Cgolf

I have found the Ned to catch more fish, which includes the big girls if they are in the area. My guess is the big fish aren't in the area, because they would eat it if they were there. With a standard Ned I have a 20" Smallie and a few brown trout over 20" on it.

Like Fishnkamp I have been using the Kalins 5" grub for years, cheap, durable, and flat out catches them. Ron's Craw is a color I have done really well with in both dingy and super clear water. Other colors work well too. The second bait I would suggest is a tube, you can imitate anything from a craw to a baitfish with it. You can fish it weighted or unweighted. For both I rig up with slider spider heads. I have used both the light wire and heavy wire hook models the sell. Realistically though if you have a box of just tubes and 5" grubs, you could go to any lake that has bass and catch em, sometimes the old school simple stuff can be the best.

Liquid Mayhem gel scent fan here and I definately believe scent makes a big difference. The last trip I was on, was a bite where you cast out, let the plastic sit for a couple of seconds and then popped it and the fish either had it or not. I never had a fish pick up a bait without the scent or after it had worn off. I am sure if I would have fished the whole week without scent, I would have caught some fish, but nowhere close to as many as I caught with it. No matter what brand you go with, over the years I have found the gel based scents to work the best.

Thanks Glenn, it caught a lot of us by surprise. I also cleared up a bunch of my attachments as well to clear up some space.

I get all that, while not a programmer I test software that generates lots of data and also processes data from other devices. They allow us to use approximatley 195MB, which seems like a lot. Perhaps if they just cut the max we could store to between 70 and 100 MB that would help. It also seems odd that the switch happened without any notification to the users, but I guess I am used to it having to deal with programmers that slip all kinds of fixes in without telling anyone lol.

I think the thought with the server for the pictures, was limiting the size to save on storage. I would honestly rather have them limit our storage moreand reup the max photo size to whatever it used to be. Maybe too many members with a high storage limit?

I think that this depends on the dock and launch site. I fished a huge dock structure on Lake Geneva growing up and mostly fished away from the ramp area, but would also fish the ramp area when boats were not being launched and landed. The location was great, because you could hit the dock next to it, and the depth and weedbed in the area made this dock a great shore fishing spot on a lake that didn't have a lot of good public access fishing. I think the key to doing it is being respectful both ways in many cases. Pack light so you can quickly move when boats show up. I also picked up some knowledge from the boaters coming in too, most were very nice. My largest fish on the lake a 40'+ pike came from that launch ramp area.

RES both the 1/2 and 1/4 ounce have worked well for me, even for seriously weather jacked fish.

I didn't see a troubleshooting thread, but like others am curious why photos to be uploaded are limited to .49MB? Essentially a pic taken with my iPad mini is too large now. Yes I did mostly clean out my attachments, down in the 30% range.

The only downside is they don't mention, or I missed it, the diameter rods/guides they fit. Two of mine have ridiculously large lower guides, which had caused me fits.

I was fishing around reed beds in 6-7 fow. Conditions sucked, the lake was flooded the week before and the dam was opened before we got there and the lake had shed 10" of water. Basically I counted it down and reeled it back nice and slow and consistent and they ate it. The hardest thing to do is to not work it, a rod with a slower tip would be good. Anywhere with sparser vegatation would be a great place for it, but I only used it around reeds. Had I done more dock fishing I was going to give it a toss there as well. Total newbie to this technique, so hopefully others can kick out better ideas for ya.

Looking on TW trying to find rod covers for my old St. Croix premier spinning rod and Ugly stick, both of which have very large initial guides. The spinning rod covers I have now don't fit them. I do have one nylon cover that works, but I only have one of them. My goal for vacation is to put all my rods without reels in my rod locker together with covers on them. I have a 16' aluminum boat so the rod locker is very basic.

On my recent trip, facing conditions stacked against me, except wind was low only this day, I decided to try the Arishi spin after blanking on everything else. Tossed it on a 6'6" ugly stick with 10 lb fireline. I started catching fish right away and it turned around my attitude as well. Unfortunately the wind kept me from using it the rest of the week in the areas I fished, but was really pleased to find a new confidence presentation. While the line type was wrong, according to articles I have read, the diameter is about right. The ugly stick has a slower tip which I feel helped with the presentation by softening the action of the bait, by dampening the effect of waves or a twitchy reeler;) Now I might need to try other lures, or should I just stick with the Arishi? Darn bait monkey lol

I have also found that skinny heavily salted 1/2 stickbaits work really well too. I like an Anglers Choice wart hawg, but believe that GYCB has a skinny Senko and there are others out there. I do also us a half Zinkerz as well. I think that both have their place and the action is different because one plastic wants to sink while the Zman plastic wants to float. I probably carry 7 or 8 different colors of both the wart hawgs and Zinkerz in the boat with me at all times when fishing clear water. When on Dingy water, it goes down to about two colors each.

