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Estuary Ned Rig Kit

By Justin Willmer

The Ned Rig exploded in parts of the US as a deadly finesse plastics technique for chasing bass, built around the concept of a mushroom style jighead that creates a rapid stand up presentation when teamed with a buoyant, finesse plastic. This creates a presentation that is either fleeing on the retrieve or rapidly hinging and standing up in a natural feeding or defensive pose when paused. When paused the presentation will also then move naturally with the water movement, creating a presentation that is fishing for you on the retrieve and the pause.

This technique has now found its way into the arsenal of Australian anglers and there are numerous stories of tough bites and scenarios where fish are feeding on a particular food source, where the Ned Rig has become the go-to presentation for the session. Personally I always have a handful of TT Lures NedlockZ jigheads in my kit, along with a selection of ZMan 10X Tough, naturally buoyant, ElaZtech plastics, in case I need to switch things up. It has reached a point now though that the Ned Rig is getting a run almost every trip, inspiring the creation of a separate Ned Rig kit for my river and estuary fishing. My whole kit fits in a single small TT Deluxe ZMan Bait Binder, allowing it to be included in boat, kayak, SUP and even land based adventures. In this article I am going to break down this kit and look at how, when, where and why I utilise the different components of my kit.

Scent

I often fish fast, rolling paddle tail plastics across the flats and bouncing them down drop offs, rigged on jigheads that many may consider one size too heavy. Even when fishing fast I scent up, so when I slow things down and employ the Ned Rig, scent becomes even more important. I use paddle and curl tails for covering as much water as possible in a search for active fish, while I utilise the Ned Rig for a more focussed and slower approach to prime areas, key structure and to get the bite from fish that do not want to feed. The Ned Rig has been my key to unlocking locked mouths.

I have a natural looking presentation, I am presenting it slower and the last piece of the puzzle is the scent, creating a presentation that a fish can't let go by without having a taste. Pro-Cure Super Gel is the go-to scent, with its super-sticky formula and combination of real ground bait and powerful amino acids, bite stimulants and UV enhanced formula, attracting fish and triggering strikes. There are a stack of flavours and everyone has their go-to, however for me favourite flavours include Shrimp, Mullet and Pilchard / Sardine, and the newer Saltwater Yabby / Nipper flavour is proving a winner. I apply scent toward the jighead and the smear it down the full length of the plastic every 30 or so casts and after landing a fish.

Jigheads

One of the key components at the heart of the Ned Rig is the TT Lures NedlockZ jighead, a mushroom shaped jighead that aids in the rapid stand up of the presentation. This jighead is built on a heavy duty Mustad black nickel chemically sharpened hook, that is a good balance between penetration and the stopping power required when a big fish eats these finesse presentations. The species list so far for myself includes bream, flathead, snapper, grunter, trevally and more, with larger models requiring a solid hook. The grub keeper on this jighead is the TT Lures 'head lock' keeper design, locking the plastic in place so that you can cast hard, work the plastic aggressively and even after a bite the plastic is often still secured in place and working for you.

The current NedlockZ range includes a variety of colours and weights. Here's a bit of an outline of what I carry in my kit and when and where I use them.

1/15oz #2 - In the 1/15oz I carry a dark colour (Black or Green Pumpkin) and also Orange. The darker colour is for an extremely natural presentation and the bright Orange colour is as a strike trigger, creating more of a reaction bite. This light head is ideal for slow sink rates and shallow water, and I use it when fishing mangrove edges, rock walls, pontoons and drains in shallow water, as well as when fishing slow over shallow weed.

1/10oz #1 - This is a great allround size for shallow estuary work (up to 2m deep) and again I fish a dark colour and Orange. The dark colour is my go-to when teamed up with a dark coloured plastic for working broken weed and rubble bottom, imitating a crab, prawn or baitfish that is camouflaged for the darker environment. Move to the saltwater yabby beds and its straight on with the orange head, teamed up with a Greasy Prawn coloured plastic to imitate a yabby. The final combination is the Orange head, teamed with a dark plastic to imitate the small crabs with one bright orange claw that line the mud banks in my local creeks. If one of these crabs falls into the water, it doesn't last long and likewise this presentation is soon eaten by a bream, cod, flathead or mangrove jack.

