Presented by Yamaha Motor Corp USA and Warrior Boats Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2025
Contact: Denny Fox, 920-505-0122
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™)
Sometimes it’s only a little hint of something happening in the water below you that triggers everything needed to win, and that’s what clicked for Corey Grasso and Jacob Brown Sunday (April 27) on Wisconsin’s Wolf River system at Winneconne, who tickled five of the right walleye to win $10,950 at the AIM Weekend Walleye Series Garmin Open.
“Paying attention to their Garmin LiveScope brought them the knowledge to get five on what many said was a tough bite,” said Denny Fox, national tournament director. “It was the first AIM win for these two and their first time at Winneconne. They just started fishing with AIM last season. This was only their fourth event, so in their case, fourth time’s a charm, and they did it near the launch site, taking $8,500 from AIM and another $2,450 in Side Pot Challenge cash.”
“Pre-fishing for us was about as hard as I could have imagined,” said Grasso. He’s from Cambridge, and Brown lives in Fort Atkinson. “We went last weekend to learn the area and we were hoping it would fish like our home waters. We started on Poygan and did a lot of trolling and casting and could not make anything happen. “We were seeing fish, but I never really found the numbers I thought we should. We never found big concentrations and the ones we did find, we couldn’t get them to eat. We trolled with every bait in the boat and couldn’t make it,” he recalled.
Then on the Friday before the tournament, they then turned to the river, and the Fox near Lake Winnebago. Still didn’t help.
“We couldn’t get much going there. We found a couple of smaller fish and some nicer but couldn’t make any sort of a pattern. We then stopped in one spot at Winneconne and marked some really good fish and took a couple of casts. We ended up catching three that would have put us at about 18 pounds,” he said. They knew they had something, but didn’t know what yet, and also knew to leave it alone.
“We didn’t know if it was going to be a spot, or we just ran into fish. We tried to find areas like it down through Oshkosh and didn’t find fish that seemed to be holding, so our game plan was to go where we had a little confidence and sit in that stretch all day and hope the right fish would filter through,” Grasso said. Then Sunday with their LiveScope, they saw something. Right in Winneconne.
‘We could see the fish sitting and there were constant balls of bait going through the river. They would filter through these breaks in a certain way and that’s kind of when we put it together. They would come right through, and as soon as they hit the current, they would break apart and that’s right where those fish were sitting. At about 7:30 a.m. Sunday that’s when it started to make sense,” he said. And for Grasso and Brown, it all happened in about an hour.
“We had our five fish by probably 8 a.m., and we didn’t catch a single other walleye all day. It happened for about an hour, and it was done. They went belly to the bottom, so we slid out and tried to upgrade, but they would follow for about 80 or 100 feet, and they would just never commit. “We had an 18-1/2, a 20-1/2, a 22-1/4, a 23-1/4 and a 24. I really think that if that bite window had lasted, we might have seen that mid-20s to closer to 30-pound range. It took us a little while to figure out what they wanted and by the time we did we caught our five and it shut off immediately,” Grasso said. Hair jigs caught a couple, along with a jig and a crawler, he said, but what did most of the damage was a white three-inch Keitech plastic on a ¼-ounce jig head.
“We kinda thought that spot was going to be a winner, or we were going to zero. We looked at what it took in previously and figured we were close, but we were a little worried all day about our 18-incher. It sounded like from a lot of teams it was a tough bite, and we were hoping that it was enough. It definitely was a nerve-wracking day sitting there without another bite,” he added.
“We were lucky we got there when we did. It was a very short window. If we had stopped at any other spot it probably wouldn’t have happened. It was one of those tiny micro spots. “If your boat was not positioned perfectly, you’re not catching them. If the fish are moving through, they’re going to stop. Otherwise you might get zero. I’d definitely like to come back and explore it more,” Grasso said. That they will. You’ll see them next on Lake Petenwell May 18, and then on Lake Winnebago July 13.
