By now, the story of the Alabama Rig is well known, but I’ll share a bit of background for the benefit of those who been living in a tree stand the last several weeks.
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| PRADCO's YUMbrella Foxy Lady |
In October, bass pro Paul Elias blew away the field during an FLW Tour Open event on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville to win first place and a check for $100,000. Elias was throwing a weird-looking rig that is essentially a freshwater version of the Umbrella Rig so familiar to striper anglers. What’s unique about the rig Elias was throwing is it’s not only castable, it puts multiple lures in the waters at one time, and yes, he did catch multiple fish on a single cast during the event.
Within weeks, anglers using The Alabama Rig won two more tournaments, one a FLW Everstart event on Kentucky Lake, another during a FLW BFL event.
And that’s when the fishing world went crazy about The Alabama Rig.
The Alabama Rig works because it does a phenomenal job mimicking a small school of bait, especially shad, a key forage species in many bass waters. The most popular rig to date features a jighead tipped with a soft plastic swimbait on each of the rig’s five flexible bars. Because the rig contains multiple baits, it’s not legal to fish is several states, but it is legal in Alabama. Most fish the rig on an 8-foot, heavy-action baitcasting rod and 80- to 100-pound braid.
Things have moved quickly in the past several weeks, as the fishing industry scrambled to meet the explosive demand for the product. Within weeks, rig developer Andy Poss, licensed the rig to Mann’s Bait Company, while other lure manufacturers rapidly developed their own versions of the patent-pending design. In fact, in just the past couple days, both PRADCO and Trophy Technologies shared sneak peaks at their new rigs.
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| Trophy Technologies' Charlie Walker Rig |
PRADCO is calling their rig the
YUMbrella. It’s a well-built unit featuring five stainless steel arms that will allow angler to up to five baits at a time, to simulate a small school of bait. It features 45-pound-strength snaps and 75-pound-strength swivels, and comes in two Tennessee Shad and Foxy Lady. Tennessee Shad is a realistic shad pattern with white sides, shad dot, gill stripe and a touch of red under the mouth and tail. The Foxy Lady features a chartreuse base with dark back, shad dot and a splash of orange on the belly. Both patterns feature red 3D eyes.
The Charlie Walker Rig from Trophy Technologies is another rig option that features three arms, a tin head to keep weight down and increase sensitivity, and ball bearing swivels. MSRP is $20. No additional information is available on the product right now; I’ll forward when available.
I’m certain other companies will be moving into this space and will share information as it becomes known.-- Steve