Water Clarity - ned rigs

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Flipper

Well-Known Member
The wife and I fished out of Bullfrog last week - May 4th to 11th. Fished from Red canyon all the way to just past Neshkihi. Put a few miles on the new Lund. The murky/cloudy water is already down to the Halls creek marina. Bull frog Marina had crystal clear water at the slips, but as soon as you got out to the main channel MM95 it clouds up a little - greenish brown and about 5' of visibility, by the time you got up to Moki, MM 99 it drops to 3 - 4'. Up at the mouths of Knowles - Cedar MM 108 its is around 2 feet and by MM 118 it was less than a foot. Each canyon up lake had its own mud line just inside the mouth of the canyon. By the time you got a half a mile into the canyons the water is plenty clear enough to fish. Near the backs of the canyons the water is very clear. We fished the back of Forgotten Wednesday and you could see 15' near the end of each fork. The fishing North was slow as far as Powell spring fishing standards, We did have one good day in the back of Red canyon. The fishing south was far better as far as numbers of fish which were primarily SMB. Sunday we fished the main channel just past the mouth of Escalante. Caught around 125 SMB. Fished Tubes - swim baits and Ned rigs. Had never fished the Ned rigs before, so there was a learning curve. Once we figured it out, that was about all we used. They are effective fished in a variety of ways, and are very durable. I fished one rubber bait the entire day one day. Retied twice due to abrasion and was fortunate to get unhung several times, but was really impressed with there durability. We used the Z mann products. They do seem to catch all types of fish especially small ones, of the 125 we caught that day, around 100 of them were 6 to 9". Fished the right side of the big bay just past Neshkihi on Tuesday. I just kept going till I found the color of water I wanted to fish. Was surprised the water was that clear that far up at this water level. The water on the right side of that bay had 3 to 5' of visibility. On the other side of the bay you could see a definite mud/ murky water line which had less than 2' of visibility. We caught around 120 SMB - had 38 keepers - miss counted. Caught around 35 crappies only 3 over 12" one nice 15.5" one. Most were 10". about a dozen LMB 10 to 15" all returned. A few blue gill - green sunfish they loved the ned rigs, and even a couple cats on the ned rigs. Had not fished the San Juan in Years - it was well worth the trip. Watch out for submerged rocks in the big bays. My lake map chip is priceless with helping watch out for these. There were several rocks only 6" to a foot pout of the water then. They are a foot or two under water now and a lot of them were right out in the middle of the bays. The water all the way up the San Juan was a nice green color, especially on toward the back. Fished Annies and a few spots on the main channel near there Thursday. Caught primarily small SMB, Had around 75 total - had around a dozen keepers. The water is fairly clear any were down lake from Bullfrog. Had never tried the Ned rigs before. They can be fished in a variety of ways. I was bouncing mine along the bottom similarly as you would a tube jig, and was having good luck. But the wife was catching as many as I was so I watched her for a minute and she was just casting it out waiting about a 3 count a slowly reeling it in like a swim bait? The walleye liked it to be slowly dragged along the bottom without bouncing it. They were very durable. You did have to do a little maintenance on them to keep them laying straight on the jig head. They did not like it when it was crooked on the jig head.
Seemed to have caught alot more small SMB than usual. Maybe that was due to the baits we used. I normally use a 3.5" tube jig and the dinks don't seem to fool with it much. Probably caught at least 300 SMB for the trip. Had a couple 15" - had maybe 25 - 13 - 14" 50 or so 11 - 12" - the rest were 10 or less. Kept our 80 we were allowed. Had around 40 stripers - kept 15 - the rest were thin and put back into the food chain. Tried to catch walleye but did not have much luck - did end up with 44. They were a little smaller than normal as well - 16 - 17".
The water clarity is going to be an issue around Bullfrog and up lake for the next 6 weeks. It would not surprise me to see the water down around bullfrog be to muddy to fish by the middle of June. On the bright side, there is a lot of good green new growth that is getting covered up for small fish cover and habitat. Should be a great year for shad. They always seem to do well when the water is to muddy to see them when they are small. I hoping that the late summer will be great for boils - and the fall fishing is always good.
I hope the water quality report helps some people with planning their future trips. I know that is the most important thing for me to consider on where to go. Again for people that have not read my reports before, water visibility is the distance under water that I can see my bait, which is usually a green tube jig. tight lines and good fishing!
 
