The Ned Rig

[Team9nine]

17 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

So...is it mandatory to use a mushroom jig head? I have round jig heads. I hear it makes a difference on the fall, but does it make enough difference that I need to feed the monkey twice this week? ?

Of course not, but it somewhat depends on if you're just talking about the 'Ned rig' ('power finesse' the way most fish it) or Midwest Finesse (Ned's way)...or even who you talk to - lol. Even Ned had a short stint using VMC Moon Eye jigs after Gopher closed but before Zman resurrected their heads/molds. Mushroom heads (especially Gophers) do have their advantages and fish differently than ball heads, pill heads, etc.

[BrianMDTX]

16 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Of course not, but it somewhat depends on if you're just talking about the 'Ned rig' ('power finesse' the way most fish it) or Midwest Finesse (Ned's way)...or even who you talk to - lol. Even Ned had a short stint using VMC Moon Eye jigs after Gopher closed but before Zman resurrected their heads/molds. Mushroom heads (especially Gophers) do have their advantages and fish differently than ball heads, pill heads, etc.

Thanks. I’ve never tried the Ned in any fashion, so I’ll try it with the jig heads I have and see how it works. 
 

I have a collection of 5” Senkos ripped in half from WR. It looks good on the jig head. Anyone ever try that?

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Of course not, but it somewhat depends on if you're just talking about the 'Ned rig' ('power finesse' the way most fish it) or Midwest Finesse (Ned's way)...or even who you talk to - lol. Even Ned had a short stint using VMC Moon Eye jigs after Gopher closed but before Zman resurrected their heads/molds. Mushroom heads (especially Gophers) do have their advantages and fish differently than ball heads, pill heads, etc.

Now can we get Zman to bring back gophers pricing? In hindsight wish I would have bought more from gopher, the price was amazing for a great jighead. 

[Team9nine]

Just now, cgolf said:

Now can we get Zman to bring back gophers pricing? In hindsight wish I would have bought more from gopher, the price was amazing for a great jighead. 

Wish I would have stocked up more than I did, but it was getting hard to get orders toward the end...

[Kdizzle]

1 hour ago, cgolf said:

With the appropriate size hook;) With the demise of gopher tackle proper and reasonable Ned heads are difficult to come by. 

There are plenty of guys on Ebay that pour their own Ned heads and sell them for cheap.  They have to sell them in bulk to make any amount of money from their hobby, so at least if you are willing to buy 20 or 30 jigheads at a time you can get them very cheap.

 

Or you can just buy a **** ton of unpainted lead heads, use a file to grind the top of the jig head down flat, which would take a 1/8th oz head down to a 1/10th or thereabouts, then paint them yourself.  Which is very cheap to do by the way.

 

There are plenty of ways to avoid the modern scam of overpriced products based on nothing more than brand recognition.

[galyonj]

20 minutes ago, cgolf said:

Now can we get Zman to bring back gophers pricing? In hindsight wish I would have bought more from gopher, the price was amazing for a great jighead. 

Check out Mule Jigs.

[padon]

5 hours ago, TOXIC said:

For those that steady retrieve or swim it back, do you use the TRD baits?  I thought the main reason for using them is that they float and stand up when the bait is on the bottom?  If you retrieve it there is no reason for it to float correct?  

no thats largely marketing by zman and some others. the reason ned likes the elaztech material is for its bouyancy not the stand up action. when you slowly swim those baits on the light head it gluides and hovers better than other materials.the mushroom head plays into the swimming action also as it displaces water differently than a round head.

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Yes (TRD), along with many others. Ned and friends primarily like curlytail grubs or swimbaits like the Slim SwimZ for the steady swim retrieve. The floating/stand up on the bottom deal is largely a marketing gimmick promulgated by others (...and Zman). Not saying it might not help at times, but it was never the primary reason for using it. It has also been commented that the buoyancy might help with the no-feel retrieve. The main argument for Elaztech (Zman) baits is the durability - being able to catch 30-50-100 bass on the same piece of plastic.

