What it is
The Ned rig is a light mushroom-shaped jig head, usually 1/15 to 1/6 oz, threaded with a short soft-plastic stick bait of about 2.5 to 3 inches. That is the whole rig: no sliding weight, no buried hook, no trailer. It is the modern face of Midwest finesse fishing, the light-line, small-bait school that In-Fisherman writer Ned Kehde has documented since 1981 and that traces to Chuck Woods of Kansas City, who built the Beetle (a small soft plastic on a light jig) in the early 1960s. In-Fisherman's Steve Quinn christened it the Ned rig in the August-September 2010 issue, pairing a 2.5 inch soft stick bait with a 1/16 oz head. Kehde has said that if it is named for anyone it should be the Chuck rig.
Two design points make it work. The mushroom head's flat, wide back seats the plastic flush, and its line tie exits the top, so the rig planes over rock rather than wedging. The plastic is buoyant: the high-floating soft plastics used for the rig stand the tail up when the head comes to rest, and Kehde calls that buoyancy the key to the no-feel style that defines the method. The hook rides point-up, exposed, in a light wire.
Basis: consensus on the rig; the history is as reported by In-Fisherman and Bassmaster
When it wins
The Ned rig wins when bass are unwilling to chase. That covers more of the year than most anglers admit:
- Cold water. Bassmaster's profile of Kehde records 55 bass in 69 minutes in 41-degree water. Below about 50 F, when fish sit in deep slack pools and eat slowly, a Ned dragged and paused on bottom is one of the few presentations that still draws bites.
- Pressured fish. Kayak Angler's summary is accurate: it excels when fish are sluggish, pressured and not inclined to bite anything else. The small profile and slow fall look like nothing the fish has learned to avoid.
- Clear water. Smallmouth are visual predators that seek clear water; a small natural bait on a light fluorocarbon leader is the low-key presentation those conditions call for.
- Rock. The mushroom head and stand-up bait were made for gravel, chunk rock and bedrock, which is smallmouth habitat by definition.
- Fish on the fall and the pause. Wired2Fish notes it shines for open-water fish, fish on the fall and fish reacting to subtle hops. Most bites come while the bait is sinking or sitting still.
It loses when fish want a fast reaction bait, in heavy wood where an exposed hook fouls, and in current deep and fast enough that a light head never reaches bottom.
Basis: consensus
Species
Primarily smallmouth bass and largemouth bass, and spotted bass wherever they share the rock. It also catches crappie, walleye and big bluegill by accident often enough that the incidental catch is part of the appeal. Kehde's own logbook results include walleye, wipers and channel catfish alongside the bass.
Basis: consensus
Season and environment
- Winter. Creek and river: wintering pools and slack eddies; drag and deadstick. Reservoir: bluff ends and channel swings, 15 to 35 ft. Pond: the deepest water near the dam. Slowest retrieves of the year; 1/15 to 1/10 oz in slack water, heavier only to reach depth.
- Spring, pre-spawn. Creek and river: runs and tailouts adjacent to the wintering pools, and gravel edges. Reservoir: secondary points and gravel flats, 5 to 15 ft. Pond: the first warming banks. The best big-fish window; swim-glide-and-shake and drag.
- Spawn. Creek and river: slower gravel edges — check the water's regulations page. Reservoir: gravel coves. Pond: shallow firm bottom. Deadstick near, not on, beds.
- Summer. Creek and river: riffle seams, pool heads, boulder eddies and shade. Reservoir: deep points and humps, and docks. Pond: deep edges and shade. Hop-and-bounce and drag; fish early and late in lakes.
- Fall. Creek and river: runs above the wintering pools as fish drop back. Reservoir: main-lake points, following the shad. Pond: deep edges. Speed up early, slow down as the water cools.
Basis: consensus
Structure, cover, clarity and current
The rig is at home on hard bottom with little cover: gravel, chunk rock, bedrock ledges, riprap, boulder fields, clean points. The exposed hook is a liability in brush and root wads; use a weedguard head there or switch to a Texas rig. Isolated wood on rock is fine: drag up to it, pause, swim over it. In clear water it is the best tool most of us own; in stained water it needs a darker or bulkier plastic, a slower cadence and a tighter cast.
