I don't have docks/Grass I do have brush piles a tiny amount of rock besides that just a lot of standing timber or bare banks 

and have caught some fishing on the neko but not consistently but I'm curious on how to improve this more.

Location is mainly what I'm thinking is the missing ingredient.

I'm open to any tips though 

The neko is essentially a weighted wacky rig.  I stick a nail weight in one end of the sitckbait when I'm fishing deeper water (more than 5 feet deep) because I want a faster sink rate.  I fish a fair amount of weedlines here in the summer time.  The weedline can develop anywhere from 5 to 17 feet deep depending on water clarity.

 

I will be fishing a lake that has a very developed weedline on Saturday and you can bet I'll be tossing a neko along the deeper side of it.  That means about 12-15 feet.

 

Additionally, with one end of it weighted, when you "pop" it with your rod, only one end tends to lift up as much (the unweighted end).  The weighted end generally stays down unless you really give it bigger rips.  Rig it up the exact same way you would with a wacky rig.   I use o-rings on my wacky and neko rigs with VMC nail weights.

Boat or shore angler?

What is a Neko rig? It’s a nose weighted Senko type sinking stick worm. Decades before Neko was nail weight worms, nail inserted to the nose of a soft plastic worm, wacky hooked.

IMO the original nail weight worm that tends to float tail up out fishes the Neko sinking fat stick worm because it’s more versatile with more worm options.

Where to target bass with a Neko rig is anywhere bass are in a neutral mood located near cover or structure. Basically a cast let sink and sit, the twitched a few times moving it a few feet, retrieved and cast to the next target. Slow, slow presentation very similar to a unweighted wacky rigged Senko.

Tom

1 minute ago, WRB said:

Basically a cast let sink and sit, the twitched a few times moving it=a few feet, retrieved and cast to the next target.

That's pretty much exactly how I fish it.  A fair amount of fish actually hit it on the fall so watch your line.  They will engulf it just like a wacky rig.

10 minutes ago, WRB said:

Boat or shore angler?

What is a Neko rig? It’s a nose weighted Senko type sinking stick worm. Decades before Neko was nail weight worms, nail inserted to the nose of a soft plastic worm, wacky hooked.

IMO the original nail weight worm that tends to float tail up out fishes the Neko sinking fat stick worm because it’s more versatile with more worm options.

Where to target bass with a Neko rig is anywhere bass are in a neutral mood located near cover or structure. Basically a cast let sink and sit, the twitched a few times moving it a few feet, retrieved and cast to the next target. Slow, slow presentation very similar to a unweighted wacky rigged Senko.

Tom

Boat 

Ok so for a wacky rig and neko you don't want to drag it across the whole rock flat per say just where you think its the most productive then reel in? 

These are bad brush baits I'm assuming since even with a weed guard its not a great guard (too thin)

You would be better off using the Free rig or T-rig with weedless hooked worm in brush and dragging or working the worm imo.

Tom

This "Neko Rig" exactly what I learned is a Wacky Rig. Instead of Senko type worms we throw Zoom's Trick Worms & now the new Magnum Trick Worm. 

 

Standing timber or brush look at the surrounding structure. 

I fish them kind of like I fish a shaky head.

my friend did so well last winter.  he killed us.

 

Neko rig on a 4" Yum Dinger.  black blue.  he would pitch it out, relatively close to his kayak and simply drown that thing with tiny vibration inputs of the rod.  he had the move down.  even if we copied him he schooled us.

 

this winter I am focusing on my game, not his.  hopeful for a better outcome.