Alabama rig " A-rig"

 so much uproar over this thing. its actually been around for some time, largely in salt water circles. oddly enough i have seen one before used by guys catching opelu for bait. so all this fuss and people saying its changed bass fishing forever and OMG is it for the good or bad of the sport! to be banned or embraced!! so paul elias comes out and throws one and smokes the competition for a tournament and its suddenly a craze, one has to wonder in this media driven world, just exactly how much of this is hype and how much is actually worth following, i mean come on shortly after his victory ever bait/lure company flooded the market with these simple rigs and damn a lot were and still are well over 20- 30$ a rig!! without the jig heads and soft bodies!!  a total frenzy driven market over one guys win at one tournament. lets track a few other fads shall we. hmmmm the most recent one before the A-rig i can recall is the  strike king rc 1.5 craze after the classic.KVD wins it using the 1.5, never mind he threw a spinnerbait the first day and a half, several other pros fish it as well to keep up with KVD and then the pros tout it to the cameras and there is a run on this "must have" lure. never mind there are bombers and wardens and bandits and normans act act out there that are pretty much the same just went endorsed. hell the square billed shallow runners have been around forever! hmmm before that it was the sexy shad color, man KVD seems to be starting a lot of these fads isn't he hahah perhaps that why he isn't endorsing the A-rig. seems if he  isn't at the starting point of the fad he won't endorse its use. before color there was the hydrowave!! ohhh come on thats fair? a lot of sponsored pros have said its a must to get the fish turned on and again there was a run on these things. before that it was side imaging again touted as a game changer, KVD heavily sponsored by both. I'm not dumping on KVD he is a phenom, but follow the money trail KVD was instrumental in getting the wave accepted at B.A.S.S. tournaments and the A-rig banned. hell i fully agree with him!! i don't think it belongs in the tournament format! but i think neither does the hydrowave! anyways paul elias wins guntersville and smashes the competition. how many have seen this footage? i have  and  the panic among the competitors was plain as he brought in bags of bass. oddly though on day three when everyone was armed with this very lure i only saw one guy get a double. everyone else paul included was getting single fish. not the 5 or 6 fish that people are so worried is gonna happen. a lot of misinformation and panic spread as this lure took on a life of its own. heres my personal thought on it. i don't get the need to get multiple fish on a bait. I'm stoked with one, i don't need 2 or 5 too feel better about a catch. will it or has it changed bass fishing forever, well i doubted swim baits,hydrowave, sexyshad, side imaging/down imaging/360 imaging haven't. i predict by end of year it will go the way of microguides and 100$ realistic japanese lures. a novelty that works but just can't sustain the hype over time. should it be allowed in tournaments? NO! should it be allowed for personal use? WHY NOT! the reality is people aren't loading it on every cast its hard to throw all day and takes dedication, at some point the fish will figure it out and it won't work as well, that always  ALWAYS happens. here in hawaii as in many states its illegal due to the restriction on the amount of hooks, however there isn't any enforcement and it sits in a grey area because its kinda one lure not on separate lines. I myself will probably invest in one just to try it out. we have peacock bass here and i really think that they will be the test of these rigs. bass just don't work in the wolf packs these tucs do. just check out the underwater footage of an A-rig in action, pretty damn impressive! it really does look like a pod of bait fish when fished properly. however the tucs being the way they are i can see a lot of multiple hook ups once they start busting shad , which will be any day now. i just foresee  mangled rigs, i mean these fish straighten spinnerbaits and hooks all the time they snap lines and poles all the time, and your gonna have 2,3 ,5??!! on the line man thats just gonna lead to heartache. if the line and poles survive the rigs themselves will be twisted into unusable messes I'm sure. still there are aloof of cheaper 9-10$ ones coming out so i will proboly test a few myself. again i don't understand the hype but why not try it. besides i have to give it a shot before the fed wears out and you can't get one!! hahaha