Current is the variable this page cares most about. A 1/15 oz head that fishes beautifully in a lake pool is swept off the bottom in a creek run. Use the lightest head that keeps intermittent bottom contact: slack pools and eddies, 1/15 to 1/10 oz; moderate runs, 1/10 to 1/6 oz; fast deep runs, 1/5 oz or a tube on a heavier head. Cast up and across, let the bait sink on a semi-slack line, and let the current carry it downstream while you lift and drop the rod tip; Kayak Angler describes exactly this cast-upstream-and-coax approach so the bait washes down a run at a natural speed. Along a seam, drag it down the slow side so it hangs at the edge of the fast water where the fish sit.
Basis: consensus; editorial on the head-weight bands
Rod, reel and line
Beginner
A 6 foot 10 inch to 7 foot medium-light spinning rod with a fast tip, a 2500-size reel, 10 lb braid main line with a 5 to 6 foot leader of 8 lb fluorocarbon, joined with an Alberto knot; a Palomar to the head. That is the line system In-Fisherman's Midwest finesse writers describe as ideal and the finesse setup on our line systems page: braid for casting distance and bite detection on a slack line, fluorocarbon for invisibility and abrasion resistance on rock. You are done; everything else on this page is optional.
Intermediate
Two options, both correct. Braid-to-fluorocarbon as above, adjusting the leader: 6 lb in gin-clear winter water, 10 lb around ledges and in current. Or straight 6 to 8 lb fluorocarbon, which Wired2Fish also endorses; it sinks and removes the leader knot, at the cost of some slack-line sensitivity. Rod power stays medium-light to medium, fast or extra-fast action; length is preference, and Midwest finesse anglers run anything from 5.5 to 7 feet or longer.
Advanced
Match the system to the head. Heads of 1/15 to 1/10 oz on 10 lb braid to a 6 to 8 lb leader for the lightest presentations; 1/6 to 1/5 oz in current or depth on 10 to 15 lb braid to a 10 lb leader, so the leader survives ledges and a long-line hookset. A 7 to 7.5 foot rod with a more parabolic bend absorbs surges from river smallmouth. In very clear water lengthen the leader to 8 feet or more. Keep rod power matched to the light-wire hook: a medium-heavy rod straightens it or tears it out.
Basis: consensus; editorial on the recommendations
Leader
Fluorocarbon, 6 to 10 lb, 5 to 8 feet, joined to braid with an Alberto (our choice) or a uni-to-uni. Six pound for the clearest, slowest water; 8 lb as the default; 10 lb in current and around ledges. See leaders and tippet and mono, fluoro and braid for the properties behind the choice.
Basis: consensus
Terminal tackle
- Head. Mushroom-style jig head with the line tie exiting the top, in 1/32, 1/16 (or 1/15), 3/32 (or 1/10), 1/8, 1/6 and 1/5 oz. Midwest finesse anglers fish the 1/16 oz about 60 percent of the time in lakes; in creeks the 1/10 oz is the better default. Weedguard versions exist for wood.
- Hook. Light wire, typically size 1 to 1/0, short shank. Light wire is the point, and it dictates the soft hookset below.
- Plastic. A 2.5 to 3 inch buoyant stick bait, or half of a 5 inch soft stick bait, which is how the rig was originally fished. Buoyant, stretchy plastics stand up and survive dozens of fish; standard plastics sit flatter and tear sooner. Small craw, finesse worm and stubby swimbait profiles rig on the same head.
- Bait keeper. A barb on the head, or a dab of super glue on the collar, keeps the plastic from sliding after a fish.
Basis: consensus on the head, the plastic and the bait keeper — the 1/16 oz share and the half-cut 5 inch bait are In-Fisherman's. The hook size is our own synthesis: the sources here describe the hook as light wire and short shank without naming a size range.
Knots
A Palomar from the fluorocarbon leader to the jig head's eye. The Palomar keeps the head snug to the line, which is what you want for bottom contact and for the head to plane over rock. A non-slip loop is an option for a freer swimming action but is not the standard here. Braid to leader is the Alberto.
Basis: consensus
Lure, bait or fly choices and color logic
- Clear water, bright sun — crayfish on rock. Drag and deadstick. Green pumpkin, watermelon, brown-orange; translucent plastics with a light flake.
