Neko rigging soft plastics is all the rage in the finesse world but rigging has largely focused on the use of worms. Well, filming this video made the light bulb go off for the Wired2Fish staff. The question to ourselves was, “why wouldn’t a Neko rigged crawfish plastic fool a bass?” Feast your eyes on this baby, the floating Savage Gear 3D Craw rigged with a nail weight, o-ring, and hook slid underneath. What you get is an anatomically accurate crawfish imitator not only in appearance but in action. As it’s worked, the plastic gives the appearance of a crawfish scuttling backward in a defensive position.
Proof of effectiveness for us was catching bass. We put this system to work on a big school of largemouth and caught fish on nearly every cast. In Neko rig fashion, bass held on to the plastic with hooking percentages near 90%. Seems this setup should produce well in heavily pressured and clear waters where realism matters. The ultimate takeaway is to not limit the Neko rig to worms, rather explore its use with all sorts of plastics. Chances are you’ll have success and build confidence doing something other anglers and the bass haven’t seen.
