COLUMBIA, S.C. (October 25, 2011) – Paul Elias won the FLW Tour Open bass fishing tournament this past weekend on Lake Guntersville. Elias dominated the field, cruising to a wire-to-wire win. Elias’ bag of 102-pounds, 8-ounces earned him a $100,500 check and his second career FLW victory.
Perhaps the biggest news of the tournament was the way in which Elias caught the majority of his fish. Elias unveiled the Alabama rig, and needless to say it was quite a shocker. The Alabama rig consists of a hard-bait body that trails five wires that each has a swivel attached. Elias chose a combination of five jig heads and soft plastic swimbaits to attach to the wires.
“The Alabama rig is really different, and line is one of the most critical components of the set up,” Elias said. “I knew that braid would work better than monofilament for this technique so I chose 65-pound SpiderWire Ultracast FluoroBraid. The strength of the line and its ability to sink like fluorocarbon were crucial to my success. Even though the Alabama rig was very heavy, I knew that I could count on Spiderwire to hold up cast after cast.”
Elias added, “This is a great win for me since I am typically known as an offshore structure fisherman. The majority of the fish were suspended, and that is exactly why the Alabama rig helped with this win.”
The Laurel, Miss., pro was catching many of his fish in 20-30 feet of water, and put the tournament well out of reach when he brought in a final-day sack weighing over 20 pounds.
The next FLW Tour Open is set for February 9-12 on Lake Okeechobee in Clewiston, Fla.