This week I wasn't catching any bass at Weiss Lake. So I went up to the local tackle shop and bought some 65 pound diamond illusion braid, and an alabama rig with some white money minnows and 1/4 ounce jigheads. So I lined up my quantum smoke 7:0:1 reel, which is critical when using the A-rig,and tied the a-rig to my 7'6'' flipping stick. I weighted the a-rig it was 4 ounces. So I started throwing it around, and I thought man maybe this thing is too big. Weiss Lake is stained so I didnt think swimbaits would work. But boy was I wrong, I went to a bridge close to the mouth of a creek where I thought the bass might be. I started chunking it along the bridge in 6 foot of water. On about the 3rd cast one pounded it. I don't have any pics of the rig or the fish I caught on it, but next week is spring break and Ill be off school so im going fishin all week with my camera and my a-rig. Maybe I can catch 5 at a time, but maybe when the crappie fever cools down I can catch more bass. I will keep pics posted and news. And for all the fisherman that are on the fence about buying an alabama rig buy one it will catch lots of largemouth and smallmouth bass, and some MONSTER STRIPERS!!! Its worth every penny I paid for it.

Glad to see it worked out for you!

Too much money for me..glad you like it...what I"m doing is working....so I"ll keep doing that.(-;

reasons I won't get the Alabama Rig...

I was excited when I saw the rig at Walmart but here are the reason's I slowly put the rig back on the wall..

A. 24.95
B. baits to go on the rig..15.00

Imagine getting that rig hung up..yikes !

C. I wouldn't want to put that kind of stress on any of my reels.

D. I've seen some videos of this rig..they do catch fish but none of the fish were serious wall mounters..

E. I"m pretty much a big bass fishermen..because I live in Florida..so this rig wouldn't,t do me a lot of good,..I ipretty much flip and pitch all year round...

However if I was doing money tournaments..I,d have a couple of these rigs on the boat..it would be great on a new lake .

I would assume most of us are big bass fisherman that troll the forums quite regularly (maybe fewer than I think). For the most part we are trying for one or two fish a day that can be the game changer, others are just bonus, in a sense.

I get very confused with your ideas on fishing methods though. Don't get me wrong, I admire you for your fishing skills, learned a few things, and enjoy your pictures, but all methods of fishing catch big fish. I'm not saying that you disagree with that statement, but years ago your go to lure was the horney toad and you fished it a great deal. Before that I believe it was all about live-bait, shiners under bobbers (I may be mistaken). Just a few weeks ago you determined that crankbaits can catch big fish too. Everything has a time and place, we all have preferences on methods of catching fish, but I don't believe you to have flipped or pitched much in previous years to my knowledge on the forum.

The "dumb-dumb" lure, the senko/dinger/etc, has been a great "big fish" catcher, but only if fished in a specific manner. Most people look down on this lure as an amateur lure, although I have watched time and time again guys win tournaments with it against those who look down on it and are too 'mighty' to fish it.

I do agree though, hands down, jig fish on average are bigger. But some time periods throughout the day topwater is one, others the spinnerbait bite is insane, and no doubt, the jigs find there place too.

Buck,
I don't quite understand your post....I've been flipping and pitching since the 1980s...until last spring the area I fish was heavily choked with hydrilla ..so Horny Toad was an excellent choice as well as a spinnerbaits..

Because shiners wee allowed,,they are no doubt the best live bait..

I have a few baits that I bring,,actually 5 rods..2 for flipping which are worm and jig...2 more worm rods but on mono..and I Have a this and that lure...which is loaded with a ddcrankbait..

Some guys using a fly rod would be very happy to catch any bass..up north I would be thrilled with a 2 pounder..down here in the south though..I target the 5 plus..



Each lake though is fished differently....Lake Gibson...Horny Toad and spinnerbaits...

Lake Tern ..spinnerbaits....worm

Etc etc...each body of water and what the fish are doing dictates what one is to use...back to thre thread topic...I can't afford the Ala, Rig..

Maybe this will help shed some light.

There have been 19 largemouths weighing 13 pounds or more caught in varying bodies of water across Texas during the ongoing 2010-11 Toyota ShareLunker season that runs through April 30, and there were 33 entered in the 2009-10 campaign.

There have been a number of anglers who didn’t wish to disclose what type of bait they were chunking…. But the ones who did reveal some interesting trends when it comes to what big bass will inhale.

The top overall bait is the ubiquitous worm and similar Senko, which has been responsible for eight entries in the past two seasons.

The second-most appealing lure for ShareLunkers the past two years is the jig.

The No. 3 bait is a tie with six between the…lizard and the tried and true crankbait.

The next most-utilized bait for ShareLunkers might surprise you, but it really shouldn’t, especially considering it’s a staple of the hefty largemouth’s diet. A live sunfish…all [three entries] from O.H. Ivie Reservoir. Another live offering, the waterdog, which is the larval form of the tiger salamander, is responsible for another ShareLunker entry.

Many largemouth anglers prefer [fishing] artificials, but considering the 18.18-pound state record was caught by a crappie angler dipping minnows, maybe it’s not a bad idea to fish with some of the real thing every once in a while.

The swimbait and brush hog were used to each produce a pair of ShareLunkers.

Surprisingly, the spinnerbait has only been acknowledged to have produced a single lunker entry the past two seasons.