Favorite Way To Fish Ned Rig ?

[ChrisD46]

What is your favorite way to fish a Ned Rig ? ... Do you fish it on the bottom like a shakey head by dragging or hopping it ? ... Or do  you swim it ? ... Another method ? ... Thanks in advance !

[Hurricane]

Jig, jig,  stop.... repeat..

[padon]

There are several ways to fish it.I personally like to swim it with occasional stops to sit on the bottom and hop it a little.google Ned kedhe Midwest finesse and he will describe the most effective retrieves.

[Russ E]

^^^^^  What he said.  It is a good bait when the bite is tough, but it can also be retrieved aggressively when the bite is hot. There is no wrong way to retrieve the bait. Let the fish tell you what they want.

If I could only use one bait the Ned Rig would be it.

[standman]

I fish mostly ponds, so shallow vegetation is an issue.  Solution?  Ned rig under the (gasp) bobber?.    Slow retrieve, with some hopping/twitching.   Works like a charm!

[Big Swimbait]

When I first started using the Ned, I just let it soak. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I would hop it a few times & let it soak some more. Then I noticed when that wasn't working, they would bite when I was retrieving it to make another cast. So let them tell you. It really is a phenomenal bait. 

[ChrisD46]

Yes , I vow to learn this technique over winter when the bite can be a little tough after fronts , etc. so a few different retrieves to learn are in order ... On deck are a new 7' ML fast action rod , 2000 series spinning reel with #10 lb. braid + #6 lb. FC leader . Today while visiting my favorite local tackle shop to wish them a Merry Christmas - they just got in the new Roboworm 3" Ned Worm so I picked up a pack of a green pumpkin variant to have along with some 3" TRD's I recently bought .

[NYWayfarer]

I hop it along the bottom very slowly. I even dead stick it at times. I get a lot of fish that way.

[Bluebasser86]

I mainly use the swim, shake, glide Midwest Finesse retrieve. 

[thinkingredneck]

I must be doing something wrong.  I occasionally get a dink, but no real action on a Ned Rig.  Maybe my water is too dirty.  Maybe I fish it wrong.  I so better with a finess texas rigged worm.

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, thinkingredneck said:

I must be doing something wrong.  I occasionally get a dink, but no real action on a Ned Rig.  Maybe my water is too dirty.  Maybe I fish it wrong.  I so better with a finess texas rigged worm.

I catch a lot of Ned rig fish in water with less than 2' of visibility, including some really nice ones. 

[68camaro]

Can the Ned be used in stained or dirty water? If so do you use rattles or smelly attractant?

[Bluebasser86]

16 minutes ago, 68camaro said:

Can the Ned be used in stained or dirty water? If so do you use rattles or smelly attractant?

Yes it can, I don't. A crawdad or minnow doesn't suddenly become louder or smellier because the water is dirty, and bass still have no problems finding them. 

[MickD]

1 hour ago, thinkingredneck said:

I must be doing something wrong.  I occasionally get a dink, but no real action on a Ned Rig.  Maybe my water is too dirty.  Maybe I fish it wrong.  I so better with a finess texas rigged worm.

Neds come in a lot of colors, so try at least a few different ones. Makes a difference. Around here for LM the PB&J is very good, the Junebug is very good, especially in stained water.  For clear water SM the greens are very good.  For rock pile SM late in the season, snapping a white one off the bottom works well at times.   Remember, as others have written, there are a lot of ways to fish it, and fish sometimes want one over the others.  Experiment.  When you get it right, it is a really good lure.  Some times it has been the ONLY thing we could catch SM on.  My son says it catches only small fish; he is wrong, it catches all fish.  There are just more small ones than large.  It has been a tournament winner for big SM in this area (MI, Lake St Clair, Sag Bay).

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

4 hours ago, thinkingredneck said:

I must be doing something wrong.  I occasionally get a dink, but no real action on a Ned Rig.  Maybe my water is too dirty.  Maybe I fish it wrong.  I so better with a finess texas rigged worm.

Ive given the ned a fair shake and have not gotten great results either. Used a number of colors and weights retrieves lines and water is pretty clear 10+ visibility. The only thing I havent done is try it on other waters. I pretty much have used it on my "home" lake but that is where it should produce the best. I havent been skunked there in a good 11 years.

[Cgolf]

When River fishing, I like to swim it and polish the rocks. Hanging up once in a while is ok too, because there are times a Smallie will absolutely kill a bait after it pops off a snag, not sure why. 

 

On lakes I fish a lot of vertical cover, docks and reeds, so I initially let it drop to the bottom then swim it back. I don't deadstick it anymore, because it is too easy to deep hook a bass with this bait. 

 

Scent, always use a dab of a gel scent. I have seen too many days where the scent is the difference between getting bit or not, so I just always play it safe and use it.

29 minutes ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

Ive given the ned a fair shake and have not gotten great results either. Used a number of colors and weights retrieves lines and water is pretty clear 10+ visibility. The only thing I havent done is try it on other waters. I pretty much have used it on my "home" lake but that is where it should produce the best. I havent been skunked there in a good 11 years.

I catch a lot of fish with it, but for some reason on lakes I have found baits like a tube, Gambler Ugly Otter, 5" Kalins etc. will out fish the Ned. It could be the types of cover I fish, as I don't fish a lot flats with weeds on top. 

[fishwizzard]

I also do "swim, shake, glide" most of the time when fishing still water, on a faster river or stream I either do a slow retrieve straight downstream if I am wading or cast it up and let it drift down when standing on the bank.  

 

If I want to drag it, I switch to the little zman mico jigs;

They stay down better in current and get a good number of hits.  I like them as they still use a very light hooks, so I can use my nedrig rod for them.  

[thinkingredneck]

Is the Ned primarily a SMB bait?  I have seen some LMB on Ned Kehde's writings.

[MickD]

Works well on both SM and LM.

 

[Glenn]

Here are my tips:

 

 

[Fishin' Fool]

I catch so many bass on a drop shot and a Ned rig. My last day fishing this past season I caught 3 SM over 5 pounds and 23 pounds total all on a Ned. Most of the time I just cast it out and let it sit. Keep in mind what makes it unique with a TRD worm is that the worm floats up and looks like a defenseless minnow feeding on the bottom. Hope these tips help.

7 hours ago, thinkingredneck said:

Is the Ned primarily a SMB bait?  I have seen some LMB on Ned Kehde's writings.

 

I catch a lot of LM on a Ned. Stick with it you'll catch them too.

[Darren.]

On 12/24/2017 at 3:04 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I mainly use the swim, shake, glide Midwest Finesse retrieve. 

Same here. Although I've tried a lot of different retrieves

and had a lot of success on just about everything tried.

[aceman387]

My favorite method is to crawl it on the bottom with my reel like a Charlie brewer slider.

 

[Bluebasser86]

9 hours ago, thinkingredneck said:

Is the Ned primarily a SMB bait?  I have seen some LMB on Ned Kehde's writings.

It catches literally everything. Most of the lakes that Ned fishes here don't have smallmouth, just largemouth. I've caught bluegill, several kinds of sunfish, crappie, yellow perch, walleye, white bass, wipers, channel cats, blues, flathead to 21 pounds, drum, gar, even carp.

[IndianaFinesse]

I use the swim glide and shake retrieve (slowly swimming and subtlety shaking it within a foot or so of the bottom, occasionally letting it glide back down to reestablish bottom contact) 95% of the time.  

 

And yes, it works for largemouth, and every other species of fish that exists.  There aren't squat for smallies around here, and it is still one of my top 2 producers every year.  The smallmouth do seem to like it especially well when I get the rare opportunity to fish for them though.