Team9nine

I'm as guilty as anyone in this regard, but it stems from my deep appreciation and respect for the history and pioneers of our sport (Ned rig is literally the modern day reincarnation of the Beetle/Beetle Spin developed by Chuck Woods), as well as my growing cynicism with today's media culture....and maybe a little because I'm turning into a cranky old man Get off my lawn! See, there you go again taking a slap at history The great Charlie Brewer and his original slider system - so simple yet so complex. With a pair of side cutters you could just trim off fractions of lead at a time from his heads to get exact depth and speed control of your worm - even if that turned out to be 1/9 oz. Just kidding, of course. It is kind of sad how the old simple techniques have become overlooked these days, though. -T9

Back in the old days when we shaved lips, it was to get a little extra depth out of our deep diving cranks. I would assume that is still a valid reason for doing so on modern baits. - T9

It's in my office - I don't have a basement -T9

Wolf Lake NW of you splitting the border and some of the harbors off Lake Michigan for smallies. Cedar Lake to your south is the other that comes to mind. - T9

I'm also going with a fly version of a Ned, but not the same thing. Smallie fly tyers did the same thing when they tried mimicking soft plastic tubes - but they were still flies. The jig head and soft plastic make the difference in my eyes (and the equipment each was built to be thrown with)...but those should still catch fish -T9

No offense, but the I-F report from Texas is pretty weak - and one could even argue the data "cherry picked." The anecdotal evidence ("experience") is compelling at times, but there is still very little in the way of credible data/studies supporting this supposed effect. I'd say at best, you've got a secondary (lunar) factor that comes into play once other more important variables are considered/met. Just my opinion though. -T9

For all we know, it was just as likely your lucky pair of underwear that day that made the difference Honestly, you were there and I get the feeling you don't even know the answer for certain. There's just no way to tease out all the variables with any degree of absolute certainty. -T9

Here's the difference. In the original Zoom post you keep bringing up, the OP wanted to use them on a shakeyhead. When you start attaching normal plastics on 1/8 or 3/16 oz. heads, whether that plastic has any salt in it is irrelevant because it is basically going to fish the same regardless. And yes, in that case, if you buy two packs of Zoom baits in a bunch of colors, some salted and another set unsalted, the manufacturer won and you wasted your money. In the case of a Ned rig where you have a highly buoyant piece of specialized plastic (Elaztech), and where the manufacturer adds salt to try and make it sink, and you are only fishing a 1/32 or 1/16 oz. jig head, the bait will fish completely different with the salt compared to without. An unsalted ZinkerZ won't even sink with a 1/32 oz head - it floats. That's about as good as I can try and explain it. -T9

Good observation. This is due to the difference in formulation hardness between baits. From Zman: "When salt is added to our material, it makes it feel harder, or stiffer (salt obviously is not as flexible as ElaZtech). To compensate for this and make our ZinkerZ feel very soft like our other ElaZtech baits, we use a softer material for the ZinkerZ. Unlike other manufacturers, we can easily vary the hardness or softness of our material from one bait to another because we compound our own material. After a ZinkerZ has been used for a while and some of the salt is expelled from it, anglers are left with a very soft bait, and that is another quality that we have been told Midwest finesse anglers desire."

Thanks for reminding me to never use sarcasm again in any response I give to one of your posts. It was a situational response at the time that obviously went right over your head - my bad -T9

Some guys stretch and some don't, mainly because it will change the color of some of the baits. The rest usually soak, though the water doesn't have to be hot, or even very warm, and you don't have to soak them too long. I'd cut the baits in half first before doing either, myself, and no need to overstretch (just a couple inches over various parts usually works). I also like to just let the salt disappear naturally while fishing. Usually an hour of fishing will have the majority of it gone. The more fish you catch, the faster it will happen -T9

I don't have any kind of relationship with the various solunar or lunar tables available - never have, outside of studying a few large caches of data for any patterns. They are what you make them out to be. There are many respected anglers who will tell you they can be important, even accurate, and for those anglers they probably are. For myself, I never even look at them, and don't think twice about it. I feel local weather, water and forage conditions will always trump any supposed "best" feeding times/days. I fish quite a lot, but of all the things to consider when trying to get out on the water, trying to schedule days and times around some lunar feeding calendar is about at the bottom of my list. -T9

