How does that rig cast?

59 minutes ago, upchuck1383 said:

How does that rig cast?

Pretty well. the weight of the trd helps. If you go with a lighter plastic like the finesse shad, it's harder to get distance

The Ned rig doesn't snag often if you're using the correct sized hook. With the common notion in bass fishing being to use a hook with plenty of gap, it causes a lot more hang ups. I fish around grass, rock, and wood with a Ned and lose very few to snags. Even when they do snag, they pop lose easily usually. 

As for the hooks being weak, if you're having problems with breaking or bending hooks, you need to evaluate your setup or buy better heads. I use a 6' 10" ML/XF with 24lb Gliss and a fairly light drag and have no problems with breaking hooks, and I've landed fish way bigger and meaner than any bass on a Ned rig. I caught this one on one of my homemade heads with a #1 Eagle Claw Lil' Nasty hook. Only took about 5 minutes to land so I'm not taking it easy on them either. 

Got my January/February 2017 issue of BASSMASTER magazine today.  There's an article  "Introduction to the Ned Rig" in it.

21 minutes ago, BASS302 said:

Got my January/February 2017 issue of BASSMASTER magazine today.  There's an article  "Introduction to the Ned Rig" in it.

With no lesser authority than Ned, himself.  Neko article, too...cat's out 

Everyone know that the ned rig can catch plenty of fish. I catch a lot of fish on the green pumpkin/ orange color of z-man trd. I feel that this is an underrated color and perfectly imitates a crawfish. I just bought the big trd jig heads and excited to give them a try!

I'm a huge fan of the Ned rig with a TRD. I have had great success with the ZMan Hula Stickz as well; fished on the same tackle, same way. just fyi

Here's a link to a thread that details Ned rigging according to Ned Kahde The basics of the Ned rig. It should have all the information needed to start Ned rigging the right way.

We fish the Ned rig today and it out fished everything. We lost a lot of fish as well. I wish the hook was a little bigger and had a bigger barb in it. It almost doesn't have a barb. 

 

I may try the worm weight but turn it around so the flat side allows it to stand up and peg it. 

24 minutes ago, WildmanWilson said:

We fish the Ned rig today and it out fished everything. We lost a lot of fish as well. I wish the hook was a little bigger and had a bigger barb in it. It almost doesn't have a barb. 

 

I may try the worm weight but turn it around so the flat side allows it to stand up and peg it. 

What size hook and what line/rod where you using?  And how where you setting the hook?  A medium lite rod with eight pound line tied to a #4 or #2 hook is ideal, and with those tiny hooks a different hookset is required to land a decent percentage of bites.  Try simply reeling into the fish and letting the lite wire hooks do the rest, a traditional hookset will result in a lot of lost fish.

5 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

What size hook and what line/rod where you using?  And how where you setting the hook?  A medium lite rod with eight pound line tied to a #4 or #2 hook is ideal, and with those tiny hooks a different hookset is required to land a decent percentage of bites.  Try simply reeling into the fish and letting the lite wire hooks do the rest, a traditional hookset will result in a lot of lost fish.

I was using a med light with 6 pound line. 1/6 zman heads. We were letting the fish take it and just raising the rod and reeling. At least this seemed to work the best. Still had several good ones come off just bringing them in. Had one at least 5 plus get off. Caught several in the 2 to 4 range but still had nearly half get off. I'm sure it's a learning curve but I wasn't forcing them and had a rather loose drag. 

4 hours ago, WildmanWilson said:

I was using a med light with 6 pound line. 1/6 zman heads. We were letting the fish take it and just raising the rod and reeling. At least this seemed to work the best. Still had several good ones come off just bringing them in. Had one at least 5 plus get off. Caught several in the 2 to 4 range but still had nearly half get off. I'm sure it's a learning curve but I wasn't forcing them and had a rather loose drag. 

Not to cause a stir but I have to disagree with the "just reel into them" thing. I've fished the Ned a lot and can count the number of fish I've lost on just my hands. Now, I don't reel down and cross their eyes like I would with a jig or big soft plastic worm but I do give a short, quick hookset. When I detect a bite, whether it's my line jumping or just by feel, I reel up a small amount of slack (if I have any) and then give a quick, short, sharp set. Again, nothing hard but more of a half-hearted set.

If the reel into them thing works for ya, great. But try this other method too WildMan.

Keep us posted.

6 hours ago, WildmanWilson said:

I was using a med light with 6 pound line. 1/6 zman heads. We were letting the fish take it and just raising the rod and reeling. At least this seemed to work the best. Still had several good ones come off just bringing them in. Had one at least 5 plus get off. Caught several in the 2 to 4 range but still had nearly half get off. I'm sure it's a learning curve but I wasn't forcing them and had a rather loose drag. 

