What Is Your Favorite Neko Rig Worm ?

[FryDog62]

17 hours ago, softwateronly said:

The airtail wasn’t available my last TW worm order so I moved over to hags tornado. The 6.5 & 8” are both big bass magnets, float, seem to last forever, and storm chaser is a hard to beat color.  I’m not sure I’m gonna go back to grande bass. 
 

scott

Those look like a good find. Another alternative is the 13 Fishing Bubble Butt worm.  Beefier worms with floating tails just seem to be the ticket for larger fish...

[walleyecrazy]

Bizz Baits Dizzy Diamond has been my go to for the neko rig for about the last 3 years now. 

[Team9nine]

Not a fan of Neko rigging. Seems like a technique in search of a problem and/or buyer. Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned.

[Bass Rutten]

Zoom mag finesse worm.

 

33 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Not a fan of Neko rigging. Seems like a technique in search of a problem and/or buyer. Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned, and mostly Zman baits.

 

I used to think so too, but I eventually came to think of it as an alternative to a shakyhead/Texas rig rather than a variation on a wacky rig, which makes more sense to me considering it's rate of fall is more suited to bottom contact rather than targeting the whole column as with wacky/jig wacky, I've caught fish pulsing it horizontally off the bottom as well. It's value for me lies in being far less prone to getting wedged in hard cover and picking up vegetation than shakyhead, which in turn also allows it to be fished faster at a given depth to cover more water and be used as a search bait.

[gim]

39 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned, and mostly Zman baits.

 

A weightless wacky takes forever to reach deeper depths.  A jig head and a ned rig get hung up in weedy areas.

 

Think of a neko as a wacky rig with a weight inserted to the stubby end.  It gets down to the desired 10-20 foot depths much quicker, increasing the lure in the strike zone, which generates more bites.  Largemouth bass here often sit right on those deep weed lines in midsummer and a fast falling stick bait produces.

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Think of a neko as a wacky rig with a weight inserted to the stubby end. 

 

Neko I think of as an alternative to a Ned - bottom contact, drag or hop it along - there's also the Micro-Jika rig

 

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Largemouth bass here often sit right on those deep weed lines in midsummer and a fast falling stick bait produces.

Weighted Wacky - 1/32 or 1/16 jig head...lift it when it hits bottom and let fall - different way of working it from Ned or Neko.

[gim]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

jig head

 

The hook is still exposed though.  Its gets hung up.

 

The majority of my bites with a neko actually occur on the initial fall.  Not bottom contact.

[MN Fisher]

41 minutes ago, gimruis said:

The hook is still exposed though.  Its gets hung up.

Weedless wacky and weighted wacky hooks takes care of that issue...I have wacky hooks in weightless, 1/16oz and 1/8oz in regular and weedless - covers all my bases for wacky and neko.

[LrgmouthShad]

48 minutes ago, gimruis said:

occur on the initial fall.  Not bottom contact.

Helpful, thank you

[gim]

18 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I have wacky hooks in weightless, 1/16oz and 1/8oz in regular and weedless - covers all my bases for wacky and neko.

 

I guess that would also work.  I use the same hook for every wacky and neko.  Just change out the nail weight instead.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Just change out the nail weight instead.

Yep - weightless hook - 1/32, 1/16 or 1/8oz tungsten nail weight.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

11 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Those look like a good find. Another alternative is the 13 Fishing Bubble Butt worm.  Beefier worms with floating tails just seem to be the ticket for larger fish...

Discontinued

7 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Not a fan of Neko rigging. Seems like a technique in search of a problem and/or buyer. Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned, and mostly Zman baits.

I would rather fish a SH too.  The advantage to the Neko is bottom composition.  If its snaggy or scummy it comes through cleaner and the knot doesn't take the beating.  I use an EWG or straight shank when it gets thick, I guess technically its a chicken rig at that point, but the difference is slight IMO.  

On 5/6/2024 at 3:27 PM, softwateronly said:

2) Second is the T-Mac worm which is such a great replacement for the inconsistent Zoom Trick Worm. 

The tails float on them?

[softwateronly]

1 hour ago, GetFishorDieTryin said:

Discontinued

I would rather fish a SH too.  The advantage to the Neko is bottom composition.  If its snaggy or scummy it comes through cleaner and the knot doesn't take the beating.  I use an EWG or straight shank when it gets thick, I guess technically its a chicken rig at that point, but the difference is slight IMO.  

The tails float on them?

Tails float on tornados not t macs. 
 

scott

[GetFishorDieTryin]

On 5/6/2024 at 3:27 PM, softwateronly said:

EASY - both of them have floating tails:

 

1) GrandeBass Airtail Rattler is the bomb. Best big fish lure for me in the past 5 years.  
 

2) Second is the T-Mac worm which is such a great replacement for the inconsistent Zoom Trick Worm. 

Oh ok, by both, I thought that's what you meant.  

[FryDog62]

On 5/7/2024 at 6:00 PM, GetFishorDieTryin said:

Discontinued

I would rather fish a SH too.  The advantage to the Neko is bottom composition.  If its snaggy or scummy it comes through cleaner and the knot doesn't take the beating.  I use an EWG or straight shank when it gets thick, I guess technically its a chicken rig at that point, but the difference is slight IMO.  