- Clear water, overcast — crayfish or baitfish. Drag, and swim-glide-and-shake. Darker greens and browns for contrast against a flat sky; smoke or pearl when they are on baitfish.
- Lightly stained — crayfish. Hop-and-bounce. Green pumpkin with red or purple flake; black-blue.
- Muddy — either forage. Slow drag, and deadstick longer. Black, junebug, dark purple; a bulkier plastic; scent helps.
- Cold and clear — sluggish crayfish. Deadstick-heavy drag. Subdued browns, olives and black; the smallest profile in the box.
Basis: consensus
How to rig it
- Lay out the head and the plastic. Look at the head from the side: the hook eye exits the top of the mushroom, the hook shank runs straight back, and the point curves up. The plastic should end up on the shank with its nose flush against the flat back of the mushroom.
- Hold the plastic by its nose and push the hook point into the exact center of the nose end.
- Thread the plastic straight down the hook shank, keeping the point centered inside the bait, until the nose of the plastic touches the back of the mushroom head. Do not bunch it.
- Bring the hook point out through the top of the bait so the barb is fully exposed and the bait hangs straight. Sight down the rig: a plastic that is threaded off-center will spin and will not stand up.
- Optional: pull the plastic back a fraction, put a drop of super glue on the head's collar, and seat the bait again.
- Tie the leader to the eye with a Palomar. Wet the knot, seat it, trim to about 1/8 inch.
Basis: consensus
How to fish it
The core retrieve is doing very little, deliberately. The six Midwest finesse retrieves as In-Fisherman names them are worth learning by name, because they are the vocabulary of the technique:
- Drag and deadstick. Let the rig sink to bottom on a semi-slack line. Drag it a foot or two by slowly turning the reel handle or sweeping the rod tip sideways, then give slack and let the bait stand dead still for five seconds or more. This is the winter and pre-spawn retrieve, and the creek retrieve along a seam.
- Swim, glide and shake. Rod at about two o'clock, shaking the tip constantly as the bait sinks, then swimming it slowly 6 to 12 inches above bottom. Pre-spawn and post-spawn fish that are up and looking.
- Hop and bounce. Rod low, two moderate turns of the handle to hop the bait off bottom, then pause. Summer fish on rock.
- Drag and incessant shake. Drag slowly along bottom while twitching the rod tip the whole time. Clear water, fish that follow but will not commit.
- Straight swim. A steady, slow retrieve just off bottom, usually with a small grub or swimbait profile on the head.
- Strolling. Dragging the rig behind a slowly moving boat. In a kayak this happens naturally on a drift.
The no-feel part is real: the bait is too light to feel on a slack line, so you fish it by watching the line where it enters the water. A tick, a sideways twitch, a pause in the sink or the line going weightless is a bite. The hookset is a reel-and-sweep: reel until the line comes tight, then lift steadily. Wired2Fish says you can often just start reeling and hook most fish; Kayak Angler says lower the rod, reel in the slack and slowly lift. Either way, no cross-their-eyes hookset on a light-wire hook and a light leader.
In a creek the presentation is a controlled drift. Cast up and across the run at about 45 degrees, let the rig sink, and keep the tip up with a slight bow in the line so the current walks the bait downstream along the bottom. Lift and drop every few feet. When it swings below you and hangs on the seam, let it sit; that dead hang at the edge of the current is where a lot of river smallmouth eat it. Hop it once, then reel in for the next cast.
Basis: consensus; the retrieve names and descriptions are In-Fisherman's
Common mistakes
- Too heavy a head. The most common error. A heavy head kills the slow fall and pins the bait flat instead of standing it up. Go lighter until you lose bottom contact, then step up one size.
- Fishing it too fast. The rig's whole advantage is the pause. If you are not sometimes bored, you are probably fishing it too fast.
- Hard hooksets. The light-wire hook opens up or tears out; the light leader breaks. Reel down and sweep.
- Rod too heavy. A medium-heavy rod defeats the light-wire hook and the light leader. Medium-light to medium, fast tip.
- Old leader. Fluorocarbon dragged over rock all day is abraded. Check the last 2 feet by running it through your fingers, and re-tie after every few fish or any snag.
