Let me first preface this by saying that the term "Ned Rig" is rather unfortunate. Kind of reminds me of the confusion around the spoonplug and "spoonplugging." While it may have been in use locally before then, the term "Ned Rig" doesn't appear anywhere on the Internet until the summer of 2012. At that point, it is used to name "the bait" Ned is using, which in itself is already misleading. The term catches on, soon the thing blows up and gets bigger than life, ultimately leading to a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation being posted and written about. As such, most people "new to the party" haven't taken the time to research and understand the story behind the bait/name. Covering much of that in this post so you can better understand what "Ned rigging" truly started out as (using both Ned's words and mine), will hopefully make you a better 'Ned Rig' angler.
So to begin, let's clarify that the "Ned Rig" is technically not a bait but a specific philosophy or mindset of fishing called "Midwest finesse." It has its roots in the 1950s, in the heartland of America near Kansas City, initially with Chuck Woods, one of the fathers of finesse, as well as the creator of the Beetle, Beetle Spin, Puddle Jumper, Texas-rigged jigworm, as well as a variety of other baits and ways to finesse bass. In addition to Woods, Ray Fincke, Drew Reese, Dwight Keefer, Harold Ensley, Gete & Guido Hibdon, Ted Green, Virgil Ward and Bill Ward all have played a part in its history. But it is Ned Kehde, long-time editor and contributor to In-Fisherman magazine that I believe first coined the term "Midwest finesse" for this style of fishing in order to distinguish these methods from the finesse techniques that are employed in Japan and the Western states, including such things as drop-shotting and shakyhead fishing.
After fishing some traditional bass clubs and events for nearly 2 decades in the 1980s and 1990s, Ned and a few other NE Kansas anglers grow weary of the typical tournament angling approach and results, especially with its emphasis on "power" baits, and begin to research and resurrect a form of finesse fishing based upon those local anglers mentioned previously and their methods. By late 2005, Ned has the basic outline of what we now call "Ned Rigging" all hammered out. He calls it Midwest finesse, and at its core, there are two basic tenets:
1. That the method and its adherents practice frugality, and;
2. Instead of catching big bass, its goal is to catch a lot of bass, 101 largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass on every four-hour outing specifically, and we jokingly call this 'bass fishing 101.'
The majority of the waterways around the Kansas City area are flatland impoundments, and as such they tend to be shallow water fisheries with stained water and abundant shoreline cover, not too dissimilar to many of our Hoosier waters. Midwest finesse anglers spend a lot of time focusing on what Guido Hibdon used to call nothing-looking areas, and catching the majority of their fish in from 1 to 8 foot of water, and only rarely venturing into more than 12 feet of water.
We have found that the bass that inhabit these featureless areas are often overlooked by other anglers, and we also suspect that these bass are more active than the ones that are buried in brush or other objects. We also probe beds of submerged vegetation, such as coontail, bushy pondweed, milfoil, and curly-leaf pondweed, as well as the outside edges of patches of American water willows. Lastly, riprap and rocky shorelines, as well as shallow offshore rocky humps are common targets for Midwest finesse anglers during the course of the year. This is one of the big reasons for using small, non-weed-guarded jigs/hooks.
There are several other little known nuances with Midwest finesse as practiced by Ned. They include;
- Almost all of Ned's outings are 4 hours long and occur during the midday hours, such as 9 p.m. to 1 p.m., or 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is tied to a theory on oxygen and submerged vegetation, as well as comfort/convenience given his age.
- Standard finesse tackle revolves around six-foot, medium-action spinning rods that are fitted with medium-sized spinning reels. Ned uses $20 Shakespeare Synergy rods paired with 40 year old Cardinal 4 spinning reels, all with their bail arms removed. These reels are spooled with inexpensive 10-pound-test braid and a five-foot 8-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. After every season, the braid is tied to another reel and then rewound from one to the other, exposing all the fresh unused line underneath and assuring at least 2 years of use with every spool. Again, frugality is a virtue.
- Throughout the year we employ just three sizes of Gopher Tackles’ Mushroom Head Jigs: 1/32-ounce with a No. 6 hook, 1/16-ounce with a No. 4 hook, and 3/32-ounce with a No.2 hook. The heads of the jigs are mostly painted red, chartreuse or blue. The 1/16-oz is most used, followed by the 1/32-oz. The 3/32-oz jigheads are used less than 10% of the time. Anything heavier, from 1/8-oz on up is considered "power finesse" and not used as part of the original system. It is hard to explain why the mushroom head is the best jighead to use with this technique, but Ned has tried most of them and settled on Gopher's mushroom. That jighead was originally given to him many years ago by Ron Lindner, as the mushroom head jig-worm was a staple in Minnesota and other natural lakes waters in the 1970s and 1980s.
