Tube, Football Jig or Ned Rig? Choosing for Cold-Water Smallmouth

Late fall is when Ontario smallmouth fishing gets quiet and selective. The water is cold and the fish are less willing to chase. Three presentations come up again and again: the tube, the football jig and the Ned rig.

This article does not crown a winner. It covers what each one is built to do, what fisheries sources say about cold-water smallmouth, and where the evidence stops and angler habit begins.

How we sourced this. Every fact comes from a page we opened and read: government and agency fish profiles, a peer-reviewed diet study as summarized by its publisher's association, and the makers' own product pages. Angler habit is labelled "anglers commonly…" or "common angler practice". We rank no brand and list no prices.

First, is the season still open?

Bass seasons end on different dates across Ontario. From the ontario.ca zone pages, read October 27, 2026:

FMZ 16 (includes Lake Simcoe): fourth Saturday in June to November 30. FMZ 16 guide
FMZ 17: third Saturday in June to December 15. FMZ 17 guide
FMZ 20 (Lake Ontario waters): regular smallmouth season, first Saturday in July to December 31. FMZ 20 guide

Other zones are in the zone-by-zone overview. Waterbody exceptions exist, so check the official summary for your lake.

What the sources say about cold water

Where the fish are. Ontario's species page says smallmouth favour "clear, rocky lakes and rivers": shoreline rocks and points, offshore shoals and deep water.

Washington's wildlife agency says lake smallmouth gather over large, rocky substrate in summer. As winter nears they become "increasingly inactive and difficult to catch" and move deeper, often past 30 feet in many lakes. That describes the Pacific Northwest, not Ontario. Read it as a general pattern (slower, deeper), not a depth for your lake.

How active they are. Minnesota DNR education material says smallmouth "dramatically slows its metabolism and rarely feeds" below 40°F (about 4°C).

It is written for teachers, not a research paper, and it is not about Ontario. The useful reading is a trend, not a switch: the colder it gets, the less a fish wants to spend energy. We found no Ontario study that gives a feeding threshold, so we do not state one.

What they eat. Wisconsin's DNR calls crayfish the smallmouth's "favorite food". Washington's agency agrees and notes crayfish are abundant in rocky areas.

The hardest number comes from Lake Erie. Crane and Einhouse (2016) found crayfish were the most common smallmouth prey before the round goby invasion, in 53.5% of diets. Afterwards round goby dominated, in 73.3% of diets.

Two lessons follow:

Crayfish matter. That is why ontario.ca itself suggests crayfish-imitating soft plastics.
Forage is local. Where round gobies live, a goby-coloured bait is as defensible as a crayfish one. That is our inference, not a claim the study's authors make.

The chain worth keeping straight is rocky bottom → crayfish → smallmouth. Smallmouth are not drawn to rock for its own sake: rock holds crayfish, and crayfish are food. All three baits below are built around that, in different ways.

The three setups at a glance

What each one is, and when it fits (source in brackets):

Tube. A hollow-bodied soft plastic with a jig head inside; Z-Man's TRD TubeZ is a 2.75-inch buoyant tube with a solid nose [maker's page]. Fits: rock and gravel where crayfish live, slow drags and hops [common angler practice]. Struggles: dense weeds or wood, where the hook snags [common angler practice].
Football jig. A jig with a wide, flat-bottomed head. Berkley describes a "wide, recurved head with a flattened underside" that "crawls in a stand-up position over rocks and through hard cover," sold from 1/4 to 3/4 oz [maker's page]. Fits: hard bottom, boulders and gravel [maker's page]. Struggles: soft mud or heavy weed, and its profile is bigger than the other two [common angler practice].
Ned rig. A "small jighead and plastic combo" with a "slow fall and darting action," credited by Z-Man to Ned Kehde [maker's page]. Fits: wary or inactive fish, light line; anglers commonly choose it then [common angler practice]. Struggles: deep water or wind, where it is hard to feel, and it covers little water per cast [common angler practice].

Tube: the crayfish stand-in

A tube suits rock because it drags slowly and rests upright. Z-Man says the TRD TubeZ's buoyant material and thin tentacles make it "stand up and come to life at rest," and calls it a favourite of smallmouth anglers on lakes, rivers and creeks. That is the maker's description, so read it as design intent.

In cold water, anglers commonly fish tubes on a light head: drag or hop a few inches, then pause long. We found no source that tests one tube technique against another, so treat that as common practice.

Football jig: the rock crawler

The head shape is the point. Berkley's page describes a flattened underside and a recessed 40-degree line tie, and says the jig crawls upright over rocks and through hard cover.

Anglers commonly pair it with a craw trailer and fish transitions, such as a rock-to-gravel edge or a point. They drag, then pause a long time, because a cold fish may not commit quickly.

The cost is size. The maker's weights start at 1/4 oz, a much heavier presentation than a Ned rig. On heavy cover or soft bottom the design offers no advantage.

Ned rig: the small, slow option

Z-Man says the Ned rig was "conceived and brought to mainstream attention by Ned Kehde," a Kansas outdoor writer, as a modification of earlier finesse techniques. Its own system pairs the 2.75-inch Finesse TRD stickbait with ShroomZ jig heads.

The page recommends no head weight. It does list compatible heads: Finesse ShroomZ from 1/20 to 1/5 oz and NedlockZ from 1/15 to 1/5 oz. Take that range as what the maker pairs it with, not a rule.

Why it appeals in cold water is angler logic: a small, light profile asks little of a sluggish fish. That is common angler practice, not a tested result.

What "floats" means, from the makers' own pages

Whether a soft plastic floats or sinks changes how the rig sits at rest. The Z-Man pages we read say so themselves:

Finesse TRD (2.75 in): "floating ElaZtech" that lets it "stand up off the bottom at rest."
TRD TubeZ (2.75 in): "buoyant" ElaZtech.
Pro CrawZ (3.5 in): "super-buoyant" claws that "float up at rest," like a crayfish's defensive posture. This one is from our own product catalogue, built October 5, 2026 from the brands' websites.

These are manufacturer statements about their own products, not independent tests. Not every brand states buoyancy at all, which is why we do not rank baits.

How to choose

The order anglers commonly work through:

Bottom first. Rock and gravel are what the football jig and tube are designed for. Heavy cover argues against all three exposed-hook options. A Ned rig can fish sand and mixed bottom (common angler practice).
Then the fish. If they will not chase, anglers commonly go smaller and slower. If a mild spell has them active, a heavier jig covers more water.
Then conditions. Wind and depth reduce what you can feel, which favours heavier baits.
Change one thing at a time: weight, trailer, colour, pause length.

None of these guarantees a bite. Treat any single-lure promise with scepticism.

Handling fish in cold air

Wet your hands, keep the fish in the water as much as possible, and limit its time in freezing wind. Check your zone's size and possession limits on ontario.ca before you go.

What Ontario guides tell us

We're interviewing Ontario guides for this section; check back.

Sources