If you've ever watched a kid with a two-inch piece of plastic out-fish a boat full of grown men throwing $40 swimbaits, you've seen the Ned rig at work. It is the least impressive-looking bait in your tackle box, and it might be the most reliable. And this month's box is a Masterclass on the Ned Rig! Click the link to get it for 50% off!

What it is...

A Ned rig is a short, buoyant soft-plastic stick — usually 2.5 to 3 inches — threaded onto a light mushroom-shaped jighead, typically 1/16 to 1/5 ounce. That's it. No skirt, no blade, no trailer. The bait is named for Ned Kehde, the Kansas outdoor writer who spent decades refining what he called "Midwest finesse," a system built on small baits, light line, and the radical idea that doing less catches more.

Why bass eat it...

Two reasons. First, size. A Ned rig looks like everything bass eat — a small crawfish, a dying shad, a goby, a bluegill fry — without looking exactly like any of them. Second, posture. Because the plastic floats and the head sinks, a Ned rig comes to rest on the bottom standing straight up, tail quivering even when you don't move it. Bass see a small, easy meal with its guard down. Pressured fish that have learned to ignore a swim jig will still swim over and eat a Ned rig, which is why it has become the bait tournament anglers reach for when they need five bites, not five big bites.

How to fish it...

Cast it out, let it fall on a semi-slack line, and watch your line the whole way down — a huge percentage of Ned bites come on the initial fall. Once it lands, you have three basic retrieves. The "drag" is a slow, steady pull with the rod tip low, letting the head crawl over rocks. The "hop and drop" is a couple of short rod pops followed by a pause. The "do-nothing" is exactly what it sounds like: let it sit, shake the slack in your line, and count to ten. Beginners always move it too much. When you think you're going slow enough, slow down again.

The bite...

Ned bites are rarely a thump. Most of the time your line just gets heavy, swims sideways, or goes slack when it should be tight. Reel down until you feel the weight, then sweep the rod. Don't cross their eyes with a bass-master hookset — light wire hooks and light line don't need it, and you'll pull the bait away from the fish.

Gear in one sentence...

A 6'10" to 7'2" medium-light spinning rod, a 2500-size reel, 10-pound braid to an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader. (Post 2 in this series goes deep on setup, including why more and more anglers are throwing Ned rigs on a bait finesse casting rod like the LUNKERSTICK BFS.)

Baits to start with...

Pick a 2.75-inch stick-style Ned bait from the GrandeBass soft plastics lineup in green pumpkin, and a second in a shad or "goby" natural color. Those two will cover 80 percent of the water in North America. Pair them with 1/10-ounce mushroom heads and you're rigged.

Why every angler should fish the Ned Rig...

The Ned rig doesn't care how much you've spent, how fast your boat is, or how many years you've fished. It rewards patience and line-watching, which are the two skills that make every other technique work better. Learn it first and you'll catch fish on the days nothing else is working — and there are more of those days than anyone admits.

Go Catch One.

This month's Platinum Series box is a full Masterclass on the Ned Rig.  Get the entire Masterclass here.