Ned Rig

[Green Trout]

First off, has anyone had success with the Ned Rig? If so how do you fish it?

My other question is I have so much wood and cover where I bass fish, that I wouldn't dare throw an exposed hook like the Ned Rig suggests. Is there any way to make it be a weedless presentation rather than an exposed hook?

Thanks, and good fishin

[HoosierHawgs]

Never fished one, but may have to experiment w/it this upcoming season. As for making it weedless, get a head w/a weedgaurd, there out there somewhere.

[a1712]

Jig head with a weed guard. Brian.

[gardnerjigman]

Pm sent

[aceman387]

I use these for Ned rigging.http://www.basspro.com/LuckEStrike-Cable-Jigheads/product/10224212/I put a drop of super glue gel on the barb to keep them in place.

[aceman387]

I found this video to be helpful when i started.

 

 

[aavery2]

This is a recent thread that discussed the Ned Rig, there is a good video in the thread.

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/147809-ned-rig/

[Team9nine]

Ned Rig flat out catches fish. You can use a weedless jighead, and some do, but part of the philosophy behind the presentation is to bypass obvious bass cover that most all other anglers fish, and instead focus on open "nothing looking" water that others bypass, as well as fishing rocky banks and edges of sparser weed growth. Open hook jigheads work fine in those areas. For more specifics on "how," check out Ned's page (Midwest Finesse) over at In-Fisherman, or some of the many videos now out there on YouTube.

 

-T9  

[Bluebasser86]

Everyone on here is lying, the Ned rig doesn't work! Just move along and go back to fishing a shakyhead, that's the only finesse bait you need 

[dreamertino]

does this rig work well around rip rap 

[gardnerjigman]

does this rig work well around rip rap

Only place this rig seems to now work is dry land....

[Bluebasser86]

does this rig work well around rip rap 

One of my favorite types of cover to fish it around. 

[scaleface]

Ive never used a Ned Rig but I have been Texas rigging half a Senko type worm for years and have had hundred fish days with it.

[MO_LMB]

I think the most important part of the Ned Rid is the weight of the head. My standard go to is 1/16, with half a zman zinkerz super glued to the jig head. 1/8 is the MOST weight I will use, and that is in very deep water. You can find the mushroom heads with weeduards at some various places around the web. Elaztech is the best. The lures will last you forever and they get better and better the more they get chewed up and stretched out.

 

Important take aways from the ned are that it is a "no-feel" presentation which many anglers do not like. Your bait should just be gliding down the water column. If you feel the bait I believe you are using too much weight, the only thing you should feel is when the fish takes the bait and starts swimming off with it. The ned is a bait that the fish like to hold onto for a while. I believe it is because it is a very natural technique. There is lots of talk of "action" when it comes to baits, but I believe this is a more lifelike presentation, where the bait isn't doing anything to try and get noticed, kind of like a crawfish just scooting along not trying to get noticed and not aware of a bass chasing him down. I think this results in more of a hunting strike from a bass. One where their intentions are to eat the lure, as opposed to a reaction strike where they might just be crushing the lure real quick with their mouth. 

 

Wood is great, rocks are great, grass is great... you get the picture. 

 

Thats my 2 cents for ya.

[Paul Roberts]

The Ned Rig method is pretty much a (better and more durable) reinvention of an old idea called "Do-Nothing" fishing introduced by Charlie Brewer a good 40 years ago. As MO_LMB says, it's a "no-feel" technique which essentially means: If you feel something that wasn't you, it's time to set the hook.

 

Brings back deeply etched memories for me. My first real consistent success in bass fishing came when I adopted Charlie Brewer's methods, and ran with it from there adopting various plastics parts and tying my own jigs. I loved the Beetle-spins too, and adopted the clip-on overhead spinners into my UL jig boxes. Then there was Dan Gapen's river slipping and his Ugly Bug jig. Just great stuff there.

 

The "Ned-Rig" I'd come to on my own back in the late 70s. The rig was an obvious adaptation to make for a young cash-strapped angler who couldn't throw away his broken plastics. I found just the heads of worms -the simplest of grubs -very effective on SM and LM alike. Yes, I caught lots of little ones, but the little jigs took lots of the bigger ones too. In fact, oftentimes catching bigger ones one after another (and not wading through dinks) had to do with finding them. The big ones (up into the 4lb range) liked those little jigs too.

 

As to fishing them around wood: As T9 mentions above the Ned Rig has been used primarily in silt bottomed reservoirs with little cover. Such a rig will work anywhere you are confronted with open coverless water. I however did fish them around wood at times and found that some light wire hooks (esp the "tinned" ones) could bend open enough to pull free from snags -even on a fresh 4lb line. Bend em back and keep fishing.

[poisonokie]

Tried this rig last night for the first time (zman trd + shroomz) and had what I imagine to be the same experience most people have. I caught a bass (a dink) almost immediately and then lost the rig on a snag almost immediately. Looking forward to the new weedless shroomz they unveiled at icast.