Cgolf

Same for me, Fireline on spinning and 50lb Power Pro on BCs, and never had an issue even in gin clear water, but then again I don't fish senkos so I don't have to wait forever for the thing to hit bottom;) I get that it is a confidence thing for some, but growing up using solar XT on gin clear water taught me it doesn't matter. I do the same, I usually have at least a spinning rod in my truck and fish before or after work 4-5 times a week. My favorite spinning rod is an ugly stick. My favorite bait casting stick is one of those wright McGill blue Clunn rods. If I have to slow down so much I need a Senko, I won't do it. I own some, but have a hard time getting myself to fish them, especially weightless. Scent on everything I toss.

For me, we had two smaller Gander Mountain stores, on on the west and one on the east side of town, near two malls. Both stores were always busy, especially the west side store. Then they got the bright idea that they needed the larger super stores off the highways and closed the the two smaller east and west side stores and built the new mega store north of town. The few times we went to the mega store including weekends, I never saw as many cars in the lot as there smaller mall based stores. The mall based stores made a killing on us on our lunch breaks during the week and many spouses hitting the store while the better half hit the mall. It seemed like not long after they started opening the bigger stores that the prices started to go up and the deals were harder to come by. A month or two ago I hit one of the smaller stores I used to love and their tackle selection was non existent, they used to carry a ton, it was really sad to see. The internet thing definitely hurt them too, but at least locally closing two very busy stores was a huge error.

I looked at this bag this weekend and it is really nice, but was just too big for what I carry lol.

Based on the history of how they got to the Ned rig, I was curious the bounds of it. Essentially I am imitating a plastic with another material, so I wasn't 100% sure if it had to be a plastic bait or not to be considered a ned rig. I will fish it the same though. It does look a lot like a TRD or Zinkerz though, so I have high hopes for it this year. For me flytying is all about imitation with material different than the original getting similar actions, so maybe this becomes the Ned Fly;)

I would definitely say midwest finesse as it is not a lot different than the marabou crappie jigs used by Chuck Woods. If I had tied it on a jig head would it have made a difference to you? I thought about tying this on a jighead, but the conehead and wire are essentially a jighead. By the way that is a size #2 hook with a conehead and 5 wraps of lead free wire. I thought I would get nailed for the hook being too big. The whole fly weighs 0.043140055 ounces which I believe works out to roughly 1/23 ounce including the material. It will have to be wet to be castable.

The tail is simply furled yarn with a spot of glue on the end to keep it together longer, and then just wrap the yarn to the nose. Stupid simple to tie and I have also done this with Estaz and had great luck too. I have seen it called a furlagig, but to me it is a senko fly.

Ha ha, this is actually a fly I have had for a few years and have had success with a longer version. I am in the fly fishers version of the bait monkey right now. I was tying up my stock of Senko flies for the year and I accidentally had one end up short which got me thinking. My thought is this fly should be able to be pitched on spinning gear too. I didn't want to hijack @IndianaFinesse thread about the Ned rig. This thing definately fits the description of a Ned and if it is as warm as they predict this week I am going to try it out. Be interesting to see how durable it will be. I was actually curious though if if fit the definition lol.

Even better look through and see all the stuff you haven't tried yet that you thought you must need. Go find all that stuff and then take it out and give it a toss. Not the same rush as a getting another order, but you do get to toss new gear.

With the Ned a Rig talk ramping up again, I am curious to get everyone's opinion on if the baits/flies in the picture are a Ned Rig. If you could explain your response either way that would be interesting.

The biggest problem is with Zman. Many anglers think that the Ned rig is only a Zman bait and now they went out and introduced the Big TRD which is by no means a Ned rig bait, but many will now think it is. I definitely have uses for the Big TRD dock fishing and have uses for heavier weighted finesse TRDs, but that isn't the Ned rig. Maybe a bubba ned, but not midwest finesse;) Now the 1/2 zinkerz and slider is a whole nother discussion;) Just kidding as I am not sure what the merging of the two should be called, maybe Sled lol.