I was going to ask Wayne about the smaller smallmouth. It is just not worth filleting a 7" smallmouth, and we caught literally hundreds of them. I don't have a problem squeezing them till they pop and putting them back into the food chain - like the skinny stripers? seems like a waste, cause they will get bigger eventually. I normally keep all the larger smallmouth cause they are easier to fillet, and you get a lot bigger fillets. Those big fillets are wonder grilled with a little butter and lemon and salt and pepper. The only justification for releasing the bigger fish is that they may eat some of the smaller ones? I have filleted thousands and have never seen one with a another smallmouth in it? Being so many people catch and release, have you ever looked at raising the limit or making it unlimited like the striper and walleye so more would get taken out?. Putting them back so they can reproduce is not a good reason because there are to many of them already. I would keep more if the limit was raised. I have dozens of people I give fish to. They love getting them and I love catching them. I don't mind cleaning and bagging them, and in My opinion we as fishermen are not taking near enough of them to keep the quality and size up on them.
As far as being detailed on the report, Every time I go down, I read all reports - and call every one I know and ask about the water clarity - quality. I never get a straight answer. For one everybody's opinion of what is muddy or too muddy to fish varies. I did not go to GHB for 6 days because every one said it was too muddy to fish. On our last day I told the wife we are going to go and look for ourselves. We found some water in the back of Red that had about 18 to 24" of visibility and we caught around 80 fish. Kept 60 - 12 stripers - 6 nice smallies and 42 walleyes. Had I not listened to every one, I would have went up there on the first day!
One funny thing about the Ned rigs, my wife nick named them poop logs. She said what are those things, and why would a fish hit that, it look s like a poop log? It was funny listening to her - "caught another one on the poop log" "My poop log is crooked, straighten it out for me" "Need another poop log this one is warn out". One thing about it though, those little "poop logs" will sure catch the fish, I bought up a bunch more on the way home for next trip. I had only bought 10 of the mushroom jig heads, and we ran out on the next to last day. Cleaning the fish that night, I cut one open that had one in it's belly, and I used that head all day the last day and caught lots of fish on it. How's that for recycling?
 
It seems people use the Ned Rig for early season, lethargic, cool or cold water fish. A lot of the videos on YouTube they are not even moving the jig, just casting out and letting it sit, letting the fish come up and eat it....small lures, big fish. With the warmer water, more active fish may be better caught with a larger or standard size jig? We used the Ned Rigs, with the "poop log" ;) and a 1/6 ounce mushroom head 3 weeks or so ago, worked for walleye, smallmouth and catfish. They would also eat a chartruese Mr. Twister, so under those conditions, I am not sure the lure made that much difference. Walleye sure like it SLOW!!! There were some guys near us that were hammering the walleye, they just kept a second rod in a holder with a jig and crawler dangling off the boat.
 
