More Ned Rig fishing and testing

[desmobob]

This afternoon, I brought a buddy out fishing on southern Lake Champlain (NY/VT).  He had never heard about the Ned Rig and was anxious to give it a try.  We fished from mid-afternoon to 7:30 p.m. with Ned Rigs on identical outfits: St. Croix Panfish Series 7' LF spinning rods with Shimano Symetre reels and 4 lb.-test Fireline with 6 lb. InvisX leaders.  We did a little comparison:  we both used a 1/15 ounce shroomz head in black but different ElaZtech on the hook.  

I put on a green pumpkin TRD while he used a green pumpkin Finesse ShadZ.  I ran the boat parallel  to the weed line and we both cast to the edge and used a similar twitch-and-pause retrieve.  Even though he was in the back seat, the ShadZ caught way more fish (I'd guess two or three to one) and also caught the biggest largemouth (3 lbs. 4 oz.) of the afternoon of fishing.  Besides largemouths, we caught white perch, black crappies, white crappies, pickerel, northern pike, small channel catfish, and one pumpkinseed.

Early in the evening,  I switched to a wacky-rigged green pumpkin Senko, and the Ned Rig with the Finesse Shadz still caught more and bigger bass.  That was a surprise to me. (I actually caught the smallest bass of the day on the Senko; it was tiny and apparently grabbed the middle of the Senko and managed to get only the business end of the 1/0 hook in its mouth.)  :-)

My buddy was very impressed with the fish-catching ability and extreme durability of the Z-man baits.  I sent him home with some 'shroomZ and a package of Finesse ShadZ.   

While certainly not a proper test, this afternoon's fishing experiment made me more impressed with the Ned Rig (and Finesse Shadz).  And I haven't even tried putting on a Hula StikZ yet!  Another "test" seems to be in order!  

I'll never consider the Ned Rig a substitute for bigger bass baits (I caught the biggest fish of the day and a few others larger than our biggest Ned Rig fish on a 4.8" Keitech Swim Impact Fat in the morning), but it sure is fun to fish when you want more action.

Tight lines,

Bob

[MickD]

I have concluded that the Ned rig gets bitten by just about every bass that sees it.  Since there are more little bass than big bass, it catches more little bass than big bass.  But, big bass definitely strike the little lure, so don't think it won't catch big bass just because it catches a lot of little bass.