I fish it in current for smallies all the time and it works really well for this. I usually cast across and upstream allowing it to work through all the current seams and eddies. I also fish a very rocky river so you will get a lot of hits in heavy current with fish holding in the dead water in front of and behind the rocks. I have two baits I like, an anglers choice 5" wart hawg, skinny and heavily salted, cut in half and the Zinkerz cut in half. The wart hawg swims differently and gives a different profile than the Zinkerz. The nice thing about the Zinkerz is I lose less baits, because it seems to snag up less due to the floating feature of the Zman plastics. On the river I fish the rig true to what it is. I do use a 1/16 fireball jig in place of the mushroom head, but it actually has a shorter shank hook, so it gives the bait more action. Where I differ. On the retrieve I never fully let the bait be on slack line. The first few fish I caught doing this were foul hooked, and my goal is to protect the resource I fish, so I keep in contact with the bait, but still let it drift naturally, if is a balancing act. I am ok with catching less fish as long as I can cleanly release them all. On lakes I vary the weight depending on the cover I am tossing to and the wind. Lastly I have been rigging a 1/2 Zinkerz on a slider head and pitching it around docks with great success. The big TRD should be a great dock bait.

Just so you all don't think I have completely lost it with the baby yarn, here are the Senko flies I tied up quickly. Craft and fabric stores are a fly tiers best friend.

Spent 38 at Cabela's and picked up a couple of Sammys to try. Found another different red lipless for 6 a piece and the Berk baits were 2 a piece. Red was a good color for me last year, it better be this year since I increased my stock in them. Then hit the craft store and grabbed some yarn to tie some Senko flies and the mesh tubing is to make the flies weedless.

This is my 3600 size boat bag that has lots of storage, but may be a bit on the big side for you. http://www.cabelas.com/product/cabela-s-advanced-anglers-8482-tackle-bags-without-utility-boxes/1391169.uts?WT.ac=SF my shore fishing setup, is a tiny bag with a few cranks, and a standard plastic box and Zman plastic box. Along with scale, pliers, gripper, hook cutter, and terminal tackle. Boxes are 3500 size or smaller.

I have had bad luck with wire weed guards locally, they catch as many weeds as the bait. That was why I wanted to try this to toss it into the thick stuff giving them something different. This wouldn't be tossed in open water unless the action seemed to be the trigger then of course it would get used everywhere.

I have gone o ring and just straight into a generic senko. For some reason the fish were tail grabbing all my baits on me, smallies seem to do that a lot depending on their mood. I haven't tried the 2 o ring thing yet. My wacky rigging is with a fireball jig, I never did weightless.

I think on the pull the hook point will be on top in prime position, at rest or on the drop will be a bit dicey. In my limited time with a standard wacky rig, the hooking percentage isn't the greatest anyways, so maybe it will help in some cases? A few times I have almost lost a bait because a bass grabbed one end and almost pulled it out of the o-ring. It sucks, but I have to wait till May to find out if it works.

Need somebody to try this out and let me know if it catches anything? Simply a straight shank hook with a pegged sinker rigged weedless. I am thinking that the hook placement will give it a much different action and the straight shank is the only style that will work where it is rigged. This is falls into the category of too much time on my hands.

Definately going to try it, just stuck waiting till May. Just stuck in my dream up crazy stuff to try mode to keep my fishing mind sharp. This gets more difficult every year;)

They are a pain to cast and put a hinge point in the line screwing with the drop angle. I generally fish them on a sink tip line not a floating line on the fly rod on lakes. For flies like the Zuddler I want it to drop horizontally.

Fished it on clear water and caught 6 different species on it mostly chucking and winding it back around reed beds over a week. Really didn't need anything fancy retrieve wise. Orange craw and bluegill were the colors used and it was the 1/2 ounce model. Tried the the rippin rap, which caught fish, just not as many, it was a streaky bait and not consistent like the RES.

In the past I have used Zuddler minnows for largies and rabbit buggers for smallies on the fly rod. I recently tied the tube fly below that with its ridiculous action got me in the mode I want to toss these on a spinning rod. This definately wouldn't be something I would toss a mile, but I think we could get them pitched out far enough. Flies like the Zuddler, clouser, and this tube fly should be heavy enough to toss. Unfortunately the bugger would probably be too light. Why not not use a fly rod you ask? With a 16 foot boat and 2 people, the fly cast just is too clunky. Why flies? They are a super finesse presentation and would be great post cold front. What do you all think?

Santone Rayburn swim jig in sun perch has worked in both clear and stained water for me. The gold color has worked well in waters with carp in them. Being somewhat new to jig fishing what I have liked about the jig is the flat bottom on the head that lets it stand up some on bottom. I am able to do double duty with this jig, swim style and fishing it more traditionally.

Here is a better picture, maybe, I happen to have a couple of Ristos lying in the not to be used pile.

Have you fished the scatter crank as well? The pike and musky like those too. If you have fished both what is the difference in action between the two? I couldn't justify the S crank when at least on paper it is supposed to do the same thing as a much cheaper rap bait. Curious how similar/different the actions are of the two baits.