Ned rigs #1 killer of Bass?

[Bill Babler]

Dead I think you hit the nail on the head

[jdmidwest]

I fish for fun, so I will mash barbs down on jig hooks to release fish easier.  No tools, just work finger along hook and push out. Never have much problem with tube jigs or Ned rigs going deep.

[Jerry Rapp]

yes the fillet knife, mostly from two factions.  Those who fish off docks and immediately fillet any length bass they inadvertently catch while crappie fishing, and folks in boats who do the same thing to undersized bass.  Hey, it's only illegal if you get caught.

[top_dollar]

Odd that nobody mentioned live nightcrawlers,  but something tells me when the going gets tough in mid summer most fishing guides on table rock hang crawlers with small bait holder hooks.  I know that when I hang crawlers plenty get gut hooked especially when I'm not paying attention.  Hot water and gut hooked worm fish die in a hurry.  I will freely admit though that if it's a 15 inch spotted bass it's going on ice.  

[Bill Babler]

We catch hundreds on Crawlers and very, very rarely does one get hooked deep.  In my list I also classified it as a drop shot.  With folks in direct contact with the bait and usually fishing it no deeper than a boat length or two on a straight line, it is not a problem what so ever.

We probably fish them more on Taney, just using a partial crawler and the trout will get them down at times when we are just sitting using a tight line catfish approach on flat water.  When they are generating and we are bottom bounding they will almost never get it down.

Gulp power bait is a totally different deal.   They get those small pellets/balls down so quick I pretty much refuse to use it, unless folks are keeping their catch and after they get their limit I most often make them change baits.

[Champ188]

As most here know, I'm emphatically against the killing of bass for any reason. But I'd rather see them go under the knife than float away dead at launch ramps from poor handling by uncaring tournament groups. Nighttime jackpots in the heat of summer are especially at fault here.

There, Terrierman, I said it for both of us. 😁

 

[top_dollar]

45 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

We catch hundreds on Crawlers and very, very rarely does one get hooked deep.  In my list I also classified it as a drop shot.  With folks in direct contact with the bait and usually fishing it no deeper than a boat length or two on a straight line, it is not a problem what so ever.

We probably fish them more on Taney, just using a partial crawler and the trout will get them down at times when we are just sitting using a tight line catfish approach on flat water.  When they are generating and we are bottom bounding they will almost never get it down.

Gulp power bait is a totally different deal.   They get those small pellets/balls down so quick I pretty much refuse to use it, unless folks are keeping their catch and after they get their limit I most often make them change baits.

Do you fish it on the drop shot with the worm horizontal?  I was taught to hang it vertical using a split shot rig, but the drop shot setup is probably less likely to get swallowed.  I guess the fish dont care.  Maybe I'll do it that way next time I'm down. 

[moguy1973]

I have to get more texas rigged french fry worms deep hooked out of my wife's fish than anything else.  Never had a Ned deep hooked.  Usually hook them in the top or corner of the mouth.

[Bill Babler]

Agree with you moguy for sure. 

We head hook the crawler and fish it with a 3/8th. round ball drop shot sinker and a size 1 circle hook.  At times they will bite the Yamamoto cuttail or shad shape worm  as well or better than a crawler.  Have  very little problem with deep hooking on either rig.

James I'm glad you were not with me last week on my launch from Cow Creek's back ramp.  I counted 13 really nice SM all sided and laying on the ramp.  Vultures were having a feast.  Some of these SM were  toads.  Totally made me sick.

Right now, if you can buy shiners and get around these deep fish, you can pretty much catch everyone you see on your graph.  They  will back off a spoon, grub or an Ice jig after a while but they will eat shiners till the last dog dies.  This year there are as many Jaws deep as there are K's so its not that hard to catch several, especially in that Cow to Kimberling City gravel area and you have good electronics and know how and where to look.

I remember back in the early 90's there was a group of a dozen guys that would come and stay at Play Port up at the Knob.  They would come the day after Christmas and stay  thru about January 2nd.  They would literally kill several hundred bass on shiners during that week.They said it was for their Church annual picnic and fish fry.  There gone now thank goodness but so are most of the bass in the locations they used to deep fish.  Basin Hollow used to just stack full.   I can at times find some there but more often than not it is a single or two.

In either 94 or 95 my brother-in-law and I from Christmas thru New Year caught well over 500 off the center point where the channel splits in there. 50' to 60'  Largemouth and K's, not a single Jaw, and lots of the K's were the Big Grey One's we very seldom see now. Dockit and  Bo knows them.  We put a single hook on a 1/2 oz. white jigging spoon.  The triple hook was just to hard to get them off and it was just one bite after the other.  It was packed with shad in there and lots of gulls.  I cannot remember a single loon, but it was amazing.  One day the wind switched and blew out of the cove super hard and they were gone.  The fish have not  been back since in those numbers and I look every year.  I can catch them in the Fall and Summer at the mouth and off the island, but have not seen the deep ones back in there in 25 years.

Beck and I won a February tournament off one tree at the mouth of White's Branch about 10 years before he died.  Water was about 70' tree came up to about 40' and I have never seen anything so covered with fish.  There were so many it seemed like the tree had leaves blowing in the wind under the water.  Bill was on them, and we started out of Schooner and he pulled in on the tree and we dropped the spoons and the bottom just lifted totally around the tree, thru the tree and above the tree.  He had poured some 3/8th. darter heads and we used those with Yamamoto and Chomper C-tails and a 1/2 oz. spoon and pretty much doubled on every drop for 6 hrs.  I think we weighed in 22 pounds all LM but caught so many K's it was crazy.

It was a beautiful day and Bill always liked to eat lunch, even in a derby.  I always made big Hogie sandwiches and we pulled out on point 7 and and  ate sandwiches drank coffee and took a nap in the sun.  Now that's my type of tournament fishing.

I will miss that guy everyday till I take my last breath. Not a single day goes by that I don't see his face or think of him.

Bills favorite saying:

Bab's, where are you?            He always called me Bab's

Are they snapping your junk?

They no Hungry.

They are simply Starving

Are you fishing or just throwing it out and winding it in?

Do you have anything to eat?

I'm Starving.

I'm Aging.

Your Exhausting.

And the list goes on.

Good Luck out there.

 

[Champ188]

Beck was a special guy in so many ways beyond being one of the best fishermen to ever set sail on Table Rock, if not THE best. Cherish those memories, Bill. And happy 2020.