Cgolf

This year I have to give props to the Ned rig if has been solid on the river. A sleeper I have just started using is the Arkie salty crawlin fry cut in half on a jig head thinking I am imitating a heligremite. The 18" today and another decent small I is telling me this will be a winner too, only downside is they aren't that durable.

It is ridiculous with how hard these are to find locally. While I know I could get them from tackle warehouse, I currently don't have the funds to do a full order. All the shops I talked to don't carry them because to be honest they just see them as another senko knock off and they already carry plenty of them and other soft plastics. The new Cabela's store we have has been out since I bought the last pack and they don't know when they are getting more in. Is this a supply issue on Z mans part or in Cabela's case an issue where they aren't stocking their new store well. Also the Z man distributers could do a better job of differentiating there product, when I explained the difference with the Z man baits to one shop owner he sounded intrigued that it wasn't just another senko like bait.

I liked these rigged as a drop shot bait in shallow water. Would fish it in 5-6 fow, cast it out and reel it back slowly and did quite well with it. Plan on doing more of the same this year.

To the op reading through all this and the original post, it could just be a case that the tangles are happening at the end of the cast as the bait loses forward energy and the blades take over and cause the bait to helicopter and tangle. As everyone has said using the thumb brake while the bait is above the water just before it hits this point should take care of the issue. Hitting the brakes hard straightens out the bait and it should be ready to retrieve as soon as it hits the water. When I am tossing them shallow, I am pretty sure I stop the spool in the air and switch hands and engage the reel as the lure is hitting the water, I have had many hits just as the bait is dropping in.

I have used this stuff as leader material with no issues over the years, and the only time it breaks is when I hang up and break it off. I do wet the knots when I make them if anything it may break right at the pound rating, where I think braid has a higher breaking strength than rated. I even use this stuff as leader material when fly fishing for trout and smallies.

This spring I had excellent luck tossing the New echo over a flat that varied from 2-5 feet. Nothing to bounce it off, but the fish sure jumped on it. Great search bait. Also fish them in sparse reeds that have lanes to retrieve through, bass really jump on this presentation, because they don't see many cranks in that cover.

I have had good luck with the Strike King baby king shad. While only 3" I have caught some nice bass and had a follow to the boat from one of the biggest muskies I have ever seen, so big fish potential should be there with bass too.

The shadow rap and Bill Lewis Echo were two lures I was excited about this year and they both have produced for me. Also picked up some anglers choice baits and really like the killshot fished on a jig in stained water, can't wait to hit some clear water to fish it on a drop shot.

The slider book and lunkers love night crawlers are great books, I have both, and yup finesse ha been around along time. I think both are still available.

I know the fly casting roll cast, but not sure with a bait caster. My cast I picked up from a KVD vid is the following, is it a roll cast? Start with rod at 2 o'clock 45 degrees to target with lure hanging about 12" down. Do a pretty violent clockwise loop and cast lure out on a flat and low trajectory that lands surprisingly splash free. Not a max distance cast, but goes farther than you would think and great for windy conditions. And OP good luck finding a video, all I got was fly casting videos.

This and I usually give it a stronger toss than needed and rely on my thumb to stop it where I want it. The hard toss should keep it from helicoptering. I have thrown a 3/16 SB with a size 7 trailing willow blade with no helicoptering casting like this.

Got 2 fish right away this morning hooked in the upper lip with a bit heavier jig, but as you can see in the picture not a heavyweight. Unfortunately it snagged a rock quickly and had to be broken off. I did fish it with no slack, so that probably helped too. Even with the bouyant plastic this thing sinks well, so need to stick to lighter weights than I use with tubes and other soft plastics. If the river isn't blown out tomorrow I will give the lighter jig another shot keeping the slack out of the line.

Starting to wonder if it isn't a good moderate to heavy current rig. To fish it slow like the original idea, a heavier head would be needed, so while the weight would be different from the original idea, the way it would be fished would be similar. We will see how it goes, this would be an easy decision if it didn't catch fish lol.

