Downsides to Ned Rig What are yours

[Cgolf]

The biggest downside I have seen when fishing the Ned Rig on the river is missing a lot of fish because they don't get the hook. The retrieve I use is a slow straight in retrieve that polishes the rocks, not sure if that is a Ned retrieve or not, but I get a lot of fish that grab the tail and the bait ends up balled on the hook. Pretty confident that a high majority of these are Smallie bites with a few panfish mixed in. 

 

I am thinking this is a flowing water thing where they have limited to grab a bait vs a lake where they can more easily target the bait. I don't see this issue on lakes. Starting to wonder if I go with a bigger hook on the river and not fish the Ned rig anymore?

[deep]

Just one: I dislike spinning gear, with a passion.

[Russ E]

Your retrieve is the classic midwest finesse or ned rig retreive.

It can Be very productive. I have learned that juvenile smallies and pan fish are notorious for biting the tail of this bait. Can drive me crazy some days.

[CroakHunter]

Down sides to ned rig for me is the fact that there's a giant thread called "the ned rig encyclopedia" yet there's still 8 threads a day talking about it. 

[Cgolf]

25 minutes ago, CroakHunter said:

Down sides to ned rig for me is the fact that there's a giant thread called "the ned rig encyclopedia" yet there's still 8 threads a day talking about it. 

I haven't seen many when I have been on the boards, but did get seriously frustrated by only landing one fish yesterday and getting tons of bites. This year has been awful fishing wise for me, many days without bites. I also haven't been on the boards much lately. 

[JustinJ]

Downside for me is it attracts lots of other species as well

[Team9nine]

No downsides here - change things up a bit. Try lighter weight jigheads, different plastic combos and different retrieves. Also, shorten your existing plastic if feasible. See if that helps. 

[Russ E]

41 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I haven't seen many when I have been on the boards, but did get seriously frustrated by only landing one fish yesterday and getting tons of bites. This year has been awful fishing wise for me, many days without bites. I also haven't been on the boards much lately. 

one thing I do differently with the ned rig over other baits. I don't set the hook. I just keep reeling until I feel weight then lfit the rod. 

Nobody is forced to open a thread. the Ned Rig has several threads, because it is currently very popular .

I could care less about a pennant race thread, or a fantasy fishing thread. they are on here frequently.

I just choose not to open them. to each their own.

[Catt]

31 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

No downsides here - change things up a bit. Try lighter weight jigheads, different plastic combos and different retrieves. Also, shorten your existing plastic if feasible. See if that helps. 

Sometimes ya gotta use uhh what's that called...oh yeah imagination!

[smalljaw67]

2 hours ago, cgolf said:

The biggest downside I have seen when fishing the Ned Rig on the river is missing a lot of fish because they don't get the hook. The retrieve I use is a slow straight in retrieve that polishes the rocks, not sure if that is a Ned retrieve or not, but I get a lot of fish that grab the tail and the bait ends up balled on the hook. Pretty confident that a high majority of these are Smallie bites with a few panfish mixed in. 

 

I am thinking this is a flowing water thing where they have limited to grab a bait vs a lake where they can more easily target the bait. I don't see this issue on lakes. Starting to wonder if I go with a bigger hook on the river and not fish the Ned rig anymore?

I fish it in rivers as well and I understand the situation. I don't use the Z-Man plastic so balling up on the hook doesn't happen to me, at least it hasn't yet. What is happening is you are getting a lot of small fish, I fish the Susquehanna river and all of the fish I catch that are over 12" seem to bite the same way, I don't feel a bite, it is usually a hard pull or the rod begins to load with weight. When I feel taps or light bites I usually see juvenile smallmouth following behind. I fish the rig in the same manner, I use a slow steady retrieve and will just give the rod tip a quick shake every once in awhile and it will tick the rocks as I try to keep it just above the bottom. The one thing I notice is that I don't lose fish on this rig, the smaller fish will nip the tail and I did lose one about 10" but keeper size bass in the 12" to 15" range just eat it and they haven't come off.

[DSTN]

There's no perfect solutions but the ned rig has the fewest downsides of any rig I've tried.  I lose more jig heads and TRDs than I do fish.  I don't tournament fish so I like the fact that it catches everything that swims.

[WRB]

You need to adjust your hook setting timing, hesitation is need to let the smallmouth kill the critter before engulfing it and they will if you let them.

I wouldn't change size, it's already a small lure, you could change colors.

Tom

[Cgolf]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

No downsides here - change things up a bit. Try lighter weight jigheads, different plastic combos and different retrieves. Also, shorten your existing plastic if feasible. See if that helps. 

 

I will shorten it a touch instead of a full half Zinkerz, I would really like to keep the weight the same since it is a good balance of just touching the rocks, but not hard snagging. Current is tough to find that balance of just enough bottom contact. 

[OCdockskipper]

So it sounds as if the Ned rig (on this river) only catches the larger fish, basically culling the smaller ones...

 

Who'd a thunk it?!?

[fishwizzard]

I feel like a lot of the missed bites I get on the Ned are just very small panfish grabbing it and running a short distance.  I have actually managed to land a few panfish that were not hooked, they just had a death-grip on the plastic.  I use megastrike most of the time I fish the Ned, so that might be helping, but it is amazing to me how long a fish will hold the lure when not hooked.  I have even landed a single super dink (maybe 6-7") smallie whose teeth were stuck to the lure like velcro, but was not hooked.  