The tails float on them?

You can still find a few Bubble Butt’s around: https://battalionbait.com/shop/soft-plastics/13-fishing-bubble-butt/

 

The body of the T-Mac worm overall floats better than the Trick Worm. And if you do want a worm that looks like the Trick Worm and has an actual air bubble in the tip of the tail, GrandeBass makes a good one: https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?start=0&count=20&searchtext=GrandeBass+Wiggler&_gl=1*1jyg0oo*_up*MQ..&gclid=CJDT3-2SjNECFZCMaQodOJECzA

[FryDog62]

On 5/7/2024 at 1:08 PM, Team9nine said:

Not a fan of Neko rigging. Seems like a technique in search of a problem and/or buyer. Weightless wacky or jig head wacky, or Ned, and mostly Zman baits.

Yes and no… yes there is always the next gimmick technique to hook fishermen, but I do think Neko fits a couple niches for me well. I’ve pretty much switched over from Shaky heads. I would lose a fair amount of shaky head jigs in rocks or bottom structure where the head of the Neko just flexes and doesn’t bury in. I also use Neko worms to skip docks… the lead is buried in the plastic and if you hit any metal structures like dock posts, pontoons, etc. it’s just a soft “thud.” A lot of times I get a reaction bite skipping a Neko, and sometimes I just let it soak/twitch with the tail straight up (as opposed to a wacky worm that lays flat) and that seems to work pretty well for neutral and negative fish when the bite is tough. 

[Hook2Jaw]

I don't Neko rig often, but when I first tried the technique I used a YUM Money Craw and it was highly successful.  I've also caught them on a Neko rig using a Yamamoto Senko or YUM Dinger.

 

 

One thing I will say that hasn't been mentioned is how well the VMC Weedless Neko Hook in size 1 has performed for me utilizing it with wacky rigs and Neko rigs.  Feathered through cover, the fluorocarbon weed guard does an excellent job of preventing snags without preventing the hook from setting.  When that hook does set, it's in the top of the mouth a high percentage of the time.

[KP Duty]

On 5/4/2024 at 4:45 PM, GetFishorDieTryin said:

GB airtails are tough to beat for consistency.  Zmans work great and you don't have to use a o ring, but the salted baits from zman change in sink rate as the salt dissolves.  

Something is going on at Grandebsss.  Tackle Warehouse is out of stock of ALL their baits.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Once a bait is discontinued I'm really hesitant to fish any I have left, even if they're great because I know supply is finite.  Hard baits Ill fish more readily, but IM just careful with them, but soft baits go too fast to incorporate them into a lineup consistently while rationing them, but that's just me.

AT wigglers are a good example.  I'll never understand why GB discontd El Jefe, just that and trophy hunter will cover 99% of all situations IMO.  Ive got some bags of El Jefe in AT rattlers and wiggler, but they will go fast if were to use them as I normally would.  

Ive heard good things about the Tmac, I just have dozens of unopened bags of flat bottomed straight tails.  

Shame about 13s soft plastics, they were good quality and werent crazy $.  All of the ones I tried out other than some of the swimbaits were neutrally buoyant, so they looked good on a t rig or shakey head without and air pocket.

 

On 5/10/2024 at 8:04 AM, KP Duty said:

Something is going on at Grandebsss.  Tackle Warehouse is out of stock of ALL their baits.

Something always seems to be going there.  In the few years Ive been using them theyre perpetually shaking things up, and not for the better.  Initially they only had a few baits, but all were solid performers.  I think they changed hands, because they disontinued some super popular colors, introduced a bunch of new baits, even getting into hardbaits and also changing the scent of the soft plastic 2 times in as many years along with bag graphics.

[KP Duty]

1 hour ago, GetFishorDieTryin said:

Once a bait is discontinued I'm really hesitant to fish any I have left, even if they're great because I know supply is finite.  Hard baits Ill fish more readily, but IM just careful with them, but soft baits go too fast to incorporate them into a lineup consistently while rationing them, but that's just me.

AT wigglers are a good example.  I'll never understand why GB discontd El Jefe, just that and trophy hunter will cover 99% of all situations IMO.  Ive got some bags of El Jefe in AT rattlers and wiggler, but they will go fast if were to use them as I normally would.  

Ive heard good things about the Tmac, I just have dozens of unopened bags of flat bottomed straight tails.  

Shame about 13s soft plastics, they were good quality and werent crazy $.  All of the ones I tried out other than some of the swimbaits were neutrally buoyant, so they looked good on a t rig or shakey head without and air pocket.

 

Something always seems to be going there.  In the few years Ive been using them theyre perpetually shaking things up, and not for the better.  Initially they only had a few baits, but all were solid performers.  I think they changed hands, because they disontinued some super popular colors, introduced a bunch of new baits, even getting into hardbaits and also changing the scent of the soft plastic 2 times in as many years along with bag graphics.

A shame.  Their baits don't get talked about a lot on here, but they have some killer offerings.  I stocked up during the 1/2 off christmas sale in '22.  GSM should try and buy that brand.

[waymont]

4" or 5" BPS Stik-O