Presented by Yamaha Motor Corp USA and Warrior Boats Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2024
Contact: Denny Fox, 920-505-0122
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™)
Quite A Birthday: $105,000 Boat Package Goes To McQuoid, Krawiecki, At AIM/Warrior Boats Shootout In NoDak
It was quite a 25th birthday weekend for Kolton Krawiecki, and also for his fishing partner, Eric McQuoid. Because casting creek chubs and half-crawlers on 1/8th-ounce jigs won both of them quite a present: a decked out Warrior boat worth $105,000 to top off the 10th annual AIM Weekend Walleye Series/Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout, May 31-June 1.
“Fan Nation, these two young guns, McQuoid, 24, from Isle, and yes you’ve heard that last name here before and you’ll also hear it next week, and his partner Krawiecki, who turned 25, and who is interestingly, from Pillager, MN, did the pillaging to the walleye on North Dakota’s Lake Sakakawea. They did it all on another name you’ve heard before, Van Hook Arm, to boat a huge bag, 80.19 pounds over this two-day-er, and man did they win big, by 2-1/2-plus pounds, to also net this big one: a V193DC Warrior, powered by a beautiful Yamaha 200SHO four-stroke, with a Garmin bow mount, twin Garmin 93SV graphs, and a bundle of Rosemore Outdoor Products rods aboard, all worth $105,000. What a win.”
“And that ain’t all, Fan Nation. Team McQuoid/Krawiecki also mopped up another $500 for having Garmin electronics exclusively aboard their boat, along with a Garmin Kraken bow mount, to bring in that weight,” Fox said. “These two represent the next generation of sticks who are coming up and turning to AIM’s exclusive Catch-Record-ReleaseÔ format to ensure they and their offspring will be catching walleyes for decades to come.”
They did it mostly by observing conditions and adapting to them during pre-fishing.
“We got out on the lake and noticed that water temperatures were cold for this time of year, about 50 degrees around Shell Island,” McQuoid said. For those unfamiliar, Shell isn’t really an island. It’s a “sunken” island at the bottom of the Arm, and walleyes love it.
“We knew we needed to search to find warmer water,” McQuoid said. “We stayed mainly in the Van Hook Arm, knowing from past tournament results.” But instead of the island, they went shoreline hunting, along the arm’s shallower sand and rock points.
“Most of the damage was done there,” he said. “We locked in on a few areas, looking for pockets of warm water. We found a couple areas Monday afternoon (first day boats were allowed on the lake for pre-fishing). The big winds on Wednesday and Thursday moved some of the pockets and we were able to find’em,” he said, come Friday morning. They were ready with their LiveScope-equipped and Mercury 400 v 10-powered boat, also with Rosemore medium-light rods aboard to pitch those light Kalin’s Pendu jigs.
“We started off slow on Friday, until we located the fish. Around noon, we had a 27 and a 26-inch and a few smaller ones on our card,” he said. He also said that mixed in with the walleyes were a lot of carp, sheepshead and others they didn’t want. What really helped was their Garmin LVS 34 LiveScope transducer, he said. McQuoid had it tuned in so well that he could tell walleye from all those others both days.
“We were going back and forth between creek chubs and half-crawlers. The majority came on crawlers. That’s where LiveScope was key to see what each individual fish was. Our first, we had the 26, and as the water kept warming, we kept slicing away at it. We got the 27 and a 25 and near the end of the day about 1:30 we got a 29 and a 24-1/2 to round out the card.
“We left a little early just in case and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We were feeling good. We knew we probably wouldn’t be leading it, but probably in the top five somewhere,” McQuoid said. He was right. They were in second, with 39.73 pounds. On Day Two, they returned to the spots that treated them well.
“We went back fairly close to where we started, within 100 yards or so, still using all the same jigs. It took two or three minutes. Kolton didn’t even have his rods in the water and I set the hook into a 27-1/2-incher,” McQuoid related. Except for local anglers and maybe three other tournament boats that stopped by, they were alone.
“I believe we then got a 22 shortly after, and got another 27, then a 27-3/4, a 24-1/4 and a 26-3/4. In the first hour we had 37 pounds on our card,” he said. Then, get this: they upgraded from there. Upgraded from 37, a weight that alone would have won many a tournament.
“By the end of the day, we had a 22, a 26-3/4, two 27s, and a 27-3/4. We felt good. With the wind being calmer and the sun out we were kinda worried that we’d need one more kicker,” he said, because of course their thoughts were on the competition and how they might be doing.
“We didn’t quite think we had the win. When it goes calm and sunny, it’s game on with LiveScope. It makes it easier to move around and find those active fish,” he said. “We probably caught 30 or 40, and the majority were 22- to 25-inchers.”
Then it was dockside. “We were excited. It was a long four hours to wait to figure out how we actually did. But that’s why we fish tournaments, those feelings and those days on the water,” he remembered. As each team stepped up and Denny Fox read the weights, their blood pressures rocketed.
“We looked at each other and both took a deep breath. We knew that if we were called up last, there was a good chance we were going to win. At the last three boats, our nerves started to go off the charts. We both kinda blacked out and realized probably what just happened. It’s hard to put words to it still,” he said, adding that stunned would be a good way to describe the feeling when Fox announced their names as the champions.
“Both of our phones blew up when he announced it. We were feeling our phones going off when we were trying to talk. It feels awesome and amazing now. Being able to compete against some of the best teams in the Midwest and hold our own to make it to the nationals, and end up on top, it was…I can’t think of the words. It is an honor to be on top,” McQuiod said. True and humble words from the newest AIM Weekend Walleye Series champs.
