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.” A tireless tester of lures, jigs and a thousand variations thereof, Reese ran through his usual exhausting on-water experiments before prescribing the right cure for heavy-cover finesse. “I tested a ton of different weedless finesse style jigs and found that most of them just weren’t right for finesse fishing in Midwest lakes and reservoirs,” Reese explains. “Most lacked the right light-wire hooks for light line or contained weedguards too rigid to hook bass.” |