1/6oz & 1/5oz #1 - I select either of these based on depth and current, if it's faster or deeper go the 1/5oz. These are my go-to for fishing water that drops beyond two metres deep, including deeper drains, drop offs, rock walls and bridge pylons. We have caught all sorts of reef species working these around rubble patches, including snapper and sweetlip. They are dynamite chasing flathead along the edges and are also effective in shallower situations when it is difficult to get the lighter models into the strike zone.

I always carry a darker colour and also the Chartreuse in these sizes, with the Chartreuse being a favourite for flathead, either as a strike trigger on a natural coloured plastic, or teamed up with a bright coloured plastic for hunting active and aggressive feeders.

Ned Rig Plastics

ZMan plastics are ideal for Ned Rigging, thanks to their 10X Tough ElaZtech construction and naturally buoyancy, which creates the rapid stand up presentation. Here's a few models that I currently fish, how I fish them and a few favourite colours, remembering that others will have completely different favourite colours.

ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ

This is a favourite Ned Rig plastic for me and is basically a biologically real crayfish or yabby profile. It is an awesome snack size plastic for species such as bream, flathead, trevally and snapper. The two bulbous claws create a rapid stand up action in the form of a naturally defensive pose and they also respond well to a slow rolling and shaking retrieve, whereby the claws wave up and down as the lure swims above the bottom. Pause and the presentation hinges down, dropping straight to the bottom with its claws in the air. At first glance many believe that the profile is a little bulky, however from the first time that I fished it, bream inhaled it. It's pretty cool watching bream fight over this plastic on the flats!

For those that love the UV pop of Motor Oil, it is available and definitely a winner. Other favourites for me include Drew's Craw as a natural crab presentation, The Deal for its contrasting dark / light sides and Greasy Prawn with an Orange head excels on the yabby flats. There's not a bad colour in the range though.

ZMan 2.75" TRD BugZ

This is my new favourite and again there was early comments about the body being too bulky for bream... they love it and they eat the whole plastic. This plastic has two larger appendages (make sure you separate them out of the packet) and two smaller offset appendages that provide loads of movement and easily fold out of the way when a fish goes to eat the body of the plastic, providing an excellent hook up rate. I thought about this plastic as a crab or prawn imitation and fish it with hops, pauses and shakes around the weed beds, drains, mangroves and other structure. Sean Bekkers opened my eyes to how much it looks like a small squid in the water and he has been using the same presentations around rubble patches, even in pretty deep water, to land snapper, sweetlip, cod and other reef species.

Again, yes it's available in Motor Oil. Other favourites for me include Hot Snakes (an awesome combination of chartreuse and green pumpkin), The Deal and again Greasy Prawn with an Orange head on the saltwater yabby beds. I have seen plenty of big bream and trevally landed on the Bloodworm colour, so may have to add that to the kit.

ZMan 3" TRD HogZ

I know a few anglers who trim the body length down on this model and slay the bream on it, either rigged on a TT Lures HWS (Hidden Weight System) jighead or Ned Rig style on a light NedlockZ. I too like to trim the body down, however have caught plenty on it at full size also. I always have a couple of colours in my kit as this is a totally different looking presentation to the two previously mentioned plastics and the two large antennae dance and flick with the slightest shake, twitch or hop. It's a great presentation for working slowly across the bottom, or I get it up off the bottom and twitch it along like a prawn, especially when I see prawns being disturbed in the water. I have landed some solid flathead on this plastic flicking it out of weedy drains on a 1/10oz NedlockZ. It also seems to be a deadly presentation when there is little variation in the high and low tides and in turn little water movement. I fish areas that I know produce fish and I fish it slow hops and twitches until they can't help themselves and they attack it.

Motor Oil? Yes! With my other favourites including Drew's Craw and The Deal.

Other Plastics

Don't forget the other finesse ZMan plastics that you already have in your kit. These are also naturally buoyant and combine with a TT Lures NedlockZ jighead for the rapid stand up presentation that attracts fish and triggers strikes. A few favourites that I will Ned Rig include the ZMan 2" CrusteaZ, 2" & 2.5" GrubZ and 2.5" Slim SwimZ. Common colour choices include Motor Oil, Midnight Oil and Greasy Prawn.

