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Ned Rigging the North
By Ken Smith
Ken shares with us a technique that has proven effective for him in the north during the slower bite of the winter months and encourages anglers to experiment with different techniques, including the Ned Rig System, in the lead up to winter so that they can utilize their effectiveness during this slower and tougher cool weather bite period.
As we head toward winter on Cape York and while, to a southerner like me, the temperature might seem beautiful, for the barramundi this is their slow time. This slow bite has the locals going as far as to say that barramundi don’t bite in the winter months.
I knew that wasn’t right. The barramundi would have to eat throughout winter, however like any tough bite it would be a matter of working them out. I had rigged a plastic on a TT HeadlockZ jighead and the fish showed a feigned interest. They were following the presentation at a distance, before turning and retreating, back into the snag from which they had emerged. It was time to change things up.
I knew that it was just a matter of working them out and so I began the process of chopping and changing the offerings and the process of delivering them. The Ned Rig System is a beauty, with the flat, mushroom style of the jighead used with this system and the naturally buoyant ZMan 10X Tough ElaZtech soft plastics making for a perfect combination. This presentation allows anglers to bounce the the jighead and plastic across the bottom and when paused the plastic will rapidly stand upright, attracting fish and triggering strikes.
I chose a 1/5oz TT NedlockZ jighead in the Chartreuse colour and pinned on a ZMan plastic. The technique that I used was to cast the presentation close to the snags, initially causing the heavy headed Ned Rig to splash hard into the water. The splash would gain the interest of the snag dwelling fish and this splash landing was then followed up with a quick crank away from the snag. Following the quick crank, the whole presentation was then allowed to drop naturally to the bottom and work its magic.
This splash, crank and drop to the bottom would entice the barramundi to swim forward and eyeball the plastic. From here it would take only one or two hops of the plastic and the lethargic barra could be enticed to take the Ned Rig, with its upright floating plastic hard for the fish to resist.
It wasn’t just barramundi that were interested in the Ned Rig setup either, with both eel tail and fork tail catfish loving the bottom hopping plastics. Big, olive-green archer fish also grabbed the Ned Rig with no hesitation, adding some excitement to the otherwise slow winter bite.
Hopping the plastic across the bottom in the clear water, I could see other fish in amongst the barramundi that were also showing great interest in this bottom dwelling, hopping lure. Mouth almighty would follow the plastic as it hopped across the bottom and at times would eyeball the plastic as it sat motionless on the bottom. As soon as the presentation began to lift again, they would fly in and engulf it in their large mouth. Tarpon / oxeye herring were also very partial to the Ned Rigged soft plastics and this method of retrieval.
The act of slowing everything down was what worked and the Ned Rig, with its bias to doing head stands, was what turned those fish that were reluctant to eat, into fish that could be readily taken. Lures cranked slowly and at times paused would also get eaten by the fish at times and it seemed that during the cold of the northern winter / dry season, the fish just wanted everything delivered to them in a slow fashion. This slower style of fishing lends itself perfectly to the Ned Rig presentation, with its seductive presentation of the plastic, whether rigging a ZMan paddle tail, curl tail or crustacean.
I guess in the cooler months the fish’s metabolism slows right down during the colder periods, requiring a slower approach to get the bite. Sure, they bite like crazy in the build up and run off period, where bad performing lures tied direct to braided lines and even plastics rigged with bends like bananas still get eaten. It's in those lean, hard fishing times, where you want to be catching fish while others deal with that frustration of a tough bite, that the Ned Rig System is hard to go past. This is a definite technique that should be in your arsenal when the fishing is tough. Next time the bite is tough and the barra won’t open their mouths… try going fishing with Ned.
Cheers, Ken