How To Fish The Ned Rig

Hey, folks. Glenn May here at BassResource.com, and today I want to talk to you about the Ned Rig. Have you seen this? You heard about this? This is an awesome little finesse bait that's taken by storm in the Midwest, and now it's going across the country, and it's catching a lot of fish.

Now you can just try to find some components and try to make up something like this and try to fish it, but it's not going to perform the way you want it to. So let me take you through this rig and really how to get the most out of it.

First of all, what I'm using here, this is the TRD lure from Z-Man. It comes in this package like this. I think TRD stands for The Real Deal, but if you look at TRD, yeah, it's the turd bait. I didn't make it up, all right? I didn't make up the name, but at any rate that's a good way to remember it - TRD by Z-Man.

Thing about this is that it's made out of Elaztech, and this is what I see. I've heard people on the forums, they say, "Well, I'm just going to take a Senko and cut it in half and use that." No, don't do that. That Senko is used for a different type of action, different type of technique, it's not going to work, and this the main reason why. This is made out of Elaztech.

Elaztech has a couple of characteristics. First of all it's virtually indestructible. Okay. I've caught 30, 40, 50 fish on this without getting it all tore up. Okay. With a bag of Senkos you're going go through ten fish, for a whole bag. That in itself you're going to save so much money. The cost efficiency there is reason enough to buy it. But the characteristics of Elaztech really make this shine for a couple of different reasons.

First of all Elaztech is buoyant so when it falls, it really slows down the fall rate of the bait, it makes it fall enticingly slow. And in fact, a lot of the hits come on the fall. The bait doesn't often make it to the bottom, to be honest with you. But it's because of that enticing fall from the Elaztech.

Second, when it gets to the bottom, it stands straight up off the bottom like that, okay. And as you move it along the bottom it's hopping along, it scooting along, it looks just like a bait fish, nose down feeding off the bottom. Real innocent, naïve, unsuspecting bait fish. This is bass candy right here. They love that stuff. And it's the buoyancy that allows it to do it.

The last thing is Elaztech, when it's under water it kind of picks on, it takes on kind of Jell-O type of consistency to it. It shimmers, it shakes, it undulates and fluctuates under water. As it falls it's shimmering as it falls down, and then when it gets on the bottom it's moving around. It's just shimmering as you're pulling along. Other type of baits will sink and just fall and lay on the bottom of the lake and won't shimmer like that. This will. It shakes around, and that's key. That's what triggers the bass to bite.

   Now that's the bait. What you want to use is a mushroom head jig. Let's talk about the jig head for a minute. Okay.

This is a mushroom head jig. That's what you want to use with this. And I'll tell you why. If you're using other jigs you can get hung up easier. Mushroom head jigs, they don't tend to hang up that much, but it sits flush with the bait, perfectly flush. So it's not going to pick up all the extra weeds and algae and that sort of thing. But also because of the roundness to it, it's a little bit round in the front, as you're pulling it up and over rocks and debris on the bottom of the lake it allows that bait to keep standing up. It'll go down but it'll rock back up to the top, and it'll move it along and it'll rock back up to the top.

Other jig heads, there are standup jig heads, they force the bait to sit at an angle. Almost all the standup jigs force the bait at an angle, but this one allows it to rock around and then stand straight back up when you bring it to a standstill. That's why the mushroom jig is so effective.

But don't get just any mushroom head jig because with Elaztech, because it's pliable like this most jig heads won't work with it. The keeper on them isn't strong enough. It isn't aggressive enough to hold this bait in place. So it'll keep sliding down your jig head, and over the course of the day you're going to get really annoyed with it, so what you need is something with a real sharp aggressive keeper.

And you can see Z-Man has put out a new mushroom head jig for this bait. Look at this. This is a real sharp keeper right here. That's almost as sharp as a hook. Very, very sharp. The package looks like this, just when you're looking at it, looking for it in a tackle store. Once you rig it, look at that, it's not coming off. It holds it in place. You're not going to have that with other types of mushroom head jigs. So don't try to cut corners. Don't try to make do with what you have. Get the right equipment, the right bait, the right gear, and then you'll have the most success.

Okay. Now you know about the bait, you know about the jig head, you know how to put it on, you can see how you thread it on, now let's go fishing.

All right, so you can see I've got the Ned Rig here. It's on spinning tackle. I'm using spinning tackle and I'll tell you why. The rig, it's only one-tenth of an ounce, it's real light. So what I want to do is use light line, and because it's a light wire hook I've a medium-light action rod to go with it.

If you use a heavier rod, a heavier line then when you set the hook and you play the fish back all the way to the boat in the fight, it could end up straightening out the hook because it's a light wire hook. So use lighter line. Not only that but I like to use light line because it gives it a more natural presentation. I'm using 6-pound test on this. Heavier line will kind of kill the action, so I'm using 6-pound. I'd like to use 4 but I'm fishing in real rocky areas and 4-pound I tend to break off a little more often.

Also I'm using copolymer line, I'm not using fluorocarbon nor am I using braided line, and I'll tell you why. Fluorocarbon it absorbs water and it tends to sink. And when you're using a real light jig like this it'll tend to pull the lure down and actually will change the action of the lure. It won't give that natural action. And I really want it to fall on its own and act as natural as possible. It's the same thing with braid. Braid floats, so braid is going to inhibit the action of the bait as well.

So that's why we're rigged up this way. And when you're fishing the Ned Rig, because of that light wire, setting the hook is really easy. You just reel, you just pull tight. You don't have to yard on them and cross their eyes. It's a real light hook set. Again, medium light action rod works fine for that, that's exactly what you want.

So we're out here fishing some rocks. Also you do, literally you just cast it out there and let it sink. Just let it do its thing. Let it fall all the way to the bottom and on slack line. Let it do its thing by itself. Don't do any action on it and just watch the line. Watch for any bumps. Watch for jumps. Watch for the line to start peeling off. Or, say, if you're fishing in 10 feet of water, if it stops falling after three then you've probably got a fish.

Once you get it on the bottom, just kind of work it a little bit, let it hop a little bit here and there and see if a fish will pick it up. Just like that. See how easy that was. I didn't set the hook really hard. And I'll tell you what guys, I'm fishing on public waters, this is a big reservoir. Public water. Heavy, heavy fishing pressure. And, oh, my goodness, this is a good fish. Look at that. Right on the roof of the mouth. Boy, he ate it.

Public fishing. We're not on a private lake, heavy pressure, and look what the Ned Rig can do for you. Great little bait. Give it a go.

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