The CrusteaZ can be fished similar to a ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ or 2.75" TRD BugZ, offering an even smaller and more finesse presentation. The GrubZ and Slim SwimZ offer an excellent combination between a standard slow rolling presentation and the rapid stand up - shake, twitch, hop and pause of the Ned Rig. This is ideal when I am still confronted with large areas of productive looking water, allowing me to roll the plastic and cover water, with the ability to pause at any time during the retrieve and utilise slower Ned Rig retrieves when I wish to concentrate on a particular area, pocket in the weed, lay down timber, drain, depression in the flat, or other structure. The 2.5" Slim SwimZ is a favourite for me for the versatility of 'running and gunning', fishing fast and covering water, then in a single retrieve utilising the NedlockZ to slow it down and get that stand up action happening. When using the GrubZ and Slim SwimZ on the NedlockZ jigheads I refer to it as my 'Swimming Ned Rig' presentation due to its ability to be swum across the flats and other structure with a slow rolling retrieve, then paused, hopped and twitched to utilise that deadly standard Ned Rig style presentation.

Leader

When fishing the Ned Rig I use a light spin combo, such as an Okuma Cerros 7' 1-3kg or 2-4kg rod and Epixor XT 20 or 30 size reel, spooled with 8lb Platypus P8 or 10lb Platinum Plus Braid. I store a spool of leader in my kit and generally just stick with 10lb Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader. In the areas that I fish bream can still be readily caught on 10lb and it gives me peace of mind when I hook a solid flathead... which seems to happen a bit on this little presentation. Fluorocarbon has excellent abrasion resistance, sinks - assisting with staying in touch with your presentation and has similar light refraction qualities as water, making it virtually 'invisible' in water. In areas with clear water and finicky feeders, especially when primarily targeting bream, it may pay to carry some lighter leader in your kit, as you need to get the bite first before you have any chance of landing a fish.

Boomerang Tool 'The Snip'

This line snip clean cuts braid or mono to 50lb, covering Ned Rigging, and is on a retractable cord that can be attached to the zip or attachment point on the TT Lures Deluxe ZMan Bait Binder, that I store my kit in. Easy to access, ready to go and not lost overboard! This snip is also excellent for trimming ZMan plastics, such as the 3" TRD HogZ, should you wish to. I just stretch them out, hold them between my fingers and cut them clean.

Storage

My whole kit fits in a small TT Lures Deluxe ZMan Bait Binder, which can be easily stowed in the boat, dry bag for the SUP or kayak, and backpack for landbased adventures. A dozen packets of Ned Rig plastics clip into the heavy duty rings, a couple of Pro-Cure Scents slip inside the rings, my small jighead tray loaded with NedlockZ jigheads into the pocket and a spool or two of leader and Boomerang Tool Snip in the remaining space. This kit is ready to grab and go, whenever the opportunity arises to fish the deadly little Ned Rig.

If you haven't tried the Ned Rig but believe that it would work on your favourite target species in your area, give it a run. Like me you may find a presentation that can produce bites when your standard offerings are not getting the attention that they normally do. A handful of plastics and jigheads and you are ready to experiment. Fish on!

See you on the water...
Justin Willmer

Justin's Kit

Bait Binders - TT Deluxe ZMan Binder Small

Boomerang Tool Company - The Snip

Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 10lb

Pro-Cure Saltwater Yabby / Nipper Super Gel Scent - Other favourites include Mullet, Pilchard / Sardine and Inshore Saltwater

ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ - Motor Oil, Drew's Craw, The Deal & Greasy Prawn
ZMan 2.75" TRD BugZ - Motor Oil, Hot Snakes, The Deal & Greasy Prawn
ZMan 3" TRD HogZ - Motor Oil, Drew's Craw & The Deal
ZMan 2.5" GrubZ - Midnight Oil
ZMan 2.5" Slim SWimZ - Midnight Oil

TT Lures NedlockZ jigheads - A mix of weights and colours