Presented by Yamaha Motor Corp USA and Warrior Boats Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 9, 2024
Contact: Denny Fox, 920-505-0122
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™)
Double-Dip At AIM Mississippi River Walleyepalooza: Newcomb, Brantner Seal The Deal For Championship, TOY
They nearly had an AIM Weekend Walleye Series Triple Crown, but Joe Newcomb and Kyle Brantner had to be “just satisfied” with bagging both the two-day 2024 Rivers Division Championship and the Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Team Of The Year Rivers Division titles Saturday and Sunday (Oct 5 and 6).
“We told you all out there in Fan Nation that this would be one for the AIM history books, and it definitely was, as this team came within a walleye hair of winning both events we had going this weekend, the final 2024 Rivers Division qualifier, followed by the two-day Rivers Division Championship that due to a summer flood, caused these 2 events to happen only about 24 river miles apart,” said Denny Fox, AIM national tournament director.
“They double qualified for the 2025 Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout by winning both the division Championship and Team Of The Year, and nearly won Friday’s qualifier, which you can read about in a separate post. That means another team will move up to get a spot in the Shootout, one of two that shifted to be in the running for that $100,000 worth of Warrior boat, Yamaha motor, Garmin electronics and trolling motor and Rosemore rods that we’ll be giving to one of 40 teams that are now set to challenge a water body to be named in a few months. Read how the boys from Pepin, WI, using Garmin LiveScope among their electronics, did it.”
Newcomb and Brantner both used the season’s final qualifier to pre-fish for the Championship, and relied on a bit of “being wrong to be right,” to win the Championship, Newcomb said.
“A lot of the weights on Friday came out of Pool 2, so that was out of bounds (for the Championship), so we’re Pool 4 guys and for us to decide to go to Pool 3 Saturday (teams could fish both 3 and 4) was…really odd,” he admitted. “But we gained a lot of confidence scouting on Friday for Saturday and Sunday. They finished second in the final Rivers Division qualifier on Friday. Details on that one were posted Wednesday (Oct. 9).
“Going into Saturday we were sure about our preferred bait, which is willow cats,” he said. For this one, they were in Brantner’s boat, powered by a 300 Yamaha with Garmin LiveScope aboard. One of their decisions was to go for Team Of The Year and “playing it safe,” even if they only landed 13 to 15 pounds a day. They led it from the get-go however, ending with 40.22, winning $4,000, plus $500 in first-place AIM Side Pot Challenge cash.
Because of their good showing in the Friday qualifier, they decided they’d head back to Pool 3.
“Kyle had a bad pre-fish Thursday on Pool 4, and that sealed the deal to go to 3,” Newcomb said. “Saturday, we ran up to 3, fished quite a while without much happening. Our first fish didn’t come until around 9:30,” he said, starting a solid bag of lower 20-inch fish. Then came a game of Lockmaster tag, thanks to them seeing eventual fourth-place finisher Joe Okada and partner Galen Bremmer line up to slip through around 11:30.
“We watched Joe Okada go downriver and figured he was going to lock through,” and that gave them the itch to do the same. “Joe was already in the lock and the lockmaster told them 30 minutes, so we went back up fishing a little ways to the first series of dams.
“We fished for about five minutes and peeked, and his boat was still sitting there. We slid back in and fished more, and we both had a feeling that maybe we were running out of time. We pulled back into the channel, and we missed it,” he said, meaning the locks had closed and Okada/Bremmer were gone.
“We ran down and the lock master said it was going to be two or three hours before it opened. At that point, we said we might has well go back upriver five miles. We ran back and in the next 15 minutes we went from 13 pounds on the card to 21 pounds. We sealed it with a 27-1/4-incher, with a willow cat. We caught all but one of our fish with willow cats,” he said.
They then ran back down in time to make the lock opening. “They got us out of the lock about 3:10 (for this tournament, start time was at 7:30 a.m. due to low light in the morning, meaning boats had until 3:30 to return). Their kicker fish was that 27-1/4, and the smallest around 20-1/2. They were in first place by about three pounds, a great start.
“We were the last boat on Day One, and on Day 2 we were the first, sitting in first place and first place in Team Of The Year points. We were feeling pretty high on that Sunday,” Newcomb said.
“We started catching fish early. Kyle’s first cast, he ended up hooking something big, but it was a sheepshead. A half-hour later we put our first on the card. Our first three were pretty small. Maybe a 17 was the first,” he said, while hitting 25 to 30 wing dams.
“We’d only give each five or 10 minutes. We were using the Garmin mapping to find them. You can see them when the conditions are right by looking at the water, but Sunday the wind was blowing so hard. It was pretty bad. Saturday, the boat was pointing downriver into the wind, and you could see the dams with the LiveScope and cast to them.