If the storms stay away tomorrow morning I will give it a go trying to control the slack line better, And will have a slightly heavier head with a shorter shank hook. I am hoping the shorter shank hook helps some too. I intended to try the mashed barb and controlled slack line today, but my first cast was a doozie and I had to break of the jig, first time that has happened with this rig and I didn't have a spare rigged up. Like the rig, just trying to dial in the particulars to a river situation.

I have something similar, that I use, the issue I am fighting is the take in the gullet Knicks the gills, and on a dink Smallie there is not much room to work the hook out. That is why I will go barbless on this jig and see how it goes. Will also see if I keep the slack out if that helps. I think in lakes this wouldn't be an issue as the weight and line tie would keep it oriented properly. While I am not fishing whitewater, the current sweeps are pretty strong and toss that puny head around. The good news I am catching fish, just want to make sure I do my best to preserve the resource, as I expect to fish this area for many more years.

Having fished this rig the last week or so on the river, I am seeing a potential problem in moving water. 99 percent of the time with river fish it is tap hit and either stick em or yank it away and it is always in the upper lip. With the Ned rig what I am seeing is slack line hits are always hooked on the bottom and in smaller fish this is less then ideal, in fact I am going to try barbless and see how that works. My thoughts are in the current on slack line, the bouancy of the lure working with current has the hook point riding down causing the questionable hookups. If I keep the line tight and the bait moving faster than the current I hookup properly. While not an ideal presentation, I think this is how it has to be fished in this situation.

Only on spinning reels correct, or have you tried it on a baitcaster? All my spinning reels have fireline except one which uses nanofil. The pink fireline was really good stuff when it was out too, easier to see than the crystal.

Thanks for the replies. I will go with it is a bad spool and put the 50lb power pro I took off back on the reel. I just liked the red color because it was really easy to see the line compared to the green that blends in with the river.

The power pro I have used in the past is 50lb and it has worked great for me and never given me any issues. For my deep divers I wanted to try some lighter line and wanted to see how the red looked in the water. I went with 30lb in the red. I tie all my braid with a Uni knot, fire line with either the improved clinch or Uni knot and nanofil with a double palomar. Simply put the knots fail, lifting fish out of the water, gives up really easy on snags, 10 lb fireline holds better. Really bummed, because I have liked power pro in the past. Will stick with 832 and fireline in the future I guess.

The only thing I found is it didn't like to be burned, I could perhaps tune it a bit, but the thing was catching fish so I didn't mess with it.

The new Bill Lewis Echo is a winner as is the Shadow Rap. One oldie, but used for first time this year by me is the X Rap. As much as I would hate to say it, that goofy Ned Rig, have caught fish on something similar before, but this one wins because the bouyant plastic snags less.

We don't have that big of bass here but do have musky that are really finicky with big baits. Can you tell what type of strikes you are getting, are they bumping it or getting to the hooks. Are you getting the hits on a steady retrieve or are you switching it up? I have seen big fish follow a steady retrieve, and not make a solid strike until the lure does something different. If they are just bumping it a random move could commit them.

1 Smallie that's it. That is unless you include the swim senko, caught a lot of largemouth with that bait, but to me other than the name it is a completely different kind of bait.

On the river I am mostly using the baits because of the buoyancy, so soaking them is crucial for me. The more I use them the less I snag on the rocks. The cool part about the rig though is that it still hits the rocks which is crucial, it just doesn't snag. That was why I was going to soak mine longer. Lake fishing I wouldn't worry about it at all, cut and fish would be that pattern there. I personally never keep baits in the original package, that is changing slowly, but generally not something I have done.

Yup, they didn't have the TRD's when I was there either, I just stretched a Zinker Z a few times, cut It in half and soaked them in water overnight based on someone's suggestion on the board and it worked fine. I may let the next batch soak a little longer to get more of the salt out before I fish them so they float a little better.