Spinning Rods & Little Bitty Swim Jigs
Z-Man unveils ‘Ned-friendly’ Midwest Finesse Swim Jig
Ladson, SC (June 23, 2022) – Hop aboard the boats of legendary anglers Ned Kehde or Drew Reese and you’ll probably witness two different but equally effective bass tricks. You might discover, for instance, that Midwest finesse fishing often transcends TRDs™ and mushroom-shaped jigs. While Ned masterfully coaxes dozens of bites with one of his little red mushroom jigs, Reese might work heavier cover, plucking bass from brush and grass with his Midwest Finesse Swim Jig—another ace trick from the finesse architects at Z-Man Fishing.
“I’m a diehard finesse guy, but I also recognize plenty of situations in which standard exposed-hook Ned rig stuff isn’t quite so efficient,” believes Reese, among the greatest angling tacticians of his era (Reese finished 7th at the first ever Bassmaster Classic.) “A major motivation behind the design of the Midwest Finesse Swim Jig was to give anglers another tool in their finesse arsenal that fishes faster and shines in heavier cover where standard mushroom jigs aren’t so efficient.”
“I also wanted a head shape that slid cleanly through cover and allowed the lure and its ElaZtech® trailer to shimmy slightly on the retrieve, but without rolling over. I knew if we could fit all these elements into one finesse swim jig, we’d give anglers something pretty special.”
The other inspiration behind the Midwest Finesse Swim Jig, says Reese, originated from the need to cast with light line and spinning tackle. “Sometimes, you simply need a jig that can be fished a little faster, maybe across a grassy flat or around submerged wood. While slower-moving Finesse ShroomZ™ jigheads and small ElaZtech baits shine in loads of situations, bass often react even more favorably to a faster swimming presentation, especially in a downsized package.”
Two of the more prominent issues with most smaller swim jigs, Reese found, related to incongruent hooks and ill-suited weedguards. “Smaller baits, optimal light wire hooks and light line simply result in exponentially more bites and more importantly, boosted hookup ratios,” he believes. “During our initial testing, we found that the hookup ratio with most normal or even so-called ‘finesse’ swim jigs was very poor due to the heavy wire hooks and stiff weedguards. The challenge was to hit the sweet spot with both jig attributes, while still matching up with 4- to 6-pound line.”
Anyone who’s ever fished with Reese knows his on-water trials take things to other levels of meticulous. (He’s been known, for example, to cycle through five different rod-reel-lure combos in turn, making 20 casts with each, while logging the results in his Memorex-like mind.)
Following a season of splicing heads, hooks, skirts and weedguards—leaving a mountain of experiments in his wake—Reese discovered that a specific, compact, light-wire needlepoint 3/0 hook efficiently pegged fish with light line. Built to spec, Reese’s ultimate hook fit his favorite ElaZtech finesse baits, held snugly in place with a welded wire bait keeper.
Armed with the sharpest cutting point attainable, Reese—a habitual hook-sharpener—caught a staggering 50 bass on a final prototype jighook before he felt it required re-sharpening. “I went on to catch 86 bass on that first jig prototype before retiring it,” he concedes.
