Tiny Child Rig

[NYWayfarer]

My last two fishing sessions were a nightmare of snagged Ned Rigs. Using a heavier Berkley half head jig comes with risks. I was unable to bend the hooks out to retrieve my snags like I can with the light wire Shroomz heads.

 

Today in an effort to fish the same area with less chance of losing more rigs I decided to try the Tiny Child Rig. 
 

Z-Man Finesse TRD, 1/16th oz nail weight, Trokar Neko hook. I threw it on my Lew’s Pro TI on a TP1 Black Medium Rod, 10# Yo-Zuri hybrid line. Great action on this rig. I had a short time before I had to run some errands and was only able to get a Rock Bass. I will definitely try this rig again as I was snag free.

 

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[OkobojiEagle]

I'm a right to life supporter myself, but if this really works that well...

[snake95]

@NYWayfarer good rig for sure!

 

I also have a lot of success with this - usually with one of the big TRDs.  

 

I think this is every bit as effective as the Ned rig in most cases, and perfectly weedless.  

 

I have tried all kinds of alternatives to achieve weedlessness: shroom heads with weedguards, and Owner ultrahead jigs.  I prefer this rig.

 

Remarkably, I get a nearly perfect hookup ratio even with the neko hook embedded well into the TRD.

 

It is a little easier to rig with the bigger TRDs than the regular because there is more room to get the hook in place.

 

I like the Zman TRD neko weights, though I am sure some would say they are overpriced and unnecessary.  To each their own, I am a Zman fan and I can justify nice Neko weights easier than a lot of fancy fishing gear.

 

I don't know why they call this the tiny child rig.  Have seen Yamamoto guys calling a regular size version of this the Chicken Rig.  Since its a smaller version, I think I'll call this the Chick Rig.  It doesn't matter, but I wish someone would popularize a better name for this thing.

 

 

[Dorado]

@NYWayfarer  I definitely want to try this rig out soon. What size Neko hook did you use?

[ChrisD46]

I'm not too sure what to think about the "Tiny Child Rig" - I suppose if I got hung up a lot on the Neg Rig I would try it ... It looks like it's better in a more vertical retrieve (i.e. drop shot) from a boat  than a Ned Rig which is fished horizontal ?

[NYWayfarer]

9 hours ago, Dorado said:

@NYWayfarer  I definitely want to try this rig out soon. What size Neko hook did you use?

Size 1 Trokar.

 

I switched today to size 1/0 Zoneloc hooks and got 2 Rock Bass and a Smallmouth. I like the way this hook lays on the TRD. Very easy to Tex-pose the hook.

 

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[snake95]

@ChrisD46 I fish it horizontally from shore.

 

It is a different presentation but seems to work as well as a Ned rig.  I fish it two ways in one cast: fluttering down in front of a target then bottom hopping on the way back if not bit first.

 

I use trokars but mostly VMC nekos size 1 and 2.

[NYWayfarer]

3 hours ago, ChrisD46 said:

I'm not too sure what to think about the "Tiny Child Rig" - I suppose if I got hung up a lot on the Neg Rig I would try it ... It looks like it's better in a more vertical retrieve (i.e. drop shot) from a boat  than a Ned Rig which is fished horizontal ?

I have been fishing it from shore but I imagine it will work well on a boat.

 

[NYWayfarer]

One thing I forgot to mention. I will be supergluing the Eagle Claw 1/16 oz nail weight into the TRD from now on. 
 

The nail weight has a tendency to slip out and I lost one when I caught the Smallmouth Bass. He shook so hard the nail weight came out.

[Paul Roberts]

Krazy Glue!

[MGF]

I haven't really tried it yet. I bought some size 1 VMC Ike approved neko hooks cuz Ike said that's the right hook. LOL. I also got some size 1 Gamakatsu worm hooks (didn't have any that small).

 

Last week I fished some different ned jigs. We caught the fish on the zman 1/20 oz. and it didn't hang up bad at all.

 

I also had some Flatlands 1/16 oz ned...the wide gap hook job. Believe it or not I was getting hung pretty bad. I didn't lose it but it was grabbing weeds or something and I bent it up pretty good. I didn't catch any fish either. My wife hit a couple on the 1/20 zman so I switched. I thought it was going to be the cats meow but it didn't work that way.

 

In our river the 1/20 usually seems just about right. It slides down with the current just ticking the bottom lightly here and there...and catches fish. But they do get hung some and the hooks don't stand up to much bending before they break.

So here's a related question. Do you think that size 1 neko hook is ridiculously small for a 6" zoom trick worm? If so what about the smaller zoom finesse worm?  I've seen guys put a larger worm on a small ned jig. I just don't know how well it actually works.

[MGF]

The thread kind of died. Too bad because I was to talk about the rig.

 

So yesterday I finally gave it a good shot on the river. My wife was throwing the 1/20 oz ned and I started with the IKE vmc neko hok, a trd and a screw in weight. It was 1/16 but I cut off the pointy nose.

 

I was getting a lot of bites but not hooking much. We had a bit of a cold front and they were biting funny...some nice bass felt like little bluegill bites or something and most of the time they were just balling the trd up on the bottom of the hook.

 

After a while I swapped the neko hook out for a size 1 Gamakatsu EWG.

 

I got more bites and caught more fish than my wife (with the ned) but I fish harder than she does and I usually catch more. I'd say that it produces at least as well as the ned (at least on that day) but I couldn't get along with the neko hook. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

 

I was using a 2 1/2 inch tube as a pinch hitter and that produced about as well. I didn't feel so many of those really "light" bites but I caught as many fish. For what it's worth I think my biggest bass (not very big) came on the tube.

[NYWayfarer]

I used the Tiny Child Rig again today. I experienced a lot of the same things you mentioned. The tiny bites that ball up the TRD could be Bluegill. I know it was in my case. Anytime I had hits but failed to hook up it was Sunfish. 
 

Smallmouth and Rock Bass that hit this lure are usually hooked.

 

I like a size 1/0 zoneloc worm hook way better than the Neko hooks for this rig. Better hook ups IMO

 

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Only one Smallmouth today. He shook off the hook before I could get a picture.

 

I ordered some screw lock Neko weights to try. Nail weights have been fine once I glued them but I want the metal weight for the noise factor it makes when hitting rocks.

[Arobb2012]

I have been using a #1 vmc neko hook for this and super gluing the nail weights in also. I tried a 1/0 egg thin wire hook and it was a pita to get re rigged properly so I went with the vmc neko hooks and haven't had any issues since. 

[OG Crankster]

I have heard this called the Ned-O rig.

[NYWayfarer]

27 minutes ago, OG Crankster said:

I have heard this called the Ned-O rig.

Better names for this rig would have been the Neko Ned or the reverse Finesse T-Rig.

[Allen Der]

I keep forgetting to try this with the TRD or big TRD.  I actually used a similar rig about 10 years ago after reading an article in In Fisherman.  The idea was the nail weight was better for fishing from shore than a normal texas rig because it would make the worm fall backwards to the deeper water. It worked but then I just started wacky rigging instead and never went back

[snake95]

6 hours ago, NYWayfarer said:

reverse Finesse T-Rig

That is an improvement.

 

How about the: Finesse Anywhere Reverse T-rig?

 

Definitely feel better about casting one out instead of a tiny child.

 

[WolfyBrandon]

[ June 18, 2020 ]

 

 

Jeremy with a 3.90 lb Largemouth on the "Tiny Child Rig"

 

WolfyBrandon