The Ned Rig

[BobP]

The Ned rig is a simple bait consisting of a light jig head with a small cigar shaped plastic bait threaded on it.  Not the originator, but ZMan has lately popularized it with a small wire barbed mushroom jig head and their Elaztech super stretchy finesse TRD baits.  The Elaztech floats and makes the rig stand up on the bottom.  This makes a very durable combo.  I’m a power fisherman who usually prefers large baits:  crankbaits, jigs, Texas rigged plastics, etc.  But a recent trip to fish in Canada made me a Ned rig believer.  Bites on the power baits were few and far between.  I tried the Ned rig in desperation and couldn’t put it down for the rest of the week.  Fish after fish.  Smallies, largemouths, large fish and small fish.  It didn’t matter.  Everything bit it.  Tie one on on the morning and use that one bait all day to catch 25-40 bass.  A few weeks later we fished for stripers in Virginia.  I brought a Ned rig just to see what would happen.  The stripers weren’t interested but we caught several nice largemouths to 5 lbs on it.  Now I’m a believer.  Setup:  ML spinning rod, 10 lb braid, 6 or 8 lb leader.  Presentation:  let it sink to the bottom and just dead stick it on a semi-slack line.

[DaBehr]

Here " up north" we have been using them for years....except we called them "turds". I guess that name was very marketable! 

By the way, they are killer on brown trout also.

[BobP]

Yeah, it’s almost unavoidable that you call a  “TRD” turd instead of what ZMan intended to be an abbreviation for  “The Real Deal”.  They shoulda known.... and maybe they did.

[Will Wetline]

Yup. 2017 was my first season throwing this rig, having bought the Do-it mold to make the head the previous winter. It was no surprise that, working it on a 6 1/2' or 7' ML rod and 6 lb. fluoro, it was a smallmouth slayer.