The Damiki Rig is the local "big deal" down on those waters this time of year, and a good many of the Elites prefished with locals that turned them on to the technique, and the ones that didn't would have heard about it through some other channel. These guys aren't stupid or stubborn - When in Rome, do as the Romans do. You likely won't hear another word about the bait from these guys after they leave Cherokee. -T9

Yes, absolutely scares the hell out of them....unless that noise is coming from your Hydrowave, in which case the fish will then school around your transducer speaker, and some might even try and eat it -T9

Stratos 268V - First "new" bass boat I ever bought ? This was back in 1991. Kept a lot of paperwork around for years, but likely don't have it still sitting around. I'll look. That said, front livewell was about 11 gallons and the rear was 22-23 gal. I also want to say the fuel cap. was around 18 gal. Remember carrying spare fuel with me in the boat for long runs on the Ohio R. Had it rigged with a Johnson GT100, LOWRANCE in-dash flashers both front and console along with an Eagle Mach I paper graph. -T9

Very little, because they are paid to promote their sponsors. Watch the on-the-water footage closely, as well as some of the photo coverage on the websites. Many are using what they say, just not to the degree you might think, and there are always a few baits they are trying to keep quiet about, or that are local/regionally "hot" they'll use for an event. When it's all said and done, I usually just call up Wheeler and ask for the scoop ? -T9

So do you think if things had been reversed and you had the white sp'bait, and 2nd place guy had the pink/chrt colored one, he would have beat you by more than 20 pounds? Personally, I'd bet against it thinking you were either the better angler or had the better positioning on the area ? and not simply the better color. But who knows - maybe he would have smoked you -T9

Quoting from Bill Dance's book on the art of worm fishing, "There He Is." "Any color is all-right, just as long as it's blue!" -T9

Good write-up. I guess the one thing I'd add is that if you haven't taken the time to read the history behind Midwest Finesse fishing (and most haven't), then you've totally missed the foundation upon which the whole system is built. Without that background, it's easy to see why people focus on just the bait, and refer to it as a "Ned rig." Ned and I were emailing back and forth last month about this when he wrote, "I began by telling the world about how Chuck Woods of Kansas City, who was as poor as the proverbial church mouse, taught us how to catch scores and scores of largemouth bass on spinning rods with Beetles, jig worms, jigs and eels. Now, Chuck's genius has been forgotten, even by me at times." -T9

This entire sport (and industry) is one big contradiction ? Anything someone says, someone else somewhere will have an example that they say proves them wrong. As such, I pretty much view fishing as a stack of probabilities. d**n near anything can happen once as there are few absolutes in this game, but certain things happen enough (are more probable) that you can actually base a game plan and decisions around. That's mostly where I like to play the game. Edit: "Match the hatch" is just a form of Optimal Feeding Theory. There are specific times when it really matters, but a whole lot of times when it doesn't. -T9

We have them here. Attached pic is from drawdown remains I found. They aren't in every body of water, and usually in very low numbers when they do appear. I know they have them in Canada and Michigan among others. Also see: Blue craw science link -T9

@Paul Roberts will likely have your answer, or at least some good info to point you in the right direction. I'd either message him or wait until he sees this post since I tagged him Hi, Paul! Pretty sure I remember him saying he spent a fair amount of time over there in the not too distant past. -T9

I might get lucky and take him under that format, but he's become too good under normal tourney formats for me to compete against. It did take him until last year to finally get me on a crappie trip though ? Yep, started taking him fishing when he was just 14 yrs old and his parents would have to drive him to meet me at the lake to go fishing. Saw his potential immediately and been working with him ever since. Won an amazing amount of stuff at a young age...keep watching MLF this year for more, plus whatever he does on the Elites. -T9

I've tried convincing Wheeler to throw it, and he's played with it some, but it's just not his style or tempo. I think if I could just whip his arse with it one time around here he'd see the light -T9

@Catt Not sure if you guys have seen this old Al Lindner Rayburn video he posted, but thought I'd share just in case. Neat footage from back in the 70s. Old Rayburn video footage -T9