This made me smile, because I had to apologize multiple times to my father in law for the boat getting away from the cover almost every time this happened. Eventually I learned to steer it away from the cover and ultimately loop around while I was unhooking and resetting. I love my 16 ft aluminum boat, but it has some drawbacks in the wind, hoping those drift socks keep the aft from getting blown all over the place.

Got it, by that definition I am not finessing it, definately a slow presentation, small heavily weighted bait cast to a spot, shook/shimmied a bit and recast. The only bait I swam with any luck was the 1/2 stick bait. I guess i was closer pitching/flipping than anything else. Water was too clear and wind was too high to precisely control the boat to get close enough to flip without spooking the fish. I have never ever thought of myself as a power fisherman, maybe that is changing without me realizing it lol. Deep structure can be fun, do this for walleyes during the summer with a 3/32 ounce jig in 20 to 30 feet of water. The bass I generally target are in 6 fow that I need to cast to a target and get the bait to stay on target. I can do light weight on the downwind side, it is just the upwind and sides that are tough to impossible for me to keep the bait right where I want it. Next year will try drift socks to control the boat better I hope.

It is a good idea, I was also using menace grubs and gambler ugly otters on the heaviest sliders I had to deadstick the bait on the bottom. The bass would have ignored the spinner in my case, just more options to try for those tough bite fish;)

I wanted to add that I am not claiming the to be a Ned rig or even a Ned presentation. Just that over the last few years I have found a 2.5" stick bait on a heavy jig head to be a very successful presentation for me during tough conditions. It gets down quick and probably does a bang up job of looking fishy when reeled back after the drop. If the fish wanted a bait higher in the water column, it wouldn't be the proper rig, but for some reason they have been wanting a bait pinned on the bottom. Rolo I appologize if this gets merged with my reply to you, the site tends to merge replies for us.

I guess I go the other way, especially fishing vertical cover. I stick to a finesse bait/presentation using heavier weights to hold it in place. Even used a 1 1/4 ounce jig with a menace trailer at one point.

That was why I switched to a heavier head. Had a worst case scenario last week, where fish wanted the bait after the drop, sitting for a pause and they were either there when I popped it or I had to recast. The only soft plastic bait they would follow was a 1/2 of a wart hawg, 2.5" piece, that was reeled slowly on that heavier head. I normally really hate this bite but deal with it to catch fish. Add in the wind, rain, cold, and line control issues it was a challenging week. Other oddities is they would hit a lipless after letting it drop to bottom vertically before reeling quite well, but would not chase a square bill. We just hit bad conditions, level had dropped around a foot right before we got there when they opened the dam to ease flooding and the water temps started at 65, bottomed at 62 and ended the week in the upper 63s.

Looking at the picture fishing open water like you are I would agree. The area I am fishing is reed beds where you want the lure to drop right where you put it, which needs a heavier head. Crosswind line control is also nightmare. Essentially I am target fishing in less than ideal conditions. It works well for me and I save the "Ned Rig" for the river and days with little to no wind when target fishing.

I have found that slider heads work great with a spot of glue to hold the plastic tight to the head. I started using this for dock fishing and have taken it to the river as well, because the spider head snags up less than other jigs on the rocks.

I have found myself using Ned rig baits with heavy mushroom head jigs which happen to have bigger hooks when fishing on lakes due to conditions. The big issue I have with the original Ned, and why I find Senkos useless is I fish it in heavy wind. Fishing cover 90 degrees to the wind is not possible with a lightly weighted or weightless bait, because by the time it reaches bottom it is blown well off cover. Fish appear to still love the heavier weighted Ned plastic. My best advice is to not give up on Ned plastics if the weather gets crazy, use a similar retrieve, allow it to drop and reel it slowly back in. It may not be a Ned Rig, but it can still catch a bunch of fish.

Not a waste of time, all I use my finder for is a depth reading. Not buying into the new flashy technology, with it I might have never hooked up last week with the Smallie of a lifetime that we lost inches from the net. Take your pick, do you spend the time casting, maybe hooking up with a solitary giant or finding a school, or spend the time motoring around eyes glued to a screen. For me I would rather be fishing:) I do see the plus sides of if for tourney anglers though during pre fishing to find fish and not disturbing them until it is go time.

I tried a finesse worm on a slider head underneath a big slip bobber with no bobber stop. The theory was to use the float to allow me to work the bait near vertically instead of having the bait hopping forward around vertical cover like reeds. Of course I only tried it on one outing, but did catch a nice 14" crappie on it. Might want to give it another try, because as I write it out it still sounds like a good idea.