- There are about 8 or 9 different Z-Man soft-plastic baits that account for about 85 percent of all the fish caught using Midwest finesse. Several other non-ElaZtech baits from YUM, Gene Larew Lures, Zoom and Strike King make up the remainder of the baits. At times, we also used marabou-tailed and wool/bucktail or tinseled-bodied 1/32-ounce and 1/16-ounce jigs.
- From Ned's experience, Z-Man’s ElaZtech finesse baits are the best soft-plastic finesse baits ever created. He finds that they elicit more strikes than any of the other soft-plastic baits. Furthermore, they are so durable that the same bait can be used to catch 150 or more bass, and as these lures become more worn and torn, they become even softer and catch more bass (frugality and efficiency). Another positive feature is that the well-worn ZinkerZ readily absorbs a scent, which Ned has used since 2011.
- There are now 6 "official" retrieves used with these lures: swim and glide, hop and bounce, drag and dead stick, straight swim, drag and shake, and strolling. Again, we rarely probe water deeper than 12 feet and prefer depths of one to eight feet – even in the dead of winter and heat of the summer.
- About ninety percent of the time, we shake our rods during the retrieve rather than holding them steady and implementing the do-nothing retrieve that Charlie Brewer of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, popularized decades ago, or the I-Motion tactic that some Japanese finesse anglers have recently discovered. Sometimes the shakes are slight and intermittent, while at other times they are vigorous and constant. Shaking seems to help with getting more strikes in the stained waters we tend to fish. Shin Fukae is credited with both our coloring of jigheads (commonly red, chartreuse, blue) as well as putting the "shake" into the basic retrieves. This happened after Ned spent a day in the boat with Shin back in 2006 at an event that Shin ended up winning, the same year KVD gave him (Ned) his first ElaZtech baits.
- One other very important aspect of Midwest finesse is what is termed the "no-feel" retrieve. Contrary to what you have likely read recently in various places, Midwest finesse anglers actually don't want to be able to feel their baits touching bottom. Most retrieves keep the bait off the bottom the majority of the time, and so using braid, along with the lightweight jigheads and the buoyancy of ElaZtech material assists in this effort. It is also the reason why "cheap" rods are perfectly fine with this technique. Standing up on its nose while resting might provide some benefit at times, but is NOT the primary reason for using ElaZtech baits. If you insist on using heavier heads and ultra-sensitive, high dollar rods so you can "feel" the bite or the bait, you have a misunderstanding of the original technique (that's not to say they won't work, obviously).
- We prefer to make short 35-foot casts, mostly perpendicular to the bank. Shorter casts provide greater control and are usually not an issue in the stained flatland reservoirs we fish.
As more and more people use the "Ned Rig," you will read about more and more variations and riggings and retrieves that others will espouse. These likely all work to some degree, or might even be necessary depending upon the waters being fished. However, the important point to keep in mind is what created the basis for all the interest in the first place, and where/how all these variations came from; That is the basic Midwest finesse foundation written above and still practiced by more "hardcore" Ned-riggers like myself.
Indiana - Go Big or Go Home? Not quite!
By Austin Spain
Recently, I was pre-fishing with a pretty good Indiana stick. We were flipping bushes and fishing heavy cover on Indiana's largest lake and the fish were spawning, or just coming off the nest and relating to cover. So he pulled out his 25lb. test, a Sweet Beaver, and his 7'6" heavy action rod - I did the opposite. I started fishing with my 6'9" MH RPM Custom spinning rod with 10lb. test and a Yamamoto Senko.
While he flipped deep into the flooded bushes, I targeted the outside edges of the bushes and open pockets between bushes. I used a very simple technique; cast, let it sink, and move on to the next pocket. I was able to cover a lot of water and quickly I had a fish in the boat, then a second, and before my friend landed a single fish, I had a limit that probably would have went 13-14lbs.
This continued throughout the day, and I would have culled up to have 18-19lbs. in my best five. So why did I use this tactic? It’s just my way of fishing. We were fishing a deep, stained lake in southern Indiana and I am used to fishing the shallow, clear lakes of northern Indiana. While most would have hunkered down and went deep into the cover, I did what I had confidence in, and that is finesse fishing. I went back to the same lake the next weekend, pulled out the same tactics and fished the same way for a small club event. I fished light and finesse while the locals went big. I won the club event with 16.10lbs., while 2nd place had 6.8lbs.
It doesn't matter what lake you’re on, which state, or the weather conditions. If you’re not fishing your strengths, then you’re not fishing to your full potential. That is not to say that you can’t learn new techniques or new ways to catch fish. But during a tournament, I would suggest always doing what you have the most confidence in, even if it goes against the grain of what everyone else might be doing.
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