Man, I'm tired of reading about this thing! I thought maybe if I wrote about it, it would get it off of my mind! I just read an article on PAA's site and guys are talking about to ban or not to ban, mortality rates, ethics and all kinds of craziness.
The first argument I'd like to discuss is the mortality rate. How is a jerkbait with one treble in a fish's eye, one in it's gill and one in it's stomach o.k. but one big hook inside one fishes mouth is a problem? So what if the said fish had five hooks to choose from? I've caught hundreds of fish on this rig and have yet to deep hook or foul hook one of them so I'm struggling to see where the mortality rate argument stems from.
Guys are also saying that it's going to win every tournament this year! I've thrown it on KY Lake, Lake Fork, Falcon and Amistad. I set on a school of 6-10lbers at Falcon and caught 93 fish on a jig and crankbait and only had one bite on the Arig and it was the smallest fish of the bunch. The small fish ate it good at Fork but I caught bigger fish on a spoon. I never had a bite on it at Amistad but did catch them on a single shadalicious. So in my opinion to think its going to win every event in the country is pretty far fetched. For whatever reason, the bass on certain lakes just don't seem to get as bent out of shape over the rig as others. The TN river system fish seem to be the most susceptible to the rig and it only seems to have a magical effect on them in colder water. It's like anything else, once the fish are conditioned to it, it won't be nearly as effective. I've already seen on several occasions, once you catch a few out of the school, they start slapping at the baits and eventually totally ignore it.
The next argument is how the bait manufacturers are going to suffer because all anybody will buy is an Arig. Guess what, an Arig is useless without the hardware to go with it. And now, we can't just buy one of everything, we have to buy five of everything just to get the party started! When I go Arig fishing on Kentucky Lake, I have a rig with five baits and hooks, a rig with three baits and hooks and a rig with four hookless baits and a bait with a hook! That's more swimbaits and heads than I used to use in a year just for one day of fishing. Not to mention the extra rods and reels I had to buy to handle the rigs. I've bought more braided line since the thing came out than I've bought in three years as well. And let's not pretend like every single one of us isn't constantly thinking of ways to tweak the rig which means with every experiment, we have to have THREE to FIVE of everything plus spares just in case it works. How can the Arig craze have a negative impact on the tackle industry, I mean just think about it, Arig rods, Arig reels, Arig line, Arig everything.Apparently most companies make their own version of an Arig now which all retail from between $15 and $30 and cost about $2 to make or probably about ten cents in China, that's a pretty good profit. If I was in the tackle business I'd be foaming at the mouth right now with the Arig craze and introducing every Arig compatible component I could think of. The Arig craze opens up all kinds of avenues for the manufacturers to take advantage of.....and I bet they will.
Is it ethical? Come on now. I don't even want to get into this but I will just say that in my opinion if bed fishing and/or live bait fishing is ethical, then catching a fish that I can't see, in the mouth, on a piece or multiple pieces of plastic would definitely have to fall into the ethical category.
All of this being said, and this may come as a surprise, but I still hope they ban it in tournament competition. My reason for this is because I've seen how easy it is on lakes where the fish really like it and I think it will take a lot of "fish finding skills" out of the equation. It's definitely a bank beaters dream lure, but for fun fishing, practicing and guiding, I think it's the most awesome thing ever!
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