Shocked by ned rig success?

[livemusic]

Has anyone been enduring a slow or non-existent bite and gone to ned rig and been happy with the results? I haven't used it much. Problem is all the cover here; need weedless and I never did find a great solution to that when I was trying it. I was thinking of not letting the bait hit the bottom, just keep moving all the time and have less hangups. Thinking being that the bass on my main lake are seeing Senkos go by about every hour, lol, and a ned rig would be something different!

[Scott F]

I’ve fished with a few guys who, when they saw me throwing a Ned rig, were chuckling and making fun of me, teasing me about fishing for panfish. When I consistently outfished them with it, their attitude changed and they started borrowing baits from me. 

[livemusic]

8 minutes ago, Scott F said:

I’ve fished with a few guys who, when they saw me throwing a Ned rig, were chuckling and making fun of me, teasing me about fishing for panfish. When I consistently outfished them with it, their attitude changed and they started borrowing baits from me. 

 

What is your favorite bait(s), Scott?

[BrianMDTX]

I’m in the same boat as Ned rigs seem to pick up a lot of muck. Still trying, though. 

[HaydenS]

Swimming a ned rig is deadly.  I've hads days where nothing else will get it done.  I think I read somewhere that Ned Khede(maker of the ned)swims the ned 6 inches above the bottom.  Really fun bite. 

Cast it out, let it sink for a couple seconds, reel, pop it, set the hook! 

[Bird]

Personally throw a lot of Neds in the gin clear waters I fish, they work but arouse quite a few dinks, I mean quite a few.

[Kenny Yi]

Find EWG ned heads, they're great for areas with lots of hangups.

[Scott F]

1 hour ago, livemusic said:

 

What is your favorite bait(s), Scott?

I use the Z-Man Finesse ‘Shroomz with a TRD Elaztech plastic. I’ll use the jig with a weed guard if I’m throwing into downed trees. 

[A-Jay]

While I do not fish it a ton, I will reach for a Neg Rig in the calmest of conditions.

#flatlikeglass

Often thought of as a dink magnet type presentation, (and it can certainly be that at times)

I have some confidence in it's ability to get big bites as well. 

The Big TRD has accounted for some very respectable Brown Bass for me;

Including the second largest smallie of my life.

https://youtu.be/3OXnPQs0bqQ?t=61

So there's that.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

[gim]

It’s effective in areas where thick weeds aren’t present for me. I have tried it in areas for green bass where weeds are relatively thick and it just gets hung up too much. The jig head with the weed guard is junk too.

 

I prefer it on a hard bottom for brownies.

[walleyecrazy]

The ned rig has saved many days of fishing for me, including the last time I got out. I had about 3 hours available to fish, and had zero fish through the first 2.5 hours. I pulled out a ned rig consisting of a Roboworm nedworm on a Outkast Tackle perfect ned head, and caught 6 in the last half hour I was out.

 

As far as having trouble with fishing neds around vegetation, go with one of the EWG style ned heads that are available. I have a bunch from lifted jigs that I use when I need to fish the ned rig weedless. The EWG style ned heads are much more effective in my opinion around vegetation than the style with the little wire weed guards.

[Michigander]

Lots of vegetation around here so it's kind of a pain to fish. There's some Ned die-hards on my local tournament circuit but I don't see them getting many of those envelopes full of prize money. I'll stick with my baits that translate into dollars.

[Jig Man]

Ned saved the day for me.  They hardly hit swimbaits today and would not touch the shaky.  A keeper smallmouth took Ned on the first cast. I wound up catching 17 with 4 nice keepers.  Molting craw and Alabama craw were the best colors.

[Fishin Dad]

I am going to use it more this year after I saw what it could do.  I took my daughter (14 years old)to a Wednesday night derby.  She does not fish much, but has caught a few fish.  I thought I would just give her a ned rig from the back of the boat and just have her cast it out, count to 6, lift, drop, lift, drop, and reel up.  She caught a couple northerns and some small largies, she then caught a 13" crappie.  It was getting towards to the end of the tourney and we moved to a spot that can be really good when its on.  She catches a 3.5  pound bass, then hooks into a 5-6 and forced it a little bit, and it jumped and spit the hook.  Really nothing she probably could have done.  If we landed that fish, we get 1st or 2nd.  I saw the power of a ned that night.  