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, smalljaw67 said:

I fish it in rivers as well and I understand the situation. I don't use the Z-Man plastic so balling up on the hook doesn't happen to me, at least it hasn't yet. What is happening is you are getting a lot of small fish, I fish the Susquehanna river and all of the fish I catch that are over 12" seem to bite the same way, I don't feel a bite, it is usually a hard pull or the rod begins to load with weight. When I feel taps or light bites I usually see juvenile smallmouth following behind. I fish the rig in the same manner, I use a slow steady retrieve and will just give the rod tip a quick shake every once in awhile and it will tick the rocks as I try to keep it just above the bottom. The one thing I notice is that I don't lose fish on this rig, the smaller fish will nip the tail and I did lose one about 10" but keeper size bass in the 12" to 15" range just eat it and they haven't come off.

 

Unfortunately I am shore bound on the river and I have to take what is there. Still managed one nice 19" fish but most have been in the 10" to 15" range. One of these years I will get a kayak to really explore the river and find where the big ones go. I can't complain too much though because I can get 20-30 minutes on the river on my way to work. Even if I blank it is a nice way to start the work day. I have read lots about your home river on another forum many years ago, is a still a big Smallie factory?

18 minutes ago, fishwizzard said:

I feel like a lot of the missed bites I get on the Ned are just very small panfish grabbing it and running a short distance.  I have actually managed to land a few panfish that were not hooked, they just had a death-grip on the plastic.  I use megastrike most of the time I fish the Ned, so that might be helping, but it is amazing to me how long a fish will hold the lure when not hooked.  I have even landed a single super dink (maybe 6-7") smallie whose teeth were stuck to the lure like velcro, but was not hooked.  

I use scent as well, liquid mayhem which is red, and after I lose a fish all the red is gone, even if I had just put a new coat on. I have always put it where the hook comes out of the plastic, maybe I should put it on the nose of the bait. They really do like to get that scent off the bait. 

1 hour ago, WRB said:

You need to adjust your hook setting timing, hesitation is need to let the smallmouth kill the critter before engulfing it and they will if you let them.

I wouldn't change size, it's already a small lure, you could change colors.

Tom

I like the color idea, I did have a bubblegum bait turn pale orange after it sat in a box with some other baits that really triggered the fish. On the river it is tough to hesitate on the hookset, because the flow itself will wash the bait downstream. I can give it a a shot, but with River smallies the big girls usually hook themselves and try to take your rod from ya;)

[gim]

The ned rig has 2 downsides in my opinion: one is trying to fish it in really weedy areas and it often just gets hung up or fouled up with weeds (the weedless version may solve this but I haven't used it yet).  The second issue is that the hooks are very light wire duty.  It took me a few bent hooks and lost fish to realize that you simply can't "set" the hook like you normally would.  Loosen the drag and just kinda snap it up a little bit and start reeling works better.

[IndianaFinesse]

No down sides here, it's just another tool like any other rig.  

 

How are you setting the hook, and what rod/line/hooks are you using?  Simply reeling quickly into the fish works better than using a traditional hook set with the tiny hooks.

 

[Cgolf]

2 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

No down sides here, it's just another tool like any other rig.  

 

How are you setting the hook, and what rod/line/hooks are you using?  Simply reeling quickly into the fish works better than using a traditional hook set with the tiny hooks.

 

Generally they hook themselves, but once they are on I do try to put and keep pressure on them. I have never been a monster hookset kind of guy. Watching videos of people just about throwing out their backs setting the hook has always seemed like overkill to me. So I guess I am a reel set and lightly lift the tip to get pressure on the fish. Seems like light wire hooks pop out if the fish gets slack on you. That and if the fish never gets to the hook, the hookset doesn't matter. This just seems to be a flowing water issue for me. 

[3crows]

10 hours ago, deep said:

Just one: I dislike spinning gear, with a passion.

Me too, I think that is my downside as well. I hate spinning gear. I can throw them on my lightest BC but my new spinning outfit does throw the lightest ones better.

[Bluebasser86]

Downsides? It works too good and makes it possible for my wife to kick my butt out of the back of the boat?

[Comfortably Numb]

On 9/16/2017 at 9:47 AM, deep said:

Just one: I dislike spinning gear, with a passion.

That's cause you use flouto Spinning reals ans flouro dont play nice together.

[tander]

The down side for me is that it catches so many fish, I don't want to use anything else.

[Darren.]

Seeing how the Ned has won me over this year, I guess

I should respond  

 

Downsides: None.

 

Well, actually, I think I could find one based solely on the

fact I've only used Zman jigs for this so far. The bait keeper

can come un-soldered. That's a downside of the hook/jig

setup I'm using at this point.

 

I could probably resolve it by trying some of Siebert's jigs

or making my own. Perhaps I'll try one or both at some point.

 

But doggonit, the Ned rig is awesome. Never been skunked 

when I've used it.

[Russ E]

39 minutes ago, Darren. said:

Seeing how the Ned has won me over this year, I guess

I should respond  

 

Downsides: None.

 

Well, actually, I think I could find one based solely on the

fact I've only used Zman jigs for this so far. The bait keeper

can come un-soldered. That's a downside of the hook/jig

setup I'm using at this point.

 

I could probably resolve it by trying some of Siebert's jigs

or making my own. Perhaps I'll try one or both at some point.

 

But doggonit, the Ned rig is awesome. Never been skunked 

when I've used it.

Shroomz heads are notorious for the baitkeeper coming off.

The Midwest finesse guys around here just super glue the bait to the hook.

I don't personally do that very often, because I am super glue challenged. tend to get it everywhere except where it is supposed to go.