- Wrong plastic. A standard non-buoyant plastic lies down on the bottom. It still catches fish, but the stand-up pose is the point.
- Not watching the line. Most bites are seen, not felt. Look where the line enters the water, not at the rod tip.
- Fishing it in brush. The exposed hook fouls. Use a weedguard head or change rigs.
Basis: consensus; editorial
Kayak notes
The Ned rig and a kayak suit each other because both are slow and quiet. A few adjustments:
- Drift and stroll. On a lake or slow pool, let wind or current drift the boat while the rig drags behind. Strolling is a legitimate Midwest finesse retrieve and a kayak does it for free.
- Upstream cast, downstream drift. In a creek, sit on the slow side of the seam, cast up and across, and let boat and bait move down together. Kayak Angler's advice to cast at an upstream angle and coax the bait downstream at the current's speed applies directly.
- Stop above the hole. For a pool that needs slow work, hold the boat upstream of the drop and fan casts into it. In current Kayak Angler's pro uses a stake-out pole or a reliable eddy rather than an anchor, and warns that current can roll or even submerge a kayak anchored off the bow or stern.
- Rod choice. A slightly shorter rod (6 foot 6 inch to 6 foot 10 inch) is easier seated, and medium-light power protects the leader when a fish runs under the boat.
- Line watching. Seated, you are closer to the water: watch the line, not the tip, and keep the tip low to the side so wind does not bow the line and hide bites.
- Storage. A small box of heads in three weights and one bag of plastics covers a day.
Basis: consensus; editorial; Kayak Angler on holding a kayak in current
Fly counterpart
The closest thing on a fly rod is a small crayfish or sculpin-style pattern with beadchain or small lead eyes, dead-drifted along the bottom or crawled with short strips and long pauses, on a floating line and a 9 foot leader in shallow runs or a sink-tip with a short leader in deeper pools. The presentation logic is identical: get to bottom, move very little, and expect the eat on the pause. The streamer fishing page covers the drift, the non-slip loop is the knot, and a Ned rig angler who wants to fish the same water on the fly will not need a new mental model.
Basis: consensus; editorial
Skill level
Beginner to rig and cast; intermediate to fish well. The rigging is the easiest in bass fishing. The skill is patience, line watching and head-weight selection in current, and those come with hours on the water rather than more tackle.
Basis: editorial
Sources and how confident we are
Sources
- A History of Midwest Finesse Fishing and the So-called Ned Rig — In-Fisherman — Ned Kehde's background, Chuck Woods and the Beetle, Steve Quinn coining the name in the August-September 2010 issue, 2.5 inch bait on a 1/16 oz head, jig head weight range, half-cut stick baits, the Chuck rig remark.
- Six Midwest Finesse Retrieves — In-Fisherman — the six named retrieves and their descriptions, 1/16 oz used about 60 percent of the time, 10 lb braid to a 5 ft 8 lb fluorocarbon leader, rod length preferences, the no-feel concept.
- The Real Ned Rig, Please Step Forward — Bassmaster — buoyancy as key to the no-feel style, 1/16 and 1/15 oz mushroom heads, 55 bass in 69 minutes in 41-degree water, Woods credit.
- Ned Rigs: The Complete Guide to Ned Rig Fishing — Wired2Fish — lightest head that works, buoyant plastic standing up, 10 lb braid to 6 lb leader or straight 8 lb fluoro, medium-light extra-fast rod, reel-to-set hooksets, when the rig shines.
- How to Rig and Fish the Ned Rig — Kayak Angler — medium-light rod from a kayak, light heads and slow sink, line watching, gentle lift hookset, upstream-angle cast in current, sluggish and pressured fish.
- Hold Your Kayak Fast with a Stakeout Pole — Kayak Angler — stake-out pole in flowing water or a reliable eddy, anchor only where the flow is slight or absent, sand and mud bottoms, and the warning that current can roll or even submerge a kayak anchored off the bow or stern.
- Smallmouth Bass — Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife — stream smallmouth habitat: cool, clear, flowing pools over rocky bottoms.
- Micropterus dolomieu — Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan — smallmouth as visual predators that seek clear water.
- 5 Keys to Catching River Current Smallmouths — Wired2Fish — matching tackle to drift, longer parabolic rods and heavier leaders for current.