Hm, so its not the line or rods fault, as long as you were using braid, the hooks penetrate much more easily with no stretch braid instead of mono.  Another thing you should consider in the future is trying some 1/15 ounce heads, it won't help the hooking percentage but it is almost garrunteed to increase your catch rate. Contrary to what many people think, you don't want to feel the bait during the retrieve, which requires a lite jig head.  Scroll up five posts to find a link to a post detailing what the Ned rig is and how to most effectively use it.

10 hours ago, IndianaFinesse said:

 as long as you were using braid, the hooks penetrate much more easily with no stretch braid instead of mono.

Good point Indiana. I use 10 lb braid (Sufix Nanobraid) with a 10 lb fluoro leader. I would highly recommend braid for the no-stretch. That helps with that short, quick hookset I mentioned. I would not go all mono or all fluoro as they both feel like rubber bands to me.

41 minutes ago, Smokinal said:

Good point Indiana. I use 10 lb braid (Sufix Nanobraid) with a 10 lb fluoro leader. I would highly recommend braid for the no-stretch.  I would not go all mono or all fluoro as they both feel like rubber bands to me.

I agree, and I'm also going to add that I highly recommend sticking with Ned rigging the way it was intended and as detailed by Ned kahde and other Midwest finesse fishermen.  I prefer 6-8 pound braid (any braid will work, but my favorites Gliss) with a 8 pound leader.  If the fish get real finicky or if I'm looking for a challenging fight, I will occasionally take the leader down to four pound mono just for the challenge, but that is not necessary.

I was using mono so that may be the issue. I'm really falling in love with this bait though.
So is the hi vis braid the best?

On 2/21/2017 at 8:48 PM, WildmanWilson said:

I was using mono so that may be the issue. I'm really falling in love with this bait though.
So is the hi vis braid the best?

Use any braid you are confident in. As long as you can detect the bites, which can be subtle at times, than any will work. It's the no-stretch part of braid that matters. And, like mentioned above, I would always use a fluoro leader so that hi-vis for you doesn't become hi-vis to the fish. Keep us posted please!

On 2/21/2017 at 8:48 PM, WildmanWilson said:

I was using mono so that may be the issue. I'm really falling in love with this bait though.
So is the hi vis braid the best?

I agree with smokinal on the braid. It well help improve your hooking percentage, the stretchy mono you are currently using is likely the cause of your problem.  It will also help detect bites and make it easier to cast/retrieve.  Choose whichever color braid you are confident in, some people prefer high vis colored braid and some prefer green or smoke color.  Stay under ten pound test braid, more than that is overkill (braid typically breaks at about twice the advertised strength) and will reduce casting distance.  I use the litest braid I can find, usually between 5 and 8 pound test.

On 2/21/2017 at 8:48 PM, WildmanWilson said:

I was using mono so that may be the issue. I'm really falling in love with this bait though.
So is the hi vis braid the best?

It doesn't matter, the fish are not looking at the line and analyzing. I use green braid to blend on every reel but despite what people tell you, they're not looking at line.  Just like they're not identifying treble hooks hanging off hard baits. Bass are not that evolved. 

 

I love Ned rigging on braid because it floats and you can usually see the line move before you feel the hit, if you fish it with controlled slack.  I keep the drag loose on almost very reel to make up for the lack of stretch in braid.

On 2/21/2017 at 4:51 AM, Smokinal said:

Not to cause a stir but I have to disagree with the "just reel into them" thing. I've fished the Ned a lot and can count the number of fish I've lost on just my hands. Now, I don't reel down and cross their eyes like I would with a jig or big soft plastic worm but I do give a short, quick hookset. When I detect a bite, whether it's my line jumping or just by feel, I reel up a small amount of slack (if I have any) and then give a quick, short, sharp set. Again, nothing hard but more of a half-hearted set.

If the reel into them thing works for ya, great. But try this other method too WildMan.

Keep us posted.

 

I do the same. I was losing some fish, but I haven't lost any at all since I started reeling up the slack and giving it a pop.

I really wish Zman would make a green pumpkin blue flake TRD. The blue craw doesn't look like I wanted.

^^^That could be nasty!

1 hour ago, Smokinal said:

^^^That could be nasty!

 

It really would be. That color KILLING in my waters!

^^^What plastics are you throwing in that color?

Anyone have a chance to try the tubez yet? I'll probably go out this weekend and pick some up if my local store has them.