Ned-rigged soft plastic
A ned-rigged soft plastic is a small bait fished at whatever depth you work it. At 1/16-1/8 oz on a jighead hook it wants a rod that is on the soft side of middling and bends only near the tip, printed as medium-light. Best over rock and gravel in clear water, when fish are down on the bottom and will not chase anything moving quickly.
A short, buoyant piece of soft plastic on a light mushroom-shaped jighead. The head sits flat on the bottom and the tail stands straight up. Every time you stop reeling, the bait waves in place. That is the whole trick. It is also very light. Most rods sold for bass cannot cast it at all.
How to Fish It
Cast it and let it sink all the way down on a slack line. Wait. Then drag it a couple of feet with the rod, stop, and wait again. Most bites come while it is sitting still.
Rated for clear water only. A fish finds 3" of bait by sight, so anything dirtier and it goes past unnoticed.
It is sold 3", in that one length. Weight is the only choice left to make.
When to Throw It
Best over rock and gravel in clear water, when fish are down on the bottom and will not chase anything moving quickly.
Poor in wind or current strong enough to push it around, because a bait that will not stay put has lost the one thing it does well.
Feeling an Exposed Hook
The hook rides exposed on a molded head, and the whole 1/16-1/8 oz of it is hook, lead and body in one piece. A short set is all it takes. Most bites arrive on a slack line as a faint knock, so the rod earns its place by reporting them at all.
1/16-1/8 oz rules a rod in or out before anything else does, and one profile here covers it: 6'9" medium-light, fast action spinning, whose card says what it is bad at.
6'9" medium-light, fast action spinning
- Length
- 6'9"
- Power
- medium-light
- Action
- fast
- Casts
- 1/16-3/8 oz
- Line
- 4-10 lb
A light-line rod for when fish have seen everything else. Its 1/16-3/8 oz window takes that weight without being at either end of it.
Not enough power to pull a fish out of grass, timber or dock pilings.
The One Fish It Catches
Smallmouth Bass
- Water
- freshwater
- Mouth
- bony
- Line floor
- 10 lb
Smallmouth bass pull harder than their weight suggests, so the line under this bait starts at about 10 lb. Smallmouth bass live on rock.
Everything else this fish is caught on is on its lures page. This bait is one entry there, and not always the first one to try.
The Method It Belongs To
Ned Rig
- Where it sits
- bottom
- Power
- medium-light or medium
- Action
- fast or extra-fast
- Difficulty
- beginner
A bait this light only casts on a rod light enough to bend under it. The fast tip is what shows you a bite, because nothing about this bait pulls hard enough to announce itself.
Fishing it on a medium rod that cannot cast the bait, then blaming the bait when it lands ten feet away.
Where This Decision Goes Next
Texas-rigged soft plastic worm
Also soft-plastic, but fished on single hooks. Close enough to look like a substitution, far enough to want a different rod.
Find a rod that throws a ned-rigged soft plastic
Five questions, four of them skippable. Answer them and you get the rods that cast this weight for the fish you are after — or, if you name a rod you own, whether it is one of them.