This has been my complaint all year. But they inevitably catch fish. Well, I caught this little fella on a Ned rig today on a heavily fished lake. This little guy happily swam away too, albeit after he bit my finger while I was unhooking him. 

You better up your game and get into some bigger fish.?

Nice fish.  

 

If you are only catching small fish with a Ned then I would bet it's the location where you are fishing or the fishery itself.  While there are definitely better lures at times to consistently put big fish in the boat, I know from experience that the Ned will catch big fish.  

Hah, that's a big fish. Lol

It's not that Ned doesn't catch big fish, it's just that it invites smaller fish along the way.

 

25 minutes ago, Bird said:

It's not that Ned doesn't catch big fish, it's just that it invites smaller fish along the way.

 

100% agree! I used a TRD craw going after smallmouth and caught more rock bass than I could count. 
 

That’s the only thing I like about larger lures is it usually eliminates the small fish bite. 

I'd bet that close to 50% of my fish on my final score (biggest 5 for the day), in my kayak tournaments are taken on Ned rigs. My biggest 5 fish limit I've had in a kayak tournament (94"), 3 or 4 of them were on a Ned rig. I've caught flathead catfish over 20lbs on them. I think a lot of it is location and also people present them in a way that appeals more to little fish. I catch so many quality fish on them that it's hard for me to use another bait at times. 

My biggest Ned rig catch to date;

I don't fish it a ton, in fact it's at least half way down the on favorites list.

But Ned gets me a few decent brown bass a season.

And remember, elephants love peanuts. 

A-Jay

 

Ouch.

Pike toofs hurt.

14 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'd bet that close to 50% of my fish on my final score (biggest 5 for the day), in my kayak tournaments are taken on Ned rigs. My biggest 5 fish limit I've had in a kayak tournament (94"), 3 or 4 of them were on a Ned rig. I've caught flathead catfish over 20lbs on them. I think a lot of it is location and also people present them in a way that appeals more to little fish. I catch so many quality fish on them that it's hard for me to use another bait at times. 

My biggest Ned rig catch to date;

This is really interesting to me. How do you think people present them that appeals more to smaller fish rather than larger fish?

20 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

This is really interesting to me. How do you think people present them that appeals more to smaller fish rather than larger fish?

Mainly by using too heavy of weight and too large of hook. The slow fall and natural look of the Ned is a big part of the appeal. Take that away and it's much less appealing and natural looking, which I believe is what fools most bigger fish. It looks like such an easy meal that they can't help themselves. 

Won the big fish pot twice on a trd, both fish over 5 and a half which is large in my area.

 

Not sure I'll have another 2 muskie day, let alone a 2 trd muskie day.

 

I agree with bluebasser, the guys I've converted to trd lovers had to have the heavy weight aspect beat out of them.

5 hours ago, WVU-SCPA said:

Not sure I'll have another 2 muskie day, let alone a 2 trd muskie day.

Two musky days aren't as rare as many people might think...

But two, on a TRD...that's fishing gods aligning stars, planets...

Congrats!

Definitely not my target species but my heaviest Ned catch to date on 6lb mono. 

2 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Definitely not my target species but my heaviest Ned catch to date on 6lb mono. 

I can only imagine the entire time you were fighting him you were thinking, 'Please be a bass, please be a bass!' 

3 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

I can only imagine the entire time you were fighting him you were thinking, 'Please be a bass, please be a bass!' 

It didn’t take long to figure out that was no bass.? We had to run him down with the boat a couple of times.  I was praying it wasn’t a snapping turtle.