There's a reason 'Alabama Rigs' are illegal in Tennessee, Elite Series

About the time professional angler Paul Elias was weighing in his winning catch last October at an FLW tournament in Alabama, TWRA Chief of Fisheries Bobby Wilson's phone was ringing.

On the line was one of the biologists who works with Wilson, and he was at the tournament watching the weigh-in. Elias boated 102 pounds, 8 ounces of bass, won the tournament by a cushy 17-pound margin, and did it with a rig that was given to him by a man named Andy Poss.

Poss dubbed the five-lure contraption an "Alabama Rig."

"I got a call from one of our biologists and he said, 'We're probably going to get some calls on this,' " Wilson said.

The tournament weigh-in, where the biologist eyed Elias' catch, was on Saturday. The calls didn't start coming into TWRA's Fisheries Division offices until Monday.

"We get calls every day about Alabama Rigs," Wilson said. "And that's just in our office. They're getting calls in the regional offices, the Law Enforcement Division it's people wanting some clarification about the rules."

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