Love the Ned rig for hard bottoms.

 

I was wondering- Does the Ned Rig concept work for silt/weed bottoms?

Works everywhere for me  

 

Just in weeds, it'll need cleaning ....

2 minutes ago, Darren. said:

Works everywhere for me  

 

Just in weeds, it'll need cleaning ....

How light do you go?

2 hours ago, dgkasper58 said:

How light do you go?

6# leader line attached to 10 or 15# braid mainline.

It's not entirely weedless, but because the hook is smaller and effectively upside down, it actually ends up avoiding most snags more often than not. Usually, you will pick up some weeds.

 

As for a jig head, go with a 1/20 1/15th ounce if you only get one, you don't need a whole lot of weight.

The less weight the better.especially in weeds 1/15 or 1/20 the light weight makes it kinda sit up on the weeds rather than bury in them. When you pop it loose and let it sink /swim is a lot of times when strikes will come.

A lot of the lakes that Ned fishes around here are lakes with weeds or mud bottom. I use a 1/16oz almost all the time and adjust retrieve speed to stay just above the weeds. A part of Midwest Finesse Fishing is catching fish off "nothing" banks that other anglers ignore, which are often mud/silt/clay bottom banks with little cover but may be good feeding areas due to an abundance of invertebrates that live in it. 

Can you explain what a Ned rig is I've never heard of it 

17 minutes ago, FishOn!GetTheNet said:

Can you explain what a Ned rig is I've never heard of it 

It's a small mushroom type jig head with a small stick bait on it.  Very finesse presentation.

 

It's main attraction is that the very light jig head stands straight up  and even when you are dragging it along the bottom once you stop the buoyancy of the plastic raises the "tail".

 

It is a very popular trend that has come back to fishing.

 

39 minutes ago, FishOn!GetTheNet said:

Can you explain what a Ned rig is I've never heard of it 

The correct name would be the Midwest Finesse rig, but Ned rig is what it ended up getting tagged as by the followers of the fishing methods of Ned Kehde. 

 

Simply put, it's a small, less than 4", plastic or elastec bait on a small jighead, no heavier than 3/32oz head, with a small, light wire hook. It's fished with a no feel presentation, of which there are 6 base Midwest Finesse retrieves. It doesn't have to be a mushroom head, it doesn't have to be a Zman TRD or half a ZinkerZ, those are requirements put on the rig by the folks that sell those products they want everyone to buy.

All about the Ned Rig:

 

 

The downfall of the Ned rig is it is a small fish bait. For sure you won't catch any good ones on such a tiny little bait

 

Its a killer bait in most places. Slop moss or thick weeds are not good, but stay on the outer edges of this cover. And yes, works well over hard bottoms and rock bottoms too.

I believe they make a version with a weed guard.  I have not personally tried it however, and yes I have experienced that it is not ideal in thick weeds because it has an exposed hook.  There are days when basically the only lure that will work is the ned rig.  Sometimes it catches dink after dink but that is better than not getting any bites at all.

I found a bait that works good with the larger power finesse heads, although I am sure there are others. Grandebass Airtail Rattlers. I think all of their baits float. They are large enough for the bigger power finesse shroomz heads, unlike the rest of the Z man products. No idea why Z man made these heads when none of their baits work well with them lol.

The Ned Rig works great around grass when you keep the weight 1/15 of an ounce or lighter. Like others have said, when you snap it out of the grass, that's when you get bit.  They usually inhale it, so the strike is pretty soft usually, you will feel the bass when you take up the slack. I fish it on the bottom some, but I get most of my strikes as the bait is falling, so I use a lift fall type retrieve usually. The less active the fish, the shorter the "snap" I give the bait on the retrieve.

 

Here are a couple of fish just under two pounds on the Ned Rig I got on a rip rap bank last time out.