The Starting Spot: Bernie Schultz’s ICAST Picks, Okeechobee Vegetation Project, and the New Ned Rig

The Starting Spot Daily Bass Fishing Headlines are the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing articles on the internet. It’s the quick, informative, how, where, and who you need to know. So, rub the sleep from your eyes, pour that first cup of the day, and head to your Starting Spot.

The Starting Spot -Bernie Schultz’s ICAST 2025 picks -Lake Okeechobee in FL re-vegetation program -A new take on the Ned rig | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

In today’s 7-17–25 edition of The Starting Spot:

-Veteran bass pro Bernie Schultz shares his favorite new products from ICAST 2025

-Lake Okeechobee in Florida has faced its share of challenges, from both natural and human disturbances. But this program aims to get the lake’s ecosystem back on track.

-The Ned rig has been a big part of most bass angler’s arsenals for years. According to In-Fisherman Editor Doug Stange, this new variation beats the original Ned.

---

ICAST 2025: My Picks

by Bernie Schultz

According to an article on Bassmaster.com: Each year at this time, the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) hosts the largest trade show in the industry. It’s called ICAST, which is an acronym for International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades.

The event runs four days at the Orange County Convention Center, just outside Orlando, Fla. Among its many patrons are manufacturers, sales reps, angling celebrities, media and, of course, the buyers. It’s a huge event attracting enthusiasts from all across the globe.

New products are the focus and, trust me, there are many to see…MORE.

---

FWC completes revegetation projects on Lake Okeechobee

by FWC

Per an article on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website: This spring, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) completed a revegetation effort on Lake Okeechobee, enhancing the habitat in Fisheating Bay, Moore Haven Marsh and the Fisheating Bay islands. These revegetation efforts are in part guided by the Lake Okeechobee Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Management Plan, developed in 2022 to help more aquatic species meet management goals.

Lake Okeechobee’s aquatic plants have struggled due to prolonged high-water levels, impacts resulting from both natural and human disturbances. Strong winds and heavy rainfall associated with tropical events can uproot plants and lead to these prolonged high lake stages…MORE.

---

Season of the Ned

by Doug Stange, Editor in Chief

Per an article on In-Fisherman.com: When for the Winter Issue of 2010, we asked In-Fisherman Field Editor Ned Kehde to write about the method of fishing he used during winter on Kansas reservoirs to often put 100 fish in the boat during a 4-hour outing, we had no idea the eventual affect it would have on fishing. A year later in another magazine article, Senior Editor Steve Quinn called Kehde’s jig rigging the Ned rig, and the rest is history—and part of our angling vocabulary and our repertoire on the water.


What a phenomenon. Tournament anglers use this dandy finesse rigging when conditions are tough in tournaments. Guides often hand the rigging to clients as a no-brainer jig-rig that can be cast and retrieved in many ways to produce fish—often smallmouths and largemouths, but also walleyes, and just about anything else that swims…MORE.