Probably my favorite way to catch walleyes! They’ll eat a Ned rig all season long ???? but here’s a few keys to my program for spring walleye fishing on shallow sand, before the weeds grow up.
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I was catching ’em on a 3/16-oz VMC Ned Rig Jig (chartreuse) paired with a “green pumpkin goby” color Z-Man Big TRD. There’s a zillion different Ned heads out there – few things that makes this one so fishy: “A hybrid bend in the Ned Rig Jig’s 1X-strong, forged, fine-wire Vanadium Steel hook provides extra strength. A chemically sharpened needle point and a hybrid, wide gap ensures that bass [and of course walleyes!] stay buttoned….” Its traditional mushroom style head and 90° line-tie = drags smoothly on bottom, does a great job of hopping over rocks, and creates more lift for your plastics so they stand up. Comes in 4 sizes (1/16, 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 oz) and 3 colors (black, green pumpkin and chartreuse). Love that all the sizes have a 1/0 hook, ‘cuz a lot of other jigs out there start bumping up the hook size the heavier they get…which is fine unless you’re trying to throw compact little baits like you typically want to with a Ned rig. |
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Btw I accidentally found out last summer (on an extremely tough bite) that the VMC Ned Rig Jig’s “beveled edge conical keeper” does an INCREDIBLE job of holding on a nightcrawler too. Honesty would have never guessed by looking at it! But the crawler would literally tear in half below the hook before the top would even slide down the keeper. Crazy cool. |
You know it was an insanely tough bite if I stooped to throwing a half of a crawler versus plastics LOL. Paid off that mid-summer day tho.
