Paul Elias - Guntersville

[RK]

Anyone else see the...contraption (I don't know what else to call it) Paul Elias and a bunch of other high finishers used at Guntersville this past weekend? It's called an Alabama Rig, and has a hard lead head with 5 wires coming out the back, and you attach a bait to each wire and spread them out so it looks - apparently - like a school of baitfish. Elias used small swimbaits on it. It looks almost like a dredge rig or spread rig for Tuna fishing.

Apparently, if you didn't have one at Guntersville, you were pretty well hosed. Fish were dialed in on schooling shad, which is what this thing supposedly imitates.

It'll be interesting to see to what extent it catches on, and how long it will take for fish to get wise to them. I'd think fish will get conditioned to something with that much hardware pretty quickly. But who knows.

By the way, my guess is it wouldn't be legal in Minnesota - as it's more than one hook under the definition currently in place.

Crazy deal though - predictions were it'd be a low weight event, and Elias sacked 102 pounds. 85 pounds was a distant second.

Cheers,

RK

[Cecil]

Yeah, saw that. Kind of a mini umbrella rig. Has to be crazy heavy to cast and reel in. But looks like it works. And yes, would be illegal in MN

[Nick Kuhn]

Legal in Wisconsin, but you can only have 3 hooks out.

[HellaBass]

So, on the river if you had two dummy baits and 3 with hooks or just ran a 3 way.....

[bassNspear]

i seen that as well. Can you imagine chucking that bait all weekend.

[RK]

i seen that as well. Can you imagine chucking that bait all weekend.

Having muskie fished for 25 years - yeah I can. Pretty cool gizmo though. Fun to see real innovation once in a while rather than "me too" variations.

[Central Bassman]

So, on the river if you had two dummy baits and 3 with hooks or just ran a 3 way.....

Bingo!!

[hanson]

Fun to see real innovation once in a while rather than "me too" variations.

Thats kind of my thoughts on the bait as well and people are definitely talking about it.

[RickyBobby]

One thing I noticed in the video demonstrations was that fish that had been hooked in the mouth by one of the 5 baits also seemed to be snagged/impaled by one or more of the other 4 baits when they were brought into the boat, obviously due to thrashing around while being played. I've already read some comments that suggested that as a basis for banning them in tournaments.... i.e. fish care issues