Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Wednesday, 16 November 2022 08:36

A-Rig
by Mike Gerry

The craze of the A-Rig has spread to other parts of the country with the fall and winter months being the best of the A-Rig fishing over the past several years. There have also been several fish on Guntersville caught on this bait, as it continues to prove it is a look that the fish and big fish like. In Tennessee there was several tournaments won recently with a huge weight capping off the tournament.
The biggest change in the A-rig in the last few years has been the weight of the bait as most manufactures have figured out how to lighten up the weight making it easier for the novice fisherman to use. There is even a single hook look out that shows all the flash from the blades but just has one hook set-up.
Winter could be an amazing time for an A-Rig as once the grass erodes it will cause more competition between fish. With all the different manufacturers of the A-rig starting to create different versions of it so the bait can be fished at different depths with more flash and for a variety of fish species it will increase its versatility. Many of the manufacturers have taken so much weight out of the bait it is extremely different than the original versions and is much more versatile.

The other change is that the A-rig is being fished in more types of cover and at different depths than the original use presented. Anglers have found that the bass have not moved to the bridges as they did in years past. I believe this is a by-product of the rig beating up the fish and changing some of their normal migration paths. Allowing anglers to move to creeks, shallow water, points and river ledge areas to find the fish that will hit it. The good news is that as the migration path changed the A-rig manufacturers were ahead of the curve and did many of the things stated above to allow the bait to take on more water other than the 20 to 30 ft. drops we all fished last year. The thing that hasn’t changed on the A-rig is it is a young man’s bait as most average and older fisherman are physically challenged to fish with it!

Captain Mike