[RDB]

[PaulVE64]

45 minutes ago, RDB said:

the wizardry of elaztech

[padon]

lifted jigs ewg ned head. and use the lightest ones possible. also dont fish it like a shakey head. its more of a swimming gliding bait.

[txchaser]

I tried a bunch of stuff last summer and for what it's worth, I've had way better results in weeds with this:

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-HAYABUSA.html?from=basres

And even the version without the weedguard works fine if you just jiggle it through. Giant hooks and heavy heads don't end well. 1/16 and a #2 hook it won't bury down in the weeds or the muck very much (often light enough to just lay on top of the weeds), and there's not much sticking out to get snagged on.

 

The lifted heads and the new EWG heads from zman are better if there's any wood though. 

[BiteArray]

Count me in as a new believer in the Ned Rig! Just took a whole week of vacation to do some heavy spring fishing and was struggling in the first several days - only managed to scratch out 2 bass across 8 different bodies of water. On the last two days, hit a new lake I had never been to and decided to start with a standard Z-Man Ned setup in green pumpkin, and caught 20+ in the two days from the same lake, almost all on the Ned. A simple lift and retrieve allowed me to cover a fair bit of water in various types of structure and find where the fish were.

 

The only thing it failed in was getting bites from fish on beds, and for those I had to resort to other tactics.

 

Any other useful tips for a Ned Rig newcomer? I have a bunch of semi-ripped Senkos that I'm planning to try out. The only thing is that the watermelon color doesn't quite match the darker head, and I've also read that the action of the Senkos aren't as great, e.g. they don't stand up off the bottom.

[Sam]

10 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

I’m in the same boat as Ned rigs seem to pick up a lot of muck. Still trying, though. 

Bottom bait.

 

Will pick up everything on the bottom and then on top of the water column as you reel it in.

[TnRiver46]

I’m still a ned holdout. I’ve used some that friends gave me but never bought one. I sure do throw this a lot though, a fraction of the cost and gets stuck far less 

[Krux5506]

There's a reservoir near me where I can't get bass to bite anything but a ned rig. And it's to the extreme, like a 20+ fish day all on a ned rig, or I can cast something else for hours and get nothing. 
 

The Ned is a go-to for me in the dead of summer, but it can also be extremely boring fishing that slow in 90 degree weather. If the bite is on, its' fine, but to fish a ned rig for hours without bites can be mind numbingly boring. 

[scaleface]

I used a half a stick worm on a jig head   for river smallies and caught them by the dozens . Later I heard about this great new bait called a Ned rig . Dont use it for reservoir largemouths . They just are not functional for the places I fish . 

 

In a couple of weeks I'll be fishing a lake with extremely clear water and may be forced to adjust . We'll see.

[livemusic]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’m still a ned holdout. I’ve used some that friends gave me but never bought one. I sure do throw this a lot though, a fraction of the cost and gets stuck far less 

 

Just an FYI, for sake of any reader that is interested in what we post, and especially future readers when the image link is dead (that is, if your photo is on an external site), it would help if we all write the name of any bait we tout instead of "this."

2 hours ago, Krux5506 said:

There's a reservoir near me where I can't get bass to bite anything but a ned rig. And it's to the extreme, like a 20+ fish day all on a ned rig, or I can cast something else for hours and get nothing. 
 

The Ned is a go-to for me in the dead of summer, but it can also be extremely boring fishing that slow in 90 degree weather. If the bite is on, its' fine, but to fish a ned rig for hours without bites can be mind numbingly boring. 

 

How do you fish it? Do you just cast and reel it in with a steady retrieve?

[Bluebasser86]

A Ned rig is not a bottom contact bait in my opinion. It might occasionally touch bottom, but not intentionally. It's constantly moving and not picking up anything from the bottom or hanging up. I learned to fish it from one of Ned's friends that helped develop the Midwest Finesse concept.