How To Run the Alabama Rig with Dan Morehead
OutdoorHub Reporters 02.23.12
Dan Morehead’s been using the Alabama Rig for quite some time now since winning tournaments with it in the 2011 season. For the more details on the Rig, click here. Paul Elias has also successfully used the Alabama Rig, click here to read about his methods for using it.
The week before Morehead won the EverStart Championship on Kentucky Lake, Paul Elias of Mississippi, had won an FLW Tour event on Pickwick Lake with the Alabama Rig. Before that tournament began, Elias and about seven other anglers were fishing the Alabama Rig. On the second day of the tournament, all the anglers who finished in the top 20 were using the Alabama Rig. One week later on Kentucky Lake, where Morehead won his championship, almost all the anglers in the tournament had Alabama Rigs. The amazing part of the story was that Andy Poss and his wife Tammy were and still are building these rigs out of their home. So, the number of Alabama Rigs available for sale was very limited. But somehow, somewhere, most of the contestants in the EverStart National Championship had learned about this unique method of fishing and found a way to get at least one. “Out of the top 10 finishers, nine of the anglers were fishing the Alabama Rig,” Morehead reports. “They must have figured out how to fish it because they were in the top 10.”
One of the unique characteristics of the Alabama Rig is that you can fish a wide variety of lures on the rig. “I know of a guy who instead of fanning the wires out like an umbrella on the rig makes them all in a straight line coming out the back of the Alabama Rig,” Morehead reports. “He then put five Horny Toads (made by Zoom Bait Company, Inc.) on each of the wires and caught bass over the top of submerged grass.” Morehead says. “But I think the Alabama Rig is most adaptable to bass fishing in the fall and the spring when bass have the tendency to suspend. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think the Alabama Rig will replace all the lures in your tackle box, but I do think it will be responsible for more bass tournaments being won.”
Morehead has experimented with the rig with a fishhead jig that has a curly-tail grub and a swimbait. Some fishermen are putting crankbaits on it, and other anglers are testing a wide-variety of lures on the 5-wire rig. “One thing that I think is important to know about the Alabama Rig is that the rig doesn’t just work on bass,” Morehead explains. “I’ve caught 10-pound stripers on it and smallmouths too – some weighing a little more than 4-pounds each.” To throw the rig, you’ve got to have a powerful line. Morehead uses 65-pound-test Spiderwire Stealth. The Alabama Rig’s wires and the snaps are designed to hold up to 120 pounds. In the tournament, Morehead fished shallow enough, so that if the rig got hung-up, he could use his trolling motor to get above the rig and shake it loose from the cover. He was fishing with a 7-foot American Rodsmiths rod with a 4-inch swimbait and a Shimano Calais 6.2:1 casting reel. Without question, the Alabama Rig presents a new concept in freshwater fishing. The idea of multiple lures pulled by one line to imitate a school of baitfish is a tactic often used in salt water. But the Alabama Rig is the first technique that’s gained any national attention in fresh water. This rig is extremely adaptable and can and will catch many species of fish with a wide variety of lures. Stay tuned for new developments with this new bass-fishing technique. We’ll see just how far the Alabama Rig can go – not only in tournament bass fishing but also throughout the world of freshwater fishing.
Check out this video of the Alabama Rig in action:
