them in 2 different categories, the slow moving chuggers and the fast moving spitters or walkers. The Yo-Zuri 3DB popper and the Storm Rattling Chug Bug do both, the chug bug walks like a spook and chugs like a pop-r, a straight hard downward rip and it will give you that "bloop" sound, a less aggressive rip or a sideways rip and it will spit and move to the side. The Yo-Zuri has a small indent inside the cupped mouth, almost a second mouth if you will. That bait sits level and it is an anomaly among poppers as it walks and spits easier than it chugs but it can do both and the prism colors make it killer for clear water. I like the Rebel Super Pop R as well, it is longer but it only weighs a little over 1/4oz, but that is a chugger, it is very hard to walk the dog and spit but it makes a nice sound and you can keep it in the same spot with small twitches as it doesn't take much to get the sound. For me, getting some good poppers to try out under $10 it would be the Boss Pop, Yo-Zuri 3DB, and the Storm Rattling Chug Bug, all of those work really well and to be honest, those are the main ones I use, my yellow magic has been given to a friend and I traded my Splash-its for some Lucky Craft Pointers and I did it because the other poppers work so well that I don't miss the high end ones.

Get a 1/4" hole punch and use it to punch some small disks from a plastic gallon milk jug. Take a razor blade and make a small slit in the center of the 1/4" disks you made from the milk jug. Now take you tube jig and pop the hook eye through the slit on the plastic disk and then insert into the tube. The plastic disk will create a larger surface area that the jig head will be against keeping it from getting pulled through the wall of the tube.

I'm a spinnerbait fanatic, so much so I make my own and feel I may be able to help. When a spinnerbait bite is on it doesn't always mean the fish will hit something else but if they would there are a few different things to try. You eliminated cranks because of weeds so the next thing I'd use would be a chatterbait and after that would be a swim jig. Water clarity would play a part as well as depth but I'd look at a buzzbait and then maybe a walking bait like a spook. The other bit I'd give a serious look would be a wake bait, a crank style wake bait like the Storm Arashi Wake Crank, the Yo-Zuri 3DB Wake bait or the Livetarget Bluegill Wake bait. Crank style wake baits work really well when the fish are chasing but weed growth is a little too heavy for a crankbait.

You have to pay attention to the hook and the number of heads. A lot of plain jigs (without skirts) are sold in packs of 2 or more so you have to keep that in mind. As for the hook, a jig head made with a premium hook (Owner, Gamakatsu, and Trokar) are going to be a lot more expensive.

For me the Sweet Beaver and the Smallie Beaver do such a good job I don't really need any other creature bait. That said, I like the Baby Brush Hog as well and it is my "finesse" creature bait. When the beaver style baits are getting bumped but no real strikes, I'll use that Baby Brush Hog and more often than not I'll start getting better bites.

The little blue bender is only for making "R" bends and swivel loops for safety pin type spinnerbaits. On your list I'd choose the twist Tech but myself, I have both a little blue bender to make spinnerbait wire forms and I have a Hagens wire former, it is a little expensive but built solid and works really well for making in-line spinners. I do think the twist tech is your best bet just because with the Hagens you need to purchase the small loop die kit if you plan on doing really small in-line spinners.

Try using the Owner single hook replacements, they should snag a little less.