 

As for the many retrieve comments above - lol - I find them all "interesting." There are (now) 6 retrieves for a reason. When you figure out why, you'll be ahead in the 'Ned' game 

remember the original guy ( icant remember is name) started using half of a strike king stick bait. he was stressing the frugal way of fishing . saying you dont need to buy $100 swmbaits and $400 rods to catch fish.you dont have to use the trd 3inch grubs and swimbaits have their days too.as far as the retrieve i used to fish them kind of like a shakey head  too,and they caught fish. then one day i started fishing them the way ned instructed and i started to really see what they could do when the bite was tough.

 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

So...is it mandatory to use a mushroom jig head? I have round jig heads. I hear it makes a difference on the fall, but does it make enough difference that I need to feed the monkey twice this week? ?

Round ones work well 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Thanks. I’ve never tried the Ned in any fashion, so I’ll try it with the jig heads I have and see how it works. 
 

I have a collection of 5” Senkos ripped in half from WR. It looks good on the jig head. Anyone ever try that?

Yep. I like an even skinnier worm but senko works good too. Be prepared to catch large drum as well and think they are monster bass when they thump it 

[BlakeMolone]

1 hour ago, cgolf said:

Now can we get Zman to bring back gophers pricing? In hindsight wish I would have bought more from gopher, the price was amazing for a great jighead. 

Have you tried the berkley half head? They are 50 cents a piece for the 1/16th ounce size and they have worked great for me!

[Cgolf]

27 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

Have you tried the berkley half head? They are 50 cents a piece for the 1/16th ounce size and they have worked great for me!

Yup I do have 4 packs of those and they do work really well. Just wish they had a #2 hook instead of a #1. 

1 hour ago, galyonj said:

Check out Mule Jigs.

They look like Morels with smaller hooks. Just wish they had bulk packs and price is lower than most. Might give them a try. 

1 hour ago, Kdizzle said:

There are plenty of guys on Ebay that pour their own Ned heads and sell them for cheap.  They have to sell them in bulk to make any amount of money from their hobby, so at least if you are willing to buy 20 or 30 jigheads at a time you can get them very cheap.

 

Or you can just buy a **** ton of unpainted lead heads, use a file to grind the top of the jig head down flat, which would take a 1/8th oz head down to a 1/10th or thereabouts, then paint them yourself.  Which is very cheap to do by the way.

 

There are plenty of ways to avoid the modern scam of overpriced products based on nothing more than brand recognition.

I haven’t bought anything on eBay in 15 plus years. With Christmas coming up I could ask the in-laws to grab some for me. They use eBay a fair amount and also use PayPal etc. we are behind the times. 
 

For me jigs in bulk are better because the rocks eat em. 
 

Any specific eBay users to buy from? Seeing some interesting lead free options. 

[Bluebasser86]

I used a lot of cheap, unpainted round heads (crappie jigheads from Walmart), and torn stick worms before I started pouring my own mushroom heads and saw the benefits of the Zman baits vs old stick worms. They'll catch plenty of fish.

[galyonj]

10 hours ago, cgolf said:

They look like Morels with smaller hooks. Just wish they had bulk packs and price is lower than most. Might give them a try.

That's pretty much exactly what they are. The guy from the Online Outdoorsman YouTube channel makes them, and he does a whole bunch of multispecies and ultralight fishing, so I'm guessing the hook size is on account of that. I bet he'd do bulk packs if you shot him an email or message, though.

[TOXIC]

Just for reference, don’t be afraid of small hooks.  A friend of mine pours his own Ned rigs and uses trout hooks.  I have caught 4lb fighting smallmouth and the behemoth pictured below on the Ned with 6lb test mono.

 

[Bird]

Wow, that had to be exciting on light tackle. 

[NYWayfarer]

I prefer the z-man Shroomz jighead and finesse TRD I have used a lot of different jig heads and baits but always com back to the Z-Man products. I have much better results with them.

 

Added a new species to my list of fishes that will hit the Ned rig today. A Fallfish.

 

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[padon]

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2 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Just for reference, don’t be afraid of small hooks.  A friend of mine pours his own Ned rigs and uses trout hooks.  I have caught 4lb fighting smallmouth and the behemoth pictured below on the Ned with 6lb test mono.

 

id be interested in buying some of those heads in 1/16 and  3/32  if your friend wants to sell them.

