(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Like many anglers around the country, when he first learned about the Alabama
Rig’s effectiveness, champion Bass Pro Tour angler Bryan Thrift bought in.
“When it first came out it seemed like a cure-all,” he recalled.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t perfect. The initial wave of castable umbrella rigs were heavy and required special rods and reels. They also made anglers' backs and arms sore. Finally, the more bass saw them, the more they shied away from them. The rig remained situationally effective, but on pressured waters it lost some of its glimmer.
“The remedy to that problem is the finesse, light-wire A-Rig,” Thrift explained. It’s the same basic concept, but his finesse rigs are compact, which means you can use standard gear, and by tailoring them to the conditions they retain much of the original models’ fish-catching ability.
He throws two different finesse umbrella rigs, both on the same tackle. That starts with a 7’3” heavy-action Fitzgerald Stunner baitcasting rod. It’s short enough that he can pitch the rig around docks or make close-quarters casts, but also long enough that he can make longer casts and then efficiently slow-roll the lure back in 15 to 20 feet of water. He pairs the rod with an 8.0:1 Abu Garcia Revo STX spooled with 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon.
Both rigs that he employs are made by ER Lures in North Carolina, but although they’re both downsized, they have different components and purposes. The first uses .032-gauge wire and multiple No. 3 willow blades. He likes the blades when it’s cloudy and/or windy out. On this setup he uses Bite Me ball-head jigheads with a 2/0 hook, rigged with Keitech Fat Swing Impact 3.3-inch models, often in Tennessee Shad.
The second rig is very similar, but even more finesse-oriented. It uses .025-gauge wire, which provides more flex and vibration, with less visibility. It has no blades. He uses the same brand and style of jighead, but replaces his Keitechs with 3-inch Damiki Armor Shads. “The Armor Shad is not as wide, not as thick,” he said. With this rig he can make short pitch casts into places he’d otherwise throw a spinnerbait or a Chatterbait, places that the traditional A-Rig is too big or too heavy to use. In the wintertime, he likes them over brush near docks, and in the pre-spawn it’s deadly in 5-10 feet of water where he might otherwise throw a jerkbait.
These rigs also shine in shallow-water grass fishing, locales where bass might not be used to seeing lures that replicate an entire school of baitfish. He often uses five 1/16-ounce jigheads for his rigs, but when fishing around grass he’ll mix things up – two 1/16-ounce heads, a 3/32 in the middle, and two 3/16s on the bottom. That way, when he starts the retrieve the two heaviest pull toward the bottom and keep the rig running straight and upright. In some instances, he’ll cut the hooks off of the two heaviest heads to prevent it from snagging. It may result in slightly fewer hookups, but it allows him to ply areas that would otherwise be inaccessible or snag-laden.
If you want to learn some other aspects of Thrift’s finesse umbrella rig system, including information about how he slow-rolls the model with five 1/16-ounce jigheads, check out his full on-the-water video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
