Well......in order to fish what I like I'm trying to make some "Ned" style hooks in 3/16 with a light fiber weedguard.  Didn't want to buy anymore molds so just used my old Pill mold and drilled a small hole in head and super glued 4 light fiber guards and along shank I layed a light stiff wire.  Hoping the TRD's will marry with this.  Have some smallies in 20' of water that need some love!!  Time consuming for stiff old hands.

As much as I like “rolling my own” tackle, I find the Zman Ned Rig jig heads with the wire barbs are hard to beat for holding Elaztech plastic baits.  I recently fished a very grassy lake in Canada.  Those jig heads, without a weed guard, worked perfect.  It was one jig head, one bait, and 30-50 smallmouths up to 5 lbs per day.  And the hooks were rigged exposed.  I was hoping the fish would bite a variety of baits and presentations but the Ned was catching 10 to 1 so it was Ned Ned Ned all week long.  I’m not complaining.

15 hours ago, BobP said:

As much as I like “rolling my own” tackle, I find the Zman Ned Rig jig heads with the wire barbs are hard to beat for holding Elaztech plastic baits.  I recently fished a very grassy lake in Canada.  Those jig heads, without a weed guard, worked perfect.  It was one jig head, one bait, and 30-50 smallmouths up to 5 lbs per day.  And the hooks were rigged exposed.  I was hoping the fish would bite a variety of baits and presentations but the Ned was catching 10 to 1 so it was Ned Ned Ned all week long.  I’m not complaining.

That's awesome and maybe I need a bit more time on the water with them....they have been frustrating.  I've played now with the 1/0 with weedguard this week and seemed to work well.  Guess it helps that I have a bunch of 1/0 mustad black nickle that need used so my cost is low.