September 24, 2020
John Crews of Salem, Virginia, is the proprietor of Missile Baits. He has been an expert bass event angler since 2002, competing on the top-of-the-line Bassmaster and FLW circuits.
A number of years in the past, he started to periodically dip into the world of Midwest finesse fishing. And people dips ultimately spawned Missile Baits’ first Midwest finesse creation, which was the Ned Bomb that Crews launched to the angling world in 2019.
A small mushroom-style jig with a small hook is a predominant software within the repertoire of the leisure anglers within the Midwest finesse world. However in Crews’ fingers and his event wants, he discovered the small mushroom-style jig to be insufficient.
Due to this fact, he and Missile Baits’ workers labored on making a state-of-the-art jig that might enable them to simply skip forged a Ned Bomb and different finesse-sized soft-plastic baits underneath overhanging bushes, underneath docks, and round and underneath different difficult-to-access lairs. Additionally they wished one which may very well be dragged and hopped throughout underwater terrains which can be suffering from scores of rocks and boulders and never turn into snagged within the crevices of these rocks and boulders. Along with these two vital options, they hoped to design a jig that might intensify the gliding motif of the Midwest finesse anglers’ swim-glide-and-shake retrieve.
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In the end, they created one, which is named the NedBall Head.
Here’s what we found about it.
There are three sizes: 1/16-ounce, 1/8-ounce, and three/16-ounce. They have been designed primarily for use with the Ned Bomb. And, after all, they are often affixed to a wide range of finesse-size soft-plastic baits, similar to Missile Baits’ The 48 Worm and 4.5-inch Quiver.
This gear information will give attention to the 1/16-ounce NedBall Head.
It isn’t a standard ball- or round-headed jig.
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The edges and dorsal or prime parts of the top are convex. Its ventral or backside portion is flat. The width of the top is three-sixteenths of an inch. The peak of its sides is 1 / 4 of an inch. It has a circumference of about thirteen-sixteenths of an inch. The attention of the hook, which has a 90-degree bend, extends three-sixteenths of an inch above the top’s dorsal.
The pinnacle’s collar, which encompasses a brief portion of the hook’s shank, is barely greater than five-sixteenths of an inch lengthy. The primary three-sixteenths of an inch of this collar has an uncommon rectangular form, and the width of this rectangular collar is one-eighth of an inch. The tip of the collar is topped with a cone-shaped bait keeper that’s barely greater than one-eighth of an inch lengthy. On the junction with the flat phase of the collar, the cone-shaped bait keeper is barely greater than one-eighth of an inch large and excessive with a circumference of about five-eighths of an inch.
The NedBall Head sports activities a custom-made 1/0 VMC Techset Hook. The space from the middle of the hook’s eye to the apex of the bend of the hook is 1 7/16 inches. The hole of this hook, which is the gap from the shank to the tip of the purpose of the hook, is seven-sixteenths of an inch. The hole between the floor of the dorsal space of a Ned Bomb and the purpose of the hook is about five-sixteenths of an inch. When the NedBall Head is affixed to a Ned Bomb, which is 3 ¼ inches lengthy, 1 3/16 inches of the torso of the Ned Bomb is fettered to the shank of the hook. Crews says “the hook is wonderful for having a really excessive touchdown fee. The fish do not throw that hook. It’s exceptional.”
It’s accessible in three hues black, inexperienced pumpkin, and unpainted.
The recommended retail value for a bundle of three is $4.99.
Endnotes
- Here’s a hyperlink to Missile Bait’s web site: https://missilebaits.retailer/.
- Listed here are three hyperlinks to the Midwest Finesse gear guides about Missile Baits’ Ned Bomb, 4.5-inch Quiver Worm, and The 48 Worm: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/missle-baits-ned-bomb/359207; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/missile-baits-45inch-quiver/383023; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/missile-baits-the-48-worm/153430. The NedBall Head can be affixed to these three baits, in addition to to Missile Bait’s Child D-Bomb.
- Right here is the hyperlink to our Midwest Finesse column that explains the way to make use of the NedBall Head affixed to a Ned Bomb and execute the swim-glide-and-shake presentation: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/153946. It additionally explains the way to execute the opposite 5 normal retrieves that Midwest finesse anglers use.
We featured the 1/16-ounce NedBall Head on this gear information as a result of a no-feel presentation is a necessary ingredient in the entire six normal Midwest finesse retrieves, and a light-weight jig enhances our skills to realize this presentation.
What’s extra, many years in the past, the late and nice Guido Hibdon of the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, who was one of many forefathers of Midwest finesse fishing, taught us that “fishermen have a tendency to make use of an excessive amount of weight, And, with an excessive amount of weight the baits don’t work proper.”
On the flatland reservoirs in northeastern Kansas, we fish in water as shallow as one foot and barely deeper than 12 ft from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. And we now have discovered that the burden of a 1/8- and three/16-ounce jig interferes with our skills to execute a no-feel presentation across the shallow-water lairs that we dissect.
Thus, from our a few years of working with light-weight jigs and the no-feel retrieves, we expect that the easiest way for newcomers to Midwest finesse fishing to be taught in regards to the virtues of the no-feel retrieve and the way to execute it ought to start through the use of the 1/16-ounce NedBall Head.
