Can you fish the Neko rig in grass

[Rodney Smith]

I fish a reservoir that has a mostly grass bottom. I, like many others, fish Senkos, Mojo rigs, and drop shots to keep baits above the grass. Would a light Neko rig work in this type environment?

[Fishes in trees]

Like many people, I read the articles praising the Neko rig that were published last winter in the Bassmaster magazine.  I put together a Neko kit, with various sizes of appropriate weights & hooks.   The lake that I generally fish has gotten pretty grassy this season, moreso than in the past several years.   Bass are in the edges of the deeper weeds, for the most part, as evidenced by depth finder readings AND the fact that a tail weighted, tx rigged stick baits has ruled in this situation.  I've yet to get a bite on the Neko rig, and I've fished it for a total of about an hour this season, in areas where I had a good chance for success.   I've come to the conclusion that Neko rigs don't do well in grass.  Maybe later in the season when the grass lines become more defined and there is a definite edge to the deep weed line, we'll see.    Preliminary results of the Neko rig are disappointing.

Back to the question, "Can you fish Neko rigs in grass?"   MY current answer is yes, you can fish any rig where ever you want to however my experiences have been so far that I haven't gotten bit at all fishing Neko rigs in grass.

[RHuff]

I don't have much experience fishing this rig but it would appear to me to be designed more for a hard or clay bottom than a grassy/soft bottom. I'm talking areas where the bottom of covered with heavy hydrilla. 

[LCG]

I have used a neko rig with success in a grassy area of a pond. Worked pretty well. Used a zoom trick worm and a finishing nail with an oil ring and a wacky hook size 1 I think. Slow finnese applications work but take some time to get bit sometimes. 

[Smelter96]

I know VMC came out with weedless Neko hooks. Might be worth a try

[FishDewd]

I've fished the neko a few times... what I don't like about it is that the hook always slips up no matter how I rig it. O-ring or not, I always have to push it back in every cast. So I don't really use it much anymore. Rather throw a ned, that gets bites. I wouldn't fish either one in the grass though, they get snagged up pretty easily in my experience.

[Graham]

I don’t see why you couldn’t or shouldn’t.

[IgotWood]

I fish the Neko on my home lake. It's covered in hydrilla and pond weed. I use Gamakatsu Light Wire Worm hook, size 1. It's just a standard O' Shaughnessy style hook. Rig it just as you would any other flipping bait, but rig it through the middle of the bait. You do lose a little bit of the action than if you were to use the normal wacky style hook, but if you're using a 7' bait you won't really notice a difference. I mostly notice the loss in action when i neko rig a senko like this. Overall, it's pretty weedless, and it still catches fish.

[Rodney Smith]

Maybe I'm the only one, but I am not finding the Neko be very successful (not just in grass, but anywhere). I can fish other finesse techniques like shakyheads, drop shots, weightless stickbaits, mojo rigs, etc and get plenty of bites, but I haven't had any luck with the Neko rig. I am going to keep tinkering a little longer and then give up go back to what works.

[fishwizzard]

On 4/26/2018 at 5:16 AM, Rodney Smith said:

Maybe I'm the only one, but I am not finding the Neko be very successful (not just in grass, but anywhere). I can fish other finesse techniques like shakyheads, drop shots, weightless stickbaits, mojo rigs, etc and get plenty of bites, but I haven't had any luck with the Neko rig. I am going to keep tinkering a little longer and then give up go back to what works.

I just gave it a serious try this past week and it is working very well for me so far.  It is surprisingly snagless and it's working out to be a great "subtle" presentation that I can fish quickly and cover water with.  I fish it in the same places I fish a Ned, but where surface debris or high winds make me want a lure that will hug the bottom.   

[jr231]

If youre fishing IN the grass, a true Texas rig (not Tex- pose ) is the most ideal technique. Above the grass the others you mentioned such as the dropshot will be just fine... 

 

The only time I switch to Neko is a sparse vegetation bottom when I've already been fishing a weightless senko.. just throw a nail in it to get her to the bottom instead of switching to a shaky head.. 

 

I will say the GY kut tail is my favorite for this type of presentation .