News and Photo From the Arizona Game and Fish/Nick Walter
The Alabama rig is a rig with several lures (five or more) joined by stiff wires, similar to umbrella rigs used for trolling.
Alabama rigs with more than two lures would not be legal for angling in Arizona. Such a “rig” would be legal if it had no more than two lures.
So is the “A-rig” legal in the Grand Canyon State? Yes, when rigged with two soft bodies with jigheads and hooks instead of four.
An example of a rig that would be legal in Arizona is a rig with two swimbaits containing hooks and any number of hookless swimbaits or other hookless fish attractors (equalling total of two lures).
Example of a legal Alabama rig setup:
And now, an illegal setup:
Here’s is Arizona Revised Statutes 17-101 A1—“Angling” means the taking of fish by one line and not to exceed two hooks, by one line and one artificial lure, which may have attached more than one hook, or by one line and not to exceed two artificial flies or lures.
Lures are not defined in statute. However, a lure is designed and intended to catch one fish. As such, a spoon, soft bait, jerk bait, piece of yarn, etc., with no hook incorporated, would not be considered a lure (anglers often refer to these as “attractors”). A test for whether a rig is legal in Arizona would be:
- If a “rig” (Alabama or otherwise) were to be de-constructed, each piece that can catch a fish separately would be considered a lure. If more than two lures (that can catch a fish separately) are de-constructed, the rig is not legal in Arizona.
Hope that helps! Good luck fishing this legal type of A-rig. Be sure tocheck out all the fishing rules and regulations.
And if you’re new to fishing, we have a Fishing Basics page that can get you started.
See this and other news at the FishAZblog.
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