“Sunday’s wind was terrible, gusting up to 35 out of the north. Kyle has a Power-Pole charge in his boat so every time we ran, it would charge the trolling motor batteries. The motor was running at 5 to 8 power level on spot lock just trying to stay on our spots. We only fished until about 11:30 or noon, then locked back down to play it safe. We locked down with 15 pounds, and upgraded with two fish, a 21 and a 19 on Pool 4, so that actually got us the win, those last two on Pool 4, on a rock pile just above the launch, with willow cats. I don’t think we caught anything other than on willow cats Sunday,” Newcomb related.
Coming back in, they were bummed. They figured someone probably bested their 18 pounds (18.43, in fact), but dock talk time with other teams buoyed their hopes again.
“We figured we had enough for Team Of The Year and probably to be in the top five for the Championship. We were a little surprised when we started hearing weights, and when Denny was doing the top five, we knew we were right up to the top then,” Newcomb said. “I didn’t even hardly believe it all. When we were up doing the interview with Denny, I was getting kind of emotional.”
But now, they’re already jazzed up and ready to jump into the AIM Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout, as well as next year’s Rivers Division, and maybe stick a toe into in the Minnesota Division as well, like they did this season.
“The Shootout (location to be announced) and all of next season looks pretty good for us. The high water this year changed things,” he said, referring to AIM’s postponing qualifiers due to the Mississippi’s spring and early summer flooding.
“It actually ended up working in our favor. Sometimes, things go wrong for a reason,” he quipped.
Second place at the Championship was hooked by another one we told you to watch out for early this season, Fan Nation, 17-year-old Anders Lester from Onalaska, WI, and his father, Dave, same address. Watch out. He could be the next walleye wunderkid, literally.
He said he couldn’t compete in Friday’s qualifier. Why? He was attending high school, of course, and working to become a carpenter. Here’s how he and his father snagged second, $2,000 and a berth at the 2025 National Championship Shootout.
“We got some information that the top side of the river (upstream) was good, but pre-fishing I don’t think we had a single fish. So we just relied on past information and made the long run down to Alma” (the location of Lock 4, and the downstream limit of Pool 4) in their Mercury Optimax-powered boat.
They started on one wing dam and worked it, landing about 15 pounds on the card, including two five-pounders, he said.
“We moved on the dam towards shore and probably had all our fish in 10 minutes, two 23-1/4-inchers and one 17-incher and then a 16 and an 18. We felt like we’d be sitting pretty good because of what people were saying the bite was. At the top of Lake Pepin we upgraded the 16 with a 19-incher,” he said, all on willow cats. At the end of Day One, they were in third, with 17.04 pounds.
“Day Two it was just the same, making that long run and working our way back p. We stayed on the same wing dam until noon. We got five, a 22, a 21-3/4, a 17, 16 and 13, again all on willow cats,” Lester said. Then came the kickers. While trolling Lake Pepin with those reliable perch color No. 7 Flicker Shads, into the net came a 27-3/4-incher. “The 19 on Day One was at the head of the lake and the 27 on Day Two was up in the river above the lake, about 1 p.m. That got the blood pumping. It wasn’t 20 yards into our troll that the rod doubled over. That one big bite, that really sailed our bag,” he said. They came in with 19.22 pounds, for a two-day total of 36.26 pounds.
“We really didn’t think we were going to get first, because Kyle and Joe are really good anglers, and because it’s hard to even get a check in AIM,” he said. “We weren’t looking good in the points race, so we swung for it. That’s all we wanted to do, qualify for the national championship, and I couldn’t be more ready. I’m doing it with my dad and the only thing I ever wanted was to fish with him.”
Here’s how the rest of the Championship’s top five, each of whom are now qualified to be in the 2025 Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout, finished. In third, with 34.08 pounds, winning $1,250 plus $300 in second-place Side Pot Challenge cash, were Dan McGuire of Spring Valley, WI, and Lucas Kersten of Boyceville, WI. Netting 30.64 pounds and $750 plus $200 in Side Pot Challenge cash were Joe Okada of Cambridge and Galen Bremmer of Avoca, WI. Fifth went to Mike Schommer Jr. and father Mike Sr., of Prescott, WI, who carded 29.14 pounds, good for $750.
Fan Nation, that makes the 2024 season a wrap. But stay tuned. We’ll be detailing Team Of The Year, including what teams moved up to qualify for the AIM Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout next June, due to others double-qualifying at the Rivers Division Championship.
Be a part of the fun in 2025. Watch for how to sign up for next season by going to aimfishing.com, and follow upcoming news at AIM’s Facebook page.
You know you want to. You know you can.
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