Author:  Evan Howard…….

The most amazing thing about the ever popular Alabama Rig, or A-rig as we shall call it, is the fact that it is extraordinarily easy to manufacture.  Nothing more than a glorified umbrella rig, the A-rig consists of little more than wire, swivels, and snaps.  It is merely a new means to present old baits.  As the next installment in my series of articles on the A-rig, Alabama Rig Manifesto, this “How To” article will put the power of the A-rig in your hands for a mere fraction of the cost.  In my humble opinion, the store bought, professionally manufactured A-rigs offer no advantages, over my home made version, to justify the cost.  This article follows me, step-by-step, as I craft a four-arm A-rig out of simple, store bought materials using common, hand tools.  I tried to capture a valid image that represents a significant movement in each stage of the build.  Before we delve into the process, I must put up one disclaimer.  If you are the suing type, please don gloves, eye p
rotection, helmet, personal flotation device, athletic supporter, and any other pieces needed to form a protective ensemble that will stave off injury and litigation.  Now, without further adieu, How To Make An Alabama Rig.
Required Tools:
1. strong, American made diagonal cutters
2. strong, American made needle nose pliers
3. strong, American made channel lock pliers
4. vise
Required Materials:
1. orange flagged, survey stakes
2. medium gauge project wire
3. JB Weld epoxy putty
4. large, 1/0 swivels
5. large swivel snaps

 Assembled Tools and Materials

Doubled survey stake wire

Continue to bend wire into the form of an eyelet with channel lock pliers

Thread swivel onto all wires so it sits evenly

Clip off desired length of project wire with diagonal cutters

With needle nose pliers, thread wire through wires and forcefully form wire into coil around A-rig arms

Coiled wire secures swivel in place and provides strength and rigidity during battle

Bend 270 degrees until an eyelet is formed

Secure the outside bend of the eyelet in your vise and, with needle nose pliers, wrap the tag end of the wire
around the shank of the A-rig arms spinnerbait style

This provides a near unfailing lure attachment

Near finished A-rig

Swivel snap lure connectors

Tear off small, dime sized, segment of epoxy putty and work with fingers until it it properly mixed as called for by directions

Shape around coiled project wire, careful not to impede the swivel action of the line tie

Finished A-rig ready for swimbaits and battle!

Your Alabama Rig is ready to be outfitted with whatever swimbaits you deem necessary to create the deception of a school of baitfish.  I prefer using 1/8 or 1/4 quality jig heads with a quality, paddle tail swimbait that puts off plenty of vibration.  To create a six arm rig, simply add one more piece of wire in the beginning step.  A killer combo is the six arm rig with one arm dedicated to a willow leaf blade.  Once finished, read my previous installment of Alabama Rig Manifesto and follow the link to watch Matt Peter’s Alabama Rig Supernova.  A great piece of advice is to hold off pre-bending your rig arms until you tie it on or you will no fit it into your regular tackle box.  Also, carry some small diameter, strong rubber bands to wrap around your rig arms and make a tidy package for storage.  Good fishing everyone and feel free to add questions to the comment section.

Due to the high seat position of the Jackson Coosa I needed a way to elevate my GoPro HD in order to get the right angle. My solution was to mount a YakAttack PanFish to the top of my crate using the Mighty Mount™

The PanFish™ was designed to capture over-the-shoulder video. It features a split pole design with adjustable disks that allow quick and easy horizontal panning. All you have to do is grab the foam grip and rotate! At the top of the PanFish™ I have a double socket RAM arm which holds the GoPro HD camera. Hook1 has an option that includes a RAM mount, Mighty Mount™, and mounting hardware.

The Mighty Mount™ is a small mounting plate that can be placed directly on a kayak, on a rail, or bolted to pretty much anything. I chose the top of my crate because it gives me the extra height I need. When fishing with the seat in low position the PanFish Portrait™ is the perfect height to capture video. Attaching either one only takes a few seconds.

Supplies – Crate, Drill,  Mighty Mount™, PanFish™, and Cutting Board

Cut the board to the size of the Mighty Mount™ and drill matching holes. Now bolt them together making sure the nuts are securely tightened down. You don’t want any wiggle room!

All Done!

Sample Video

I’ve had the opportunity to play around with the PanFish™ for a few months now and I’m very impressed. As someone who mainly fishes rivers I put a beating on my equipment. None of YakAttack’s products have failed me yet. If I want to record my buddy catching a trophy fish or take a self portrait while standing on the shore it only takes a simple twist to pan the camera. If you need to mount anything to your kayak I highly recommend YakAttack’s line of products.

Please practice CPR! See ya on the river!

Please visit Aaron Dryden’s Kayak Fishing Adventures for more tips and on the water action!

Recently I broke a bone in my hand and had to have my hand/arm cramped up in some silly clostrophobic contraption called, oh, what’s the word, a “cast.” Well, I never had one of these “cast” thingamabobs before since this was my first broken bone, but I knew what to do for rehab as soon as I got it off – go fishing!

Fellow Jackson team member, Brooks Beatty, and I had the pleasure of taking David Hickman, the director of a cool non-profit organization in Charlotte (Charlotte One) on his first kayak fishing trip. I have been fortunate to volunteer at Charlotte One for some time now and, during that time through talks with Dave, I learned that he had some fishing roots from his time growing up in east Tennessee. He would often ask when we were going to do a kayak fishing trip, so I knew he was eager and ready to take the kayak fishing plunge. Knowing how hard Dave works to make a positive impact among the 20 and 30-somethings in Charlotte, I thought this would be a great way to thank him for what he has meant to so many young adults in the surrounding area.

My parents operate a non-profit as well and, like Dave, I know how hard they work to simply try and makes people’s lives better by putting others first, so this was Brooks and I’s chance to give back and put Dave first! Brooks and I knew this trip on a scenic, remote stretch of river would do just that!

We finally got on the water around 10:30am, after setting our shuttle and teaching Dave a few basics about the Coosa and kayak fishing in general. Dave took to it real well and was even standing and fishing very soon. I picked up a few fish early and then soon after Dave and Brooks got on the board too. It was perfect and we all had that “all is right in the world” kind of feeling that you get when you’re on the water!

Half way through the float Brooks landed a very nice largemouth bass as you can see in the photo above (right).We all had a blast shooting some small rapids, and the look on Dave’s face in these photos tells you exactly how much fun he was having!

Brooks ended up catching this nice smallmouth bass just before dark (photo right) and we figured this might be our last fish, afterall we were already out of the best water and it was almost dark so it’s mostly just paddling from here until the take out. Of course, not if you’re Dave Hickman it wasn’t mostly paddling! He literally couldn’t stop fishing and disregarded all care in the world for getting off the river before dark and kept fishing! Brooks and I even paddled on down so Dave would get the hint to stop making casts, because we were ready to get to the restaurant!

We were well downstream of Dave at this point and were waiting on him to eventually catch up, because we were about to lose sight of him. All of the sudden we start hearing him yell, “help, help!” We were like, “oh no, what did Dave do?” Did he lose his paddle? Did he get a hook stuck in his hand? Did he flip over? Well, after 9 hours of fishing and paddling I had to make one last arduous upstream, up rapids, to find out. Brooks wisely sat right where he was, laid back his Coosa elite seat and took a nap. I, however, am busting it upstream thinking to myself, “This better be a legit cry or I’m not taking Hickman with me ever again! Turns out, I get close and could tell he is holding a nice sized smallmouth bass! Which, for the record, is a legit cry. ‘

I got up to him and he said, “Sorry man, it was chaos, I caught this big fish, then brought it in the boat and it went nuts flopping around, knocked my paddle out, then my fishing rod, and I didn’t know what was going on!” He went on to say, “By the way, what is this thing?” I said, “Dave, that is a trophy-sized smallmouth bass and not many people are lucky enough to ever catch one like that, congratulations.” We then took some photos and a short video of the fish being released and laughed about the whole experience.

We paddled off the river in the dark and didn’t really care because the moon was nearly full and the temperature was a perfect 68 degrees. Of course I’m not sure if Dave would have known it was 40 degrees after that experience. He was grinnin’ ear to ear and just had to take a photo of a photo off my camera’s screen to text to his wife and kids, “Look what daddy caught!” For Brooks and I the day couldn’t have been better, catching some fish on the river, enjoying great fellowship, watching Dave land the lunker, and getting to give back to someone who gives so much to others. That’s what life is all about…

To see all our photos from the day play the slide show below.

Here’s a promo video by the smallmouth master himself, Jeff Little! Learn all about fall smallmouth patterns from his new “Fall Patterns” DVD.

Author:  “Ocklawahaman” Paul Nosca with the assistance of Captain Erika Ritter

This RiverBassin article is a small preview of a larger research paper called “Striped Bass Of The Ocklawaha River, Florida” that I have recently submitted to a conservation organization for scientific peer review and possible publication. Others from that organization may add their professional expertise to this document–with the final goal being to create the most informative report ever compiled about the Ocklawaha River’s historic native striped bass fishery. The Ocklawaha River is the largest and most important tributary of Florida’s St. Johns River Basin. Continue Reading

Name: Ryan DeLomg

Item reviewed: Ascend FS12 Sit In Kayak

Condition:  New

Number of trips used:  20-50 trips

How it performed:  Overall

- This has been a great boat for me as a beginner to kayak fishing. I purchased the boat from Bass Pro Shops in March when the new version first hit the floors. I have really enjoyed this as a new kayak fisherman. It is perfect for what i do as i need the long term storage for camping. I love this boat. Continue Reading

Author:  “Ocklawahaman” Paul Nosca with the assistance of Captain Erika Ritter and Keith Alwine….

This particular RiverBassin article is a small preview of a much larger research paper entitled “Largemouth Bass Of The Ocklawaha River, Florida” that I have recently submitted to a conservation organization for scientific peer review and possible publication. Others at that organization, more learned than I (and above this old soldier’s “pay grade”), may add their professional expertise to this document–with the final goal being to create the most comprehensive description ever published of the Ocklawaha River system’s largemouth bass fishery along with that of its historic migratory riverine species (i.e. striped bass, American eel, American shad, striped mullet, giant river prawn, sturgeon, channel and white catfish). The Ocklawaha River is the largest and most important tributary of Florida’s St. Johns River Basin. Continue Reading

Author:  “Ocklawahaman” Paul Nosca with photos by Captain Erika Ritter….

Captain Erika Ritter and I had the rare opportunity to observe as many as 5 West Indian manatees at a time in the Middle Ocklawaha River near Eureka, Florida during the last couple of weeks of May 2011. They also were seen up to 25 miles upstream at Silver Springs and Silver River.

One of them was “Bertram” number 47 who has an interesting life history which you should be able to find more about by searching online.

“Bertram” is about 20 years old and has been taken out of the St. Johns River Basin at least twice for “rehab” at Sea World near Orlando. He has a twin named “Bartram”.

OCKLAWAHA RIVER WEST INDIAN MANATEE (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
I saw a group of 5 manatees (including #47 “Bertram”) in the Ocklawaha River near Eureka on 4-23-11, plus others since then. Manatees have to enter Rodman Pool via the CFBC thru Buckman Lock.

Hope that you enjoy the photos!

Continue Reading

Review By: James Coleman (ihadmail)

Condition: New

Number of trips used: 6-10 trips

How it performed: Details: This is a waterproof case for the Verizon or Sprint version of the Apple iPhone 4. From the manufacturer’s website: “The rugged case resists rain and water jets and keeps your iPhone dry, even if you drop it in water. And the Intelli-filter™ design blocks only water—not sound—to preserve sound quality while in the case, so you lose nothing by adding protection.” The depth and exposure time rating were not listed on the manufacturer’s website or in the product information I received with my case. After a very short call to customer service, I found out that it is rated to 1 meter (3.3 feet) for 30 minutes. Retail is $49.95 plus shipping, which compared to other iPhone cases, is quite cheap.
Pros:
- Dry! I left this case submerged in my sink overnight before initially using it with my phone. After drying the outside of the case I opened it to find absolutely no moisture on the inside. Continue Reading

Author: “Ocklawahaman” Paul Nosca with the assistance of Erika Ritter and Keith Alwine……

It has now been more than six months after I first reported to RiverBassin.com readers about “Florida’s Top 25 Biggest or Largest Largemouth Bass”. Since my November 2010 article, my ongoing investigative work has produced some more interesting information regarding this subject which I would now like to share with you–along with some of that previous report’s text.

So far it appears that “Ocklawahaman” alone maintains the unbiased list of the “All-Time Top-25 Biggest/Heaviest Florida Largemouth Bass Ever Caught (Or Reportedly Caught) In Florida”. I strive to list all 17-pound and heavier Florida-caught largemouth bass (past or present) from any available reports (hardcopy or online) as exactly as possible as they have been reported by others. It’s a “dirty” job but somebody has to do it without bias! Maybe at some point the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, BASS, or some trustworthy bass fishing organization will take-over this record keeping job from me–but for now it is my version of “responsible journalism” and probably ensures that RiverBassin.com readers will get to view the “list” updated periodically. Continue Reading