The Alabama Rig
As once again proven the FLW Pro's come into Guntersville and find a way to take a new look in fishing rigs, lures, and have it produce over a 100lbs. stringer in 4 days of fishing. It wasn't though without its ups and downs. The Alabama Rig as it's being called is nothing more than 5 wires hanging out of a central point and set up to hold five swim bait heads and look like a small school of fish. The rig is designed to catch suspending fish that are looking for an easy meal while being in an inactive suspending stage!
It's a new look, it's a bait the bass haven't seen and for Paul Alias it was the avenue to a $100,000 check and in doing it creating a new fade in fishing all over the country. Paul by his own admission was wore out like never before as the Alabama Rig is not easy fishing and my personal thought question whether the average fisherman will enjoy fishing it. If you break down the mechanics of fishing it, you will find it's heavy, hard to throw with any distance and takes a strong set of arms and hands to fish it for any length of time. The bait itself is set up with oz. swim bait heads on each of the 5 wires with swim baits on each.
Most of the pro's using the rig fished a heavy action 8ft. to 8-1/2 ft. rod with 80 lb. test line; the rod is heavy at the bottom near the handle which makes it very tiring to use. Those fishermen that fished it on 40 to 50 lb line found that the weight of the lure could easily break the line at the point of a cast, and if your rod wasn't strong enough the fishermen missed fish consistently on anything less in backbone. It would almost be like fishing a heavy deep sea fishing rig and if you have ever been deep sea fishing I know you are in sync with how tiring it is.
The bottom line is, the A-Rig is catching fish at the expense of the fishermen's body strength and endurance; and oh by the way, having 5 hooks out on one lure is illegal in some states and questions the ethics of sportsmanship in fishing!
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry