by Joe Cermele

If you follow trends in the bass world, you've surely heard of the Alabama Rig (left). If you don't, this controversial "lure" is a play on the classic saltwater umbrella trolling rig, simply made compact and castable. A weighted head sprouts five wire arms with snap swivels on each end. To those swivels you can pretty much add any soft-plastic you'd like. Bass pro Paul Elias used an Alabama Rig in a tourney on Lake Guntersville back in October and won. Now, as companies scramble to make and sell their own versions of the rig, B.A.S.S. has taken another look at them and decided, you know what? This isn't going to work for us.

From the B.A.S.S. press release:
Rules Committee members believe the rig eliminates some of the skill that should be required in tournament competition at the highest level. “It doesn’t matter how you work it,” said one of the anglers. “The fish can’t help themselves...”

by John Merwin

Wow, another year is almost over. It seems now as if 2011 went by awfully fast. I’m convinced that the passage of time accelerates as one grows older. At least it seems that way.

So as usual, at this season I’m thinking about the fishing I did in the recent past, and the fishing I hope to do in the coming 12 months. Oddly enough, perhaps, and despite various trips to far-off places, the most plain fun I’ve had in fishing lately has been close to home.

Simpler is better, or so it seems in retrospect. For one thing, fishing close to home is pretty much free of hassles. Whether it’s bass (as in the photo) or trout, pike or panfish, the fishing nearby is generally productive and easy to get to. Airline travel, whether to a fishing destination or for any other reason, has become complex, daunting and expensive. I put my head down when I have to and put up with all the aggravation, but it’s always an ordeal.

By John Merwin

I got to thinking about falling in this morning. That is, taking an accidental dunking while fishing. This photo reminded me, being the time my good wife took a tumble as we fished a North Country trout river.

She saw me grab my camera as she was changing into dry clothes at streamside. Already annoyed at getting soaked, she was furious at the prospect of pictures. So she hid chastely behind the door of our truck to finish the job.

All of which reminds me of another falling-in yarn, this time while bass fishing in Florida.

Once in a great while, I or another staff member has to go fishing or hunting to schmooze with advertising clients. This particular trip was at Bienville Plantation in northwest Florida, a private-lake nirvana (think phosphate pits). Anyway, the prospective client was in the front of the bass boat, ahead of our guide--while I sat in the back--dutifully hoping the client would catch a big one.

By Joe Cermele

There is a really interesting article by Alan McGuckin posted over on Wired2Fish.com right now. In fact, I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first. McGuckin rounded up a panel of notable bass pros, including Kevin VanDam, Gary Klein, and Ken Cook, and got them to debate whether or not spinnerbaits have fallen out of fashion. He also added long-time B.A.S.S. photographer James Overstreet to that panel, as his lenses have been capturing bass trends for years. Says Overstreet: "Dude, you’d have better luck trying to find Sasquatch than finding a recent event where a spinnerbait was the primary lure used to win an Elite Series tournament."