Go short

WHY THE NED RIG’S INVENTOR SAYS IT’S TIME TO RETIRE LONG RODS

THESE DAYS, EVERY avid Canadian bass angler surely has at least one spinning rod outfitted with a Ned rig. After all, the light mushroom-head jig adorned with a soft-plastic, worm-like nub has become a must-pitch presentation for tournament pros and recreational Joes alike. And now the offering has jumped well beyond bass fishing, with legions of walleye, crappie, perch and backwoods trout anglers also warmly embracing it.

As exceptional as the Ned rig is, however, most anglers are presenting it improperly by using the wrong fishing rod. At least that’s according to the man who should know, my good friend Ned Kehde (above), the famed rig’s namesake. His simple advice? “You should use a short spinning rod.” And that, he says, is at the heart of U.S. Midwest finesse fishing, which spawned the Ned rig in the first place.

Tackle

In the 1950s, legendary Kansas angler Chuck Woods created the first Ned rig predecessor, the Beetle, and used it to great effect. Then Missouri’s Harold Ensley fished a jig worm—another Ned rig precursor—to win the World Series of Freshwater Sport Fishing in 1960. Also from Kansas, Drew Reese followed that up in 1971, using a jig worm to finish seventh at the first-ever Bassmaster Classic. The primary tool for throwing all those rigs? A short spinning rod made by the late Ray Fincke.

According to Kehde, Fincke’s most famous stick was a 5' 4" finesse spinning rod he called the Stinger. He made it from an ultralight 4' 6" graphite blank, gluing on a 19-inch length of fibreglass blank to add more power to the butt section. Fincke also fitted the butt with a nine-inch cork handle.

Originally, Kehde and his lauded fishing friends equipped their short sticks and spinning reels with four- and six-pound-test monofilament line. These days, they use spiderweb-thin, four-pound gel-spun and four-pound fluorocarbon leaders. This allows them to make deadly accurate, yet delicate, presentations, as well as impart subtle waves, nods and motions—something that’s difficult to do with the longer rods most Ned-riggers use nowadays.

Listening to Kehde outline the myriad benefits of short spinning rods, including their featherlight weight and manoeuvrability in tight quarters, I can’t help but question the supposed sensitivity of today’s long rods. Kehde agrees.

“I have never been aware of the socalled sensitivity phenomenon until I began field-testing the prototype short rods Drew Reese designed for Z-Man, which will be introduced this year,” Kehde says, noting he’s also field-tested an array of spinning rods from other manufacturers. Most were long, expensive and reportedly state-of-the art, including one made especially for Ned-rigging.

“It was 6' 7", and I told the company I couldn’t rate its sensitivity because I couldn’t feel it,” says Kehde. “But Reese’s new Ultimate Ned Rig Rods for Z-Man are as light as a feather. They are magical. And they’re so sensitive I can’t find any sensible words to explain them.”

Technique

The way Kehde sees it, even long medium-light and light-action spinning rods are too heavy to properly present 1⁄10- to 1⁄30-ounce Ned rigs. And the supposed benefits of longer casts are vastly overstated, he adds, noting that some anglers say they’re casting up to 120 feet.

“We have never found that long casts help us catch more fish,” Kehde says. “Across the many decades that we have employed our Midwest finesse tactics, the bulk of the fish we’ve caught have ranged from about 30 feet away from the boat to right under it. And most of those fish were caught in water as shallow as a foot to as deep as about 13 feet.”

In order to hook the 101 bass he sets as his goal every time he launches his boat, Kehde says he only casts his Ned rig to short-range targets, then swims, glides and trembles it ever so delicately. If you use a longer rod, he notes, those movements become exaggerated and less effective.

“Two words lie at the heart of Ned rigging,” Kehde says, chuckling. “Subtle and simple. And a long rod is neither of those things. Mark my words, within two years the angling world will once again become enlightened about the many merits of short rods—and the demerits of long ones.” OC

BY SCOTT GARDNER

SCOTT GARDNER