What rod would I need for smaller Alabama/Umbrella rigs

[jonnyp4three]

Hello, I’m looking forward to the spring as much as you guys are, and I was looking at smaller alabama rigs like the Yumbrella with little grubs/swimbaits so I could fish at my local locks and dam. What rod would I need for such technique, could I use my 6’10 MH/F rod that has a lure rating up to 5/8 oz, or would I need something heavier?

 

 

Thanks. 

[casts_by_fly]

That’s probably not going to be enough rod. The flashmob jr is about the lightest a-rig. It will come in around 3/8 oz on its own. Even with just screw locks/hooks and 5x 2.5” grubs you’ll be over an ounce. Then you do need at least one jig head to make it run true so figure another quarter ounce. At a minimum a stout 1oz rated rod but more practically a 1.5-2 oz will fish better. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

They do make micro A-Rigs and I think my lightest micro rig without any hooks or swimbaits is 1/4oz.     I then add five 1/8th heads and five swimbaits so it's well over an ounce at that point.   

 

The Hog Farmer Tactical Bassin Micro Flex rig rigged with 3 jigheads and 2 dummies is the lightest a-rig setup I've heard of, but I don't own one.   I think it's under 1oz.  

 

Either way, I would just throw a spinnerbait verse throwing a 1oz+ a-rig on a sub 7" MH rod.      

[Brian11719]

'Need' is a subjective term. I like to weigh all my lures (fully rigged) and to give you an idea my 'a-rig' setup is a 3 blade 3 wire rig w/ 3 1/8oz jig heads and 4" easy shiners on it. The total weight comes out to just about 1.5oz. Given that, I ended up picking up a Dobyns Sierra 766 FLIP. The action on it is pretty good and it's got a full cork handle and rated up to 2oz which is about as much as I'll throw on it. If I wanted to spend more I would have probably gone with something like a 7'6 Expride or even an IMX Swimbait rod, but got the idea of using a flipping rod from Roland Martin's youtube channel and it's been working out pretty good for me as a punching / light swimbait rod.

 

Having said that I guess my point is I'd weigh the lures you want to throw then aim for something with a max weight that's a little higher than that. So for example if you were to get the tatula TTU741HFB that one is rated up to 2oz. So if you want a shorter rod but still want to throw stuff like that a-rig I mentioned or a 6" bass mafia daingerous loaded both of those come in right around 1.5oz and would probably do well on a rod like that. On the other hand I'm not sure something like the one you mentioned with a 5/8oz rating would do very well and using those lures with that rod would probably get old pretty quickly...

[jonnyp4three]

Appreciate the responses. I figured I probably wouldn’t be able to run any umbrella rig on my current setup, just thought i’d ask just in case. 

[softwateronly]

@jonnyp4three casting an a-rig is a bit of a pain.  I definitely prefer longer rods, 7'5-7'9 being the sweetspot for me.  The 7'7H/MF expride has ended up being my general overall favorite but have done well with plenty of others.

 

scott

[jonnyp4three]

1 hour ago, softwateronly said:

@jonnyp4three casting an a-rig is a bit of a pain.  I definitely prefer longer rods, 7'5-7'9 being the sweetspot for me.  The 7'7H/MF expride has ended up being my general overall favorite but have done well with plenty of others.

 

scott

Appreciate the recommendation! Like I said I was planning on fishing for some stripers and anything else that bites at my local river dam. I’m sure they would bite on the stuff I got as well!