AIM™ tournament sites and the details concerning the upcoming 2010 AIM Pro Walleye Series™ season have been outlined below. Many innovations are incorporated in every AIM tournament to make fishing fun and rewarding for the competitors while being exciting to the fans.
Exclusive AIM Format Innovations
The primary innovation is the exclusive AIM Catch-Record-Release™ (CRR™) format. With CRR, teams of Pro Anglers and Co-anglers measure each walleye on the official AIM ruler and take a digital photograph, record the length of each walleye on the official scorecard, and then immediately release the live fish. NO fish are brought to the “weigh-in” stage. Instead, the Pro Angler selects the SEVEN largest walleyes that are tallied for his daily weight. (The length of each walleye is converted to pounds and ounces using a standardized formula prior to taking the stage.)
The photos of the largest walleyes caught are displayed to the weigh-in fans – and also included in the live streaming of the proceedings on www.aimfishing.com. Because all fish are recorded and then immediately released, Pro Anglers are allowed to “weigh” fish within local “slots” that would otherwise be excluded from the daily bag.
The AIM Catch-Record-Release™ format has three huge advantages for the sport of competitive angling.
A Festive Atmosphere
Another key component of AIM Pro Walleye Series™ events is that most are being scheduled to coincide with local festivals. While tournament angling is exciting to the participants, it receives lesser interest from the general public. Scheduling AIM events within festivals helps to expose the sport of fishing to an audience of literally hundreds of thousands of new people. The festival attendees will see tournament anglers, along with their impressive boats and tow vehicles (and sponsor affiliations) up close at the AIM weigh-ins.
Cutting-Edge Internet Presence
In addition to the weigh-in stage show for the local fans, the entire weigh-in is also broadcasted live at www.aimfishing.com. This live streaming includes interviews with the Pro Anglers and Co-anglers and photos of hundreds of the largest walleyes caught that day. Also featured are numerous videos taken by the AIM camera crew as well as video clips recorded by the anglers themselves.
AIM has adopted the latest video technology to actually upload videos during the course of each tournament day. These “On the Water” videos are added continually to www.aimfishing.com (plus your iPhone) during the day and they provide the head-to-head competition that has never been possible to cover in tournament angling before.
On Day Three of each tournament the top Pro Anglers’ boats are equipped with the AIM Pro Track™ GPS systems. Pro Track™ systems provide continual GPS tracks that can be followed all day at www.aimfishing.com. The GPS tracks not only show the exact locations of the leaders but also their travel speeds – allowing viewers to discern whether the trolling bite is working or the leaders have switched to jigging or are making a high-speed run to try a different “secret location.”
AIM Pro Walleye Series™ details
AIM Pro Walleye Series™ tournaments pair the Pro Anglers with a different randomly drawn Co-angler each day. The Pro Anglers’ daily weights are cumulative over the course of the tournament. The field is cut on Day Three to the top Pro Anglers - based on a formula that uses percentages linked to the number of entries. The Pro Anglers that make the Day Three cut are paired with lucky Co-anglers that were selected by a random drawing at the pre-event Rules Meeting.
AIM Pro Walleye Series™ events will provide the winning Pro Angler with a cash first prize of $30,000. Each AIM tournament guarantees a payout of not less than 100% of entry fees. Additional cash and prizes boost the totals beyond 100%.
Pro Angler entry fees are $1,500 per event for AIM Owners and Life Members. Non-Members pay a $250 Membership fee per event; however these fees are capped at a maximum of $500 for non-Member Pros that register for four tournaments before March 1, 2010 ( a 50% discount.)
Co-angler entry fees are only $250 for a guaranteed two days of fishing with the nation’s top walleye Pros, and the high odds of fishing a third day for FREE after the Pro cut. Co-Anglers do not compete for cash prizes, but instead receive great prizes provided by the AIM Marketing Partners. In 2009, these prizes had total values in excess of the entry fees!
2010 AIM™ Tournament Schedule
Event #1 - Saginaw Bay, MI | 2009 Results
May 20-22, 2010
The first 2010 AIM Pro Walleye Series™ event will be held May 20-22 in Bay City, Michigan. Anglers will have the opportunity to compete on the fantastic fishery of Saginaw Bay at the peak of the bite. Limits of large Lake Huron walleyes are anticipated. This event is scheduled around “Bay Fest”, the area’s annual festival with activities for the entire family
Event #2 - Brimley, MI
June 3-5, 2010
The second event of the 2010 AIM schedule will be the 2010 Bay Mills Invitational Walleye Tournament - a special event in addition to the 2010 AIM Pro Walleye Series™ schedule. AIM has teamed up with Bay Mills Resort & Casino to conduct a special invitational tournament that will feature the fishing industry’s newest products in an “artificial bait only” competition. The Resort, located on the prime fishery near Brimley, Michigan, has pledged an additional $50,000 to the event purse. Pro Angler entries are by invitation only to the TOP 50 Pro Anglers from the 2009 AIM season. Co-anglers entries for this special 2010 tournament are limited to the first 50 Co-anglers registrations
Event #3 - Green Bay, WI | 2009 Results
July 1-4, 2010
The second event (regular season, qualifying event*) of 2010 will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin on July 1-4. “Fire over the Fox” is a festival that attracts as many as 100,000 people to the Green Bay area. The AIM Pro Walleye Series™ tournament will precede one of the largest fireworks displays in the entire Midwest. Teams of anglers will fish one of the top walleye destinations in the U.S., and daily limits of 25” to 30” walleyes are expected!
Event #4 - Akaska, SD | 2009 Results
August 12-14, 2010
On August 12-14, 2010 the AIM Pro Walleye Series™ will travel to Akaska, South Dakota to fish the expansive Lake Oahe on the Missouri River. AIM will partner again with the South Dakota Walleye Classic to stage a huge regional event. Anglers will have literally hundreds of square miles of the fertile Missouri River to explore. This event will place teams on the river at the peak of the late summer bite and will provide exiting competition with no slot limit restrictions or culling limitations.
Event #5 - AIM International Walleye Championship™ | 2009 Results
Lake Winnibigoshish, Deer River, MN
September 1-3, 2010
The Lake Winnie Area Resort Association will again host the AIM International Walleye Championship™ on Lake Winnibigoshish. This Championship will also utilize the exclusive AIM Catch-Record-Release™ (CRR) tournament format to provide the excitement and head-to-head competition not possible with other tournament formats. The 2009 Championship crowned AIM Pro Angler Todd Riley as the winner after boating a combined 40 FEET of walleyes – almost all of which were in the previously inaccessible “slot” fish. The 2010 AIM International Walleye Championship™ will also feature the top anglers who have qualified through the AIM Sanctioned Series program.
