The Neko rig has become a staple among bass fishermen who need to finesse fish for bass in pressured situations both shallow and deep. VMC released a whole line of new Neko terminal tackle for bass anglers at the 2016 ICAST show. We’ve been fishing with the rig with their new VMC Ike Approved Neko Hook, VMC Neko Weight and VMC Half Moon Wacky Weight and they are perfect for the technique.
The VMC Ike Approved Neko Hook is designed with the perfect offset for not only holding your plastics in place on a wacky rig but all for the right pull point when you go to reel set on a fish with light line. The hooks are thin wire but they are strong enough to take the pressure of 10-pound braid on a spinning reel. The eye is welded, which is nice so that really light line knots won’t dig into the hook eye bend that’s not sealed on other finesse hooks.
The VMC Neko Weights are ribbed for our pleasure. Seriously, the angled grooves make it easy to insert into your finesse plastics without having them tear up and the ridges lock into the plastic so they will not fling out while you’re fighting a fish or whipping casts and skipping light plastics under and around cover. They range from 1/16 to 3/32 ounce weights which gives you the option to fish these shallow or deep.
The VMC Half Moon Wacky Weight is becoming a more popular option for rigging neko rigs. The reason being, the exposed lead gives you solid contact with the bottom that you can feel in a sensitive rod. When other weights are inserted up in plastic, you can’t feel the hard bottoms as well. So I liked this option for when I was fishing out deeper and dragging the Neko rigged plastics around more in areas where fish were feeding as opposed to the Neko weight for skipping worms shallow and fishing around targets.
They offer small packs and bulk packs on the hooks. I like the size No. 1 and the 1/0 sizes on the Neko Hook and often fish either a 1/16-ounce Neko Weight or a 3/32-ounce Half Moon Wacky Weight when I’m fishing out deep. With an o-ring on my plastics, I can present a worm completely different than I can with a shaky head, drop shot or unweighted wacky rig. So I like the additional options I get with the Neko Rig.
You can find all three of the new VMC Neko options at TackleWarehouse.com and other retailers where VMC terminal tackle is carried.