Flipper said:
I was going to ask Wayne about the smaller smallmouth. It is just not worth filleting a 7" smallmouth, and we caught literally hundreds of them. I don't have a problem squeezing them till they pop and putting them back into the food chain - like the skinny stripers? seems like a waste, cause they will get bigger eventually. I normally keep all the larger smallmouth cause they are easier to fillet, and you get a lot bigger fillets. Those big fillets are wonder grilled with a little butter and lemon and salt and pepper. The only justification for releasing the bigger fish is that they may eat some of the smaller ones? I have filleted thousands and have never seen one with a another smallmouth in it? Being so many people catch and release, have you ever looked at raising the limit or making it unlimited like the striper and walleye so more would get taken out?. Putting them back so they can reproduce is not a good reason because there are to many of them already. I would keep more if the limit was raised. I have dozens of people I give fish to. They love getting them and I love catching them. I don't mind cleaning and bagging them, and in My opinion we as fishermen are not taking near enough of them to keep the quality and size up on them.
As far as being detailed on the report, Every time I go down, I read all reports - and call every one I know and ask about the water clarity - quality. I never get a straight answer. For one everybody's opinion of what is muddy or too muddy to fish varies. I did not go to GHB for 6 days because every one said it was too muddy to fish. On our last day I told the wife we are going to go and look for ourselves. We found some water in the back of Red that had about 18 to 24" of visibility and we caught around 80 fish. Kept 60 - 12 stripers - 6 nice smallies and 42 walleyes. Had I not listened to every one, I would have went up there on the first day!
One funny thing about the Ned rigs, my wife nick named them poop logs. She said what are those things, and why would a fish hit that, it look s like a poop log? It was funny listening to her - "caught another one on the poop log" "My poop log is crooked, straighten it out for me" "Need another poop log this one is warn out". One thing about it though, those little "poop logs" will sure catch the fish, I bought up a bunch more on the way home for next trip. I had only bought 10 of the mushroom jig heads, and we ran out on the next to last day. Cleaning the fish that night, I cut one open that had one in it's belly, and I used that head all day the last day and caught lots of fish on it. How's that for recycling?
Click to expand...

I recommend keeping Smallmouth that are 9-12 inches, which makes them just big enough to fillet. My goal is to let the 13+ inch fish get bigger. Keeping the small ones is not worth the effort and we don't like to waste fish.

I will considering your suggestion for an unlimited catch on smallmouth less than 14 inches. That might work!
 
This was the first year we really fished the Ned at Powell. Last year I did use one for a few hours and it worked as well. Originally we got into the Neds for the local lakes, it seemed like they made finicky fish a little easier to target and catch. What I have found most impressive with them is that they catch everything. In some of the local lakes we catch smallies on one cast and big rainbows on the next with them. So they are a do nothing bait, but they are very versatile in what they catch, great combo.

One thing I did notice after filleting hundreds of smallies this spring is that they just flat out work and look very similar to a docile crayfish. It’s easy to see the correlation. What has really put the Ned at the forefront for us is the durability. Personally my all time favorite Powell bait is the Hula Grub, but at best they last ten fish. Like others have mentioned over a four day trip I can use less than ten TRD Z man Ned baits. That’s with breaking some off due to mussels.

AB553189-0901-4872-A9FA-913FE44DB0B6.jpeg

Our issue if any with the Ned Rig is actually the mushroom hooks. The small wire one z man makes tend to start to bend out. The hook with the bigger clump thing in the middle work much better. And combined with the Gamakatsu muchroom finese jig head you can really use one rig for four straight days...

I’ve listed both below.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Ned_Lockz_HD_Jig_Head_5pk/descpage-ZNLHD.html

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Finesse_Jig_Head_4pk/descpage-GFJ.html
 
Last edited:
Dungee...Is there a color name or number for the TRD Z-Man Ned bait you are using? Your picture of it next to the crayfish is a perfect color match.

 
Last edited:
@Striper Slayer Yes you do screw it on, here is the best video I could find on how to rig it with the twist lock. You do something similar with the TRD. Its a bit tricky the first couple times but you'll get the hang of it.

@wayne gustaveson We've used the 1/10 and 1/6 size a lot. With the Gamakatsu hook we've used a 1/16 or 1/8.

@Fursniper There are like four colors that we really used this spring. "California Craw," "Mudbug," "Green Pumpkin Orange," and "Molting Craw," which is the one in the picture I think.
 
Our group recently had good luck (See my South End Report) with several colors, including The Deal and PB&J. Truly, color didn't seem to matter much. A simple slow-roll retrieve with no twitching worked with the TRD "log". With their newer small CrawZ a better trick was allowing the CrawZ to hit bottom and twitching it back. That got slamming strikes from everything, including crappie.
 
Wayne - I used the 1/5 ounce head. I had some of the 1/15 ounce heads and they hit them well, it just would not get to the bottom if it was windy.

Squirrel - I had seen also to stretch them so they would float better. I found that it made a big difference that the bait laid straight on the jig. You would have to do maintenance the bait on almost every fish caught to keep it straight.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top