 

2 hours ago, NYWayfarer said:

I prefer the z-man Shroomz jighead and finesse TRD I have used a lot of different jig heads and baits but always com back to the Z-Man products. I have much better results with them.

 

Added a new species to my list of fishes that will hit the Ned rig today. A Fallfish.

 

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the zman heads are ok with me buy I recently got some of their new og heads and I really like them.

[BoatSquirrel]

22 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

I have a collection of 5” Senkos ripped in half from WR. It looks good on the jig head. Anyone ever try that?

Heck yeah!  I fish senkos all spring, then neds all summer with those half torn senkos!

[BrianMDTX]

25 minutes ago, BoatSquirrel said:

Heck yeah!  I fish senkos all spring, then neds all summer with those half torn senkos!

I have zero experience with the Ned rig. But this does look like it will catch some bass!

 

[NYWayfarer]

32 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I have zero experience with the Ned rig. But this does look like it will catch some bass!

 

Yes.

 

When you get a chance try to get some of the mushroom head jigs. I find they work much better when you want to bottom hop the Ned Rig. The bait will stand up, or fall over slowly at the very least. I get a lot of hits at that point. Ball head jigs the bait flops over and never really gets that action. They are fine for casting and slow retrieve though.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

I have zero experience with the Ned rig. But this does look like it will catch some bass!

 

Slowly reel that dude along with somewhat of a yo yo action and it looks like a minnow (“minnuh”) Ode to Charlie brewer 

[Bluebasser86]

On 10/15/2020 at 11:28 AM, TOXIC said:

Just for reference, don’t be afraid of small hooks.  A friend of mine pours his own Ned rigs and uses trout hooks.  I have caught 4lb fighting smallmouth and the behemoth pictured below on the Ned with 6lb test mono.

 

I've landed a 21+ lb flathead on one of mine in about 5 minutes. I was in a tournament so I wasn't taking it easy but I didn't want to just break it off. Hook held up fine.

[Kdizzle]

I find that the guys that break hooks a lot on ned rigs are the guys that have no idea about how to use the drag on a spinning reel.  Usually big jig fisherman that are used to face ripping hook sets using heavy rods with the drag tightened all the way down.

 

Gotta know how to the use the equipment.

[Bluebasser86]

On 10/16/2020 at 9:56 PM, Kdizzle said:

I find that the guys that break hooks a lot on ned rigs are the guys that have no idea about how to use the drag on a spinning reel.  Usually big jig fisherman that are used to face ripping hook sets using heavy rods with the drag tightened all the way down.

 

Gotta know how to the use the equipment.

A friend of mine complained that he broke the hook on a couple of my Ned rigs. He was using a 6' 10" M/F spinning rod (exact same one I use for shakyheads), with braid and the drag locked down. I watched him set the hook and it looked like he was trying to swing on a fish on a T-rigged plastic. Wasn't much of a surprise after seeing that.

[Cgolf]

11 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

A friend of mine complained that he broke the hook on a couple of my Ned rigs. He was using a 6' 10" M/F spinning rod (exact same one I use for shakyheads), with braid and the drag locked down. I watched him set the hook and it looked like he was trying to swing on a fish on a T-rigged plastic. Wasn't much of a surprise after seeing that.

 

On 10/16/2020 at 9:56 PM, Kdizzle said:

I find that the guys that break hooks a lot on ned rigs are the guys that have no idea about how to use the drag on a spinning reel.  Usually big jig fisherman that are used to face ripping hook sets using heavy rods with the drag tightened all the way down.

 

Gotta know how to the use the equipment.

Over the years I have found big hook sets to be way over rated and I think folks lose more fish because of them. On some bigger hook sets I have had, mostly because the fish was going the opposite way of a moving bait, if I landed the fish I would find the hook loosely in the mouth with a smallish hole torn and the hook drops right out with no tension. If you lose tension after one of these hook sets the fish could easily toss the bait and maybe even with tension on it is easier for them to shake loose.
 

With a nice easy sweep set the hook is almost always solidly in place and I need a pliers a lot because once the hook is out there is basically no hole in there mouth. guessing this may be easier on the fish to but don’t really know for sure. 
 

Only exception to this is Pike and Musky that have tough jaws to penetrate. When I am bass fishing though I would rather miss those.