The second-place team of Brad and Alyssa Nelson, from Manawa were fishing their first AIM tournament in their Mercury Optimax two-stroke powered boat, with Garmin among the electronics. They brought in 17.77 pounds, winning $3,500. But it was tough. “Let’s just say the last two weekends with local tournaments here we did very, very, not good,” Brad Nelson laughed. With a day off from work Friday, he tried it again in the rain, trolling Lake Poygan, where he grew up, with crawler harnesses.
“I managed to get on some fish but found they were picky, and I said to myself, I’m on to something. I kept going over them to figure out what colors they were after. I stayed away Saturday to find something different and struggled. I took the whole family out and didn’t have a fish over 15 inches. So we had a game plan I learned on Friday, and we had to execute what I learned,” he said. Then the wind switched from the north to the southeast for Sunday, and he feels that definitely helped. “It pushed the fish, and we found them again and just kept hammering them,” he said, with the best five at 22-1/4, a 19-1/2, a 22-1/4 20-1/2 and a 19-1/4. “We caught a lot of 18- to 19-inch fish, and probably caught 25 walleye altogether, so it was a matter of inches, just trying to bump up on the measuring board.
“I would have guessed with our weight we were coming in nowhere in the top 15. I knew there was a big pod of females coming through and I had a feeling they were going to go Sunday, so I stayed on what I knew and it paid off, but I wasn’t expecting a top five at all. That wind switch did me good. It fired up the fish I was on. I’ve also got my wife as my good luck charm,” he said. The first-timer also praised AIM’s format.
“I love everything about AIM, how well organized it is. It’s a group who love to fish, it’s their passion, and I love the Catch-Record-Release™ format. You’re putting fish back and trying to keep them alive in your livewell all day can be impossible at times. I love taking some pictures and putting them back,” Nelson said.
The rest of the 98-boat field’s top five fell like this: In third with 15.97 pounds, winning $2,800 plus $1,470 for second place in the AIM Side Pot Challenge were Mike Blanck of Malone and Steve Goebel Jr. of New Holstein. The fourth-place team of Ian Eggers and Tony Myslicki of Appleton boated 15.38 pounds and went home with $1,400, plus $1,000 in Garmin Tournament Rewards for using a Kraken trolling motor plus all Garmin electronics. Bret Walser of Fond du Lac and Vince Moldenhauer of Onalaska boated 14.84 pounds, good for $1,300 plus $980 in third-place Side Pot Challenge cash.
You’ll learn later this week who landed the biggest of the tournament, and the Yamaha Motor Corp USA Team Of The Year standings.
AIM will be back on the water with another double-header Saturday, May 10, when the Rivers Division reconvenes on the Mississippi at Genoa, Wisconsin, and at North Dakota’s second qualifier of the season the same day on Devils Lake, with more action the weekend after.
Watch for updates at AIM’s Facebook page. Want to get in on the fun? Sign up at aimfishing.com. You know you want to. You know you can.
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™) is a unique tournament organization created and owned by many of the most accomplished and recognizable professional walleye anglers, along with others who share the mission of advancing competitive walleye fishing and making it sustainable into the future.
AIM is committed to marketing excellence on behalf of its tournament competitors, the tournament host communities, and the brands that partner with it. AIM is also committed to maintaining healthy fisheries across the nation by the development of the exclusive AIM Catch-Record-Release™ format which is integral to its dynamic events and unparalleled consumer engagement. For more information about AIM™, AIM Pro Walleye Series™, AIM Weekend Walleye Series, AIM sponsors and AIM anglers, visit www.aimfishing.com.
AIM Presenting Sponsors: Yamaha Motor Corporation U.S.A. and Warrior Boats inc.
AIM Supporting Sponsors: Mercury Marine, Garmin, Worldwide Marine Insurance, Off Shore Tackle, JT Outdoors Products, McQuoids Inn, Rosemore Outdoor Gear, Adventure Recreational Finance, Oconto County WI., Forever Barnwood, The Bighorn Store