AIM Championship Series a Success

[jws597]

The 2012 AIM Champion Series at Lake of the Woods was the highlight of my summer. It was my first ever co-angler experience. If you have co-angling on your "bucket list" don't wait too long! The whole thing might seem a bit overwhelming since it feature the rock stars of the walleye world. And granted, it is certainly a competetive environment, but other than some of the stories, they are a great bunch of people who are rich with fishing knowledge.
Thank you to my two tournament pros Eric Dodds and Gil Mollet. To have a launch the first day after the wind forced the event to cancel Day 1, it was like being on vacation in that rough water, Eric. And, as for the Sue Bee Honey Ranger, what a sweet ride Gil (pun intended).
The AIM format is a good one and Lake of the Woods - what a venue to search for big fish. I personally caught the largest fish of my life (31 inches) during pre-fishing and have to admit that the time spent on the water prior to the tournament was the most valuable part of the trip.
A very special thank you to Team Schneider and Cardenas who accepted my request to participate in advance of the tournament. My intention was to learn new strategy and to refine fishing technique. I improved both through their cooperative and sharing attitute. These two rookies took on a complete unknown and in some way made my feel like I contributed to their two top 10 finishs.
If these two gentlemen ("the Rookie" Schneider and "Mr. Perserverance" Cardenas) represent the future of AIM, then Anglers Insight Marketing has a bright future.
Thanks to all AIM anglers as well as AIM staff who took the time to interact on a personal level inluding Kurt (the Director) Kainz and Kathy (the AIM Goddess), Great job, it is no easy task to manage competitve events.
And thanks to the people from Baudette, surrounding resorts and businesses led by Joe Henry, Executive Director at Lake of the Woods Tourism Bureau for rolling out the Red Carpet. God willing and the creek don't rise, I will be back!
JW Schroeder

[Juls]

Nice report...thanks for sharing.

Juls

[Tim Ellis]

I agree that was very well written and conveys a nice message. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Robert Cardenas]

Originally Posted by jws597

The 2012 AIM Champion Series at Lake of the Woods was the highlight of my summer. It was my first ever co-angler experience. If you have co-angling on your "bucket list" don't wait too long! The whole thing might seem a bit overwhelming since it feature the rock stars of the walleye world. And granted, it is certainly a competetive environment, but other than some of the stories, they are a great bunch of people who are rich with fishing knowledge.
Thank you to my two tournament pros Eric Dodds and Gil Mollet. To have a launch the first day after the wind forced the event to cancel Day 1, it was like being on vacation in that rough water, Eric. And, as for the Sue Bee Honey Ranger, what a sweet ride Gil (pun intended).
The AIM format is a good one and Lake of the Woods - what a venue to search for big fish. I personally caught the largest fish of my life (31 inches) during pre-fishing and have to admit that the time spent on the water prior to the tournament was the most valuable part of the trip.
A very special thank you to Team Schneider and Cardenas who accepted my request to participate in advance of the tournament. My intention was to learn new strategy and to refine fishing technique. I improved both through their cooperative and sharing attitute. These two rookies took on a complete unknown and in some way made my feel like I contributed to their two top 10 finishs.
If these two gentlemen ("the Rookie" Schneider and "Mr. Perserverance" Cardenas) represent the future of AIM, then Anglers Insight Marketing has a bright future.
Thanks to all AIM anglers as well as AIM staff who took the time to interact on a personal level inluding Kurt (the Director) Kainz and Kathy (the AIM Goddess), Great job, it is no easy task to manage competitve events.
And thanks to the people from Baudette, surrounding resorts and businesses led by Joe Henry, Executive Director at Lake of the Woods Tourism Bureau for rolling out the Red Carpet. God willing and the creek don't rise, I will be back!
JW Schroeder

JW,
Thank you for the kind comments! I found this post of mine after my first A.I.M derby last year as a co-angler-
"WOW! What a great experience for me. I fished as a co-angler and can't say enough about how much I learned from these pros. I was lucky enough to pre-fish with a pro that has been in the business for 16 years and he taught me a lot. Then in the tourney I fished with a pro who is a River Rat and learned a ton, as I grew up fishing on the river, and the final day with a guy who taught me a technique that I have always wanted to learn, and now am going to buy that equipment and master it myself. These AIM pros, Brett King, Joe Okada, Robert (Bobby) Blosser, Jon Tennessen, Dan Plautz, Pat Neu, are class acts, and these are only a few of the pros I met. This CR&R program for tournaments in my mind is awesome. There are many reasons I say this but one of the biggest reasons for me was the fact that fishing was tough on day one and going into day 2 the pros did not have to make that decision of putting a 15" in the live well right off the bat, we were able to upgrade all day, did I mention ALL DAY. My 2nd day pro and I could of spent half the day at the dock waiting to weigh in, but because of the CR&R we were able to keep fishing and try to upgrade, never hurting a fish in the process. If you want to fish as a co-angler I highly recommend it, you will learn a lot, maybe even enough to compete against the best of the best someday.
I have no affiliation with AIM and am fishing FLW also, my experience was great and they made me a true believer of there CR&R system."
I can only hope your experience was as good as mine. There is not a pro on tour that is not willing to teach if you are there to learn, and it's not always fishing. This tournament gig is a lot of work. You jumped right in as part of our team and I thank you for that. Hopefully you caught up on some of your sleep and yes, you were part of our Two Top Ten finishes! JW, when you caught that 31" walleye in pre-fish, I learned from a book I read written by Mike Gofron that there was a reason that those fish were there and we needed to figure out how we can get more of them, and we did as a team (Schneider, Cardenas, and JW) I highly recommend his book if you haven't read it. I am glad I can say I made a new friend and I look forward to fishing with you in the future!

[fiveeyes]

A very good post JW..,I have done 3 AIM derby's and could not be any happier! Great fishermen, but more importantly great gentlemen. I also learned a lot from the Pro's that i was with. Will do more for sure! More like a family than a business. RFHT bill