FLW has announced a new rule for the 2014 Tour season. The organization made an amendment to Rule 12, Permitted Fishing Methods, whcih now states: “Albama Rigs and similar umbrella-type rigs are not permitted”.

The umbrella rig ban only applies to the FLW Tour. Alabam Rigs are still in play for EverStarts and BFL’s.

Newly-crowned Forrest Wood Cup Champ Randall Tharp agrees with the decision. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction. From the very first tournament of the year I saw where this was heading. The biggest reason I didn’t like it was that it made a whole lot of other technologies obsolete and that’s not good for the sport. The question for me was:  Where do you draw the line? At Beaver Lake some people were throwing 20 baits on one rig. So where does it end? I realize that new technology has always been part of the sport, but I think in this case, FLW did a good job drawing a line where they did.”