The Alabama Rig’s big break came in 2011 when Paul Elias used it to waylay more than 100 pounds in
four days at a Lake Guntersville Tour event.
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Poss did, and the result of his inspi-
ration and tenacity was the Alabama
Rig. Two big back-to-back wins, with
more to come. For a while, guys lined
up to buy the rigs wherever they could,
at whatever price.
It wasn’t that way at the beginning.
“It’s nothing special,” the naysayers
complained. Poss gave one to JT
Kenney at a Walmart Pro Night prior to
the Pickwick Tour stop in July 2011, and
the Florida pro was so impressed that
he chucked it into the nearest trash can
a few minutes later.
“Being from Maryland originally, I
grew up fishing umbrella rigs for
stripers in Chesapeake Bay,” recalls
Kenney, who now resides in Florida.
“That [Poss’ sample] to me was an
umbrella rig, and I thought ‘what am I
going to do with an umbrella rig fishing
for largemouths?’ Then Paul Elias
showed us what to do with it.”
And, before that, Poss showed Elias.
Win, lose or draw with his attempts to
protect his patent and put his Alabama
Rig back on its own special pedestal,
he’ll still go down in fishing history as
the guy who figured it all out.
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