I was just out fishing the Mississippi today in central MN, and my buddy showed me a new twist on the neko rig: instead of using a senko, he rigged up a plastic craw to sit tail down, pinchers up just like you see the real ones do. It worked very, very well. Just put the weight in the tail and string the hook through like you would a senko.

I wish I was heading up to the northwoods to give this a try on some of those finicky deep smallmouth. I bet it'd work well.

I didn't get quite the chance I thought I would to give the Neko rig a shot at Fontana Dam as the shoreline was so rough I couldn't fish without a boat.

But on Lake St Clair I was plenty impressed including what I suspected, that it would take walleye.

How would the Neko wrinkle with a craw be different than a stand up jig head and air filled claws on the craw? It would be interesting to see them side by side.

like this?


Ive fished them on jigs quite a lot over the years.

At least on the Mississippi here where we were fishing, a jig on the bottom is a bit of a nightmare...Lots and lots of snags and reties. It definitely works, but you need patience and lots of jigs. We seemed to get many fewer snags, but we also got away with using lighter weights because of the low water, so one trip isn't enough to tell whether it's truly less prone to getting snagged.

We just use boring ol' nails in the tails, or the cheapest little screws I can find at Fleet Farm, so it was nothing as fancy as what LOTW posted, but that would probably work, too.

I use Sheetrock screws for Nekos
That other contraption would maybe save some baits but I am trying to carry less junk .