Learning how to fish Lake George: How do you fish a Ned Rig? 6 keys to fishing the Ned Rig
The Ned rig is a finesse application that was designed by a guy named Ned Kehde (he’s at least one of the early proponents of this technique). It is a crazy successful way to fish, but there are a couple of details that we have discovered that will help you be even more successful with your time on the water. Here are 6 keys that we have learned over the past couple of years to catching more fish with the Ned rig:
Z-Man ElaZtech TRD products. If you watch the Z-Man youtube channel, you will see what the big deal is with this material. The ElaZtech material has these two qualites that make it an amazing Ned rig option: durability and buoyancy.
Light jigheads. I often fish a TRD Ned Rig in 20-30 feet of water. Instead of upsizing the jighead, focus on going light. I usually choose 1/6 or 1/5 oz jigheads. Old Fart Lures has just designed a new jighead for Ned Rigging and it will be the bomb…more to come on this soon.
Don’t overfish the bait. Last year we took a video and saw an actual rejection from a smallmouth because I was overworking the bait. When that bait was on bottom, that fish was all about it. And as I started to move the bait off bottom, the fish quickly lost interest.
Super Glue your plastics in place. The challenge with ElaZtech is that it can stretch like crazy - and sometimes it can get stuck and distorted on the barb on the shank of your jighead.
Set the hook as soon as you feel a fish. It’s crazy - but fish eat these things fast. If you don’t set soon after you feel a bite, you will kill a lot of fish.
Stay Finesse. I fish these fish on a light rod with extremely light line.
I know I talked about the Finesse TRD, but I also like fishing the TRD tube and this year I’m going to experiment with Z-Man’s New TRD Crawz. As a fisherman, I am always experimenting and always learning. If you’ve learned a tip or two, love to have you leave them in the comments for me! As always, if this is helpful, you can bless me in return by practicing CPR with your fish!