Waiting for a tow truck driver so I have time to kill. I remember reading an article in Missouri Conservationist or one of those magazines back about 20 years ago or so. The article consisted of a guy dressing up in camo and sneaking up on huge smallies in a creek with live crayfish. He said the most difficult thing to do was snatching the crayfish away from the little ones so the big one could get it.
This is how I think of the Ned Rig. A great bait for clear highland reservoirs and a fantastic numbers bait. If I wanted to catch keepers to fill a 5 fish sack on a tough no-wind day on a lake, I would go for it. But not for the kicker fish. Too many other baits that would select for bigger fish.
As for hype, I don't think people were hyping it so much as they were over analyzing it. Kind of like I did with the laser scanning of the Wiggle Wart thing. Then we hear of guys only using it and nothing else. Most people, unless you're a guide and have to satisfy a client, or fishing with a child, don't need to be pacified with small fish to be happy. Then there's the fishing with a clicker thing. There's the story of Ned not liking tournaments because it takes away for the joy of catching fish, then not letting anyone in the 110 fish club unless they catch 110 fish in 4 hours or something like that.....which takes away from the joy of fishing too and makes him seem hypocritical.
But in no way do I want to take away from Dave's ability to fish with it. I think Deave personally has helped buccooo's of people catch fish that wouldn't normally be able to on TR, Bull Shoals type lakes.