What’s next for the pair? Why, the upcoming AIM Warrior Boat Open Minnesota qualifier at his family’s McQuoid’s Inn & Event Center in Isle, of course! Only this Sunday, they’ll be fishing against, not with, each other.
“Yup, a day or two off and then back at it,” McQuoid The Younger agreed. We’ll have more to say about that event later this week, but here’s how the second-place team of North Dakotans Lonnie and son Trapper Jacobs of Douglas, about 50 miles from new Town, dealt with the lake, and a Day One motor glitch that almost cost them big time.
In a borrowed big Warrior 238 from friend Heath Lodholtz, that Jacobs said ran over the waves like they weren’t even there, they finished on Day Two with a two-day total of 77.65 pounds, winning two $5,000 Mercury Marine gift certificates. And because McQuoid and Krawiecki had entered the AIM Side Pot Challenge like the Jacobs boys did, and they won, they were then ineligible for the Side Pot cash, meaning $3,250 went to father and son Jacobs, which will come in handy for Trapper’s upcoming wedding to Taysha. But their great finish didn’t come without troubles.
“On Day One, we lost power coming in. Our motor was dogging out. It wasn’t a hose so it may be a coil,” Lonnie said, who took it to his local shop.
“I called Heath for his boat, a 238 Warrior with a 450 Mercury, and it was a nice boat to use on Day Two. He brought it to New Town and took my boat and my pickup and I took his boat and pickup,” Jacobs related. But, let’s get back to pre-fishing and Day One on the water.
“We were in Van Hook. The majority of the field was in Van Hook. We pre-fished hard. Monday we found some pretty good fish near Shell Island and then went to fish the rest of the Arm.
“Tuesday, we went back and hit Shell and liked what happened there, and then went back up and fished the Arm again. We had our best luck on the island. Wednesday, we fished everywhere but there. Our minds were made up where we were going to fish. It was so much fun, the bite was on. The fish were there,” he said. Thursday, a new crop of North Dakota wind grew to 40 mph, and they stayed home, rested up and got ready. They came back armed with creek chubs, leeches and crawlers, and caught all their weigh fish on chubs at .3 to .7 mph.
“Day One, our start wasn’t great. We had three fish on the card. One as a 23, but the fourth was a 28-1/4, so that got our spirits up, then we kinda went into a lull and to be honest we got into some medium fish, some 22s and 23s, so we had a card full, two 22s, two 23s and the 28,” he said. The AIM cameraman came and went with no action at all. When he left, of course it opened up. “As soon as Max left, we busted loose and got a 26, a 26-1/2 and a 28-1/2 in the last two hours,” he said.
But all that effort could have blown up in their faces, disqualifying with a malfunctioning engine. They limped back the last three miles and checked in with only five minutes to spare instead of the 15 they’d planned on. They were in third, and in great position to have their own Warrior, if Day Two was good as well.
Saturday, and in that big beast of a Warrior, in the first 15 or 20 minutes, into the boat came a 26-incher. “We said, here we go,” Jacobs said. “Well, lo and behold we didn’t get another for a while, then we got a 20 and a 21. We never caught a fish under 20 on Day Two, but we had a card full, a 21, 22-1/2, a 22-3/4, nice fish but not winning fish. Then the camera man jumped back in our boat, and we told him this time hopefully we can get some fish for you. Max gets in and I set into a really big fish, a nine or 10-pound northern. I then set into another really big fish and it’s about a 40-inch northern,” he said. Finally with those pike out of the way, it took only 15 minutes to get into another, this time, a 25-3/4-inch walleye.
“In 15 more minutes, I put on a huge chub, and it got whacked, a 27-1/2, and I said ‘Max, you can stay in our boat all day,’” he laughed. They then moved to a spot with submerged trees that most anglers avoid, but Jacobs knew it held a fish or two.
‘We weren’t there for 15 minutes and hooked into a 29-incher. We had a 29, a 27-1/2, a 26, a 25-3/4 and our smallest was a 23-1/4, and we both knew we needed to upgrade that fish to win, and we were right,” Jacobs said. “We had about 10 more minutes to fish and didn’t get it done, but we were happy with what we did”.
“A special thank you to Heath Lodholtz and to John Arfor, and John knows what it’s for,” Jacobs said. So what’s next for Team Jacobs? They’re gearing up for the next AIM tournament in NoDak, the Warrior Boats open, June 16 out of Garrison, on Lake Sak.
Finishing in third and fourth were two names that you in Fan Nation know well: Tyler Wolden of Carlos, MN and Nate Leininger of Miltona, and the old reliables, Tom “Win” Huynh, of Wolverton, MN, and Nate Wolske of Boy River, the two who taught everyone how to fish with LiveScope. The former won two Power-Pole blades, plus second in the Side Pot Challenge for $1,950, for landing 75.55 pounds. The latter boated 74.82 pounds, winning them a half-dozen JT Outdoors rods, plus $1,300 in Side Pot Challenge cash.
Fifth place with 68.88 pounds went to two other well-known AIM competitors, Joe Bricko of Farmington, MN, and Dylan Maki of Cohasset, MN. They took home two sets of WAVEPRO seat pedestals because they also boated the tournament’s biggest walleye, a 31-incher.
But wait, there’s more, as they say.
Ross and Roger Grothe of Baldwin, ND, got in on this too. They were the highest-placing boat running Yamaha power, finishing 10th. Because they were registered, that earned them $2,000 in Yamaha Power Pay cash. The boat they used? You guessed it, a Warrior, and that 10th place finish will net them another $500. And, every team in 6th through 40th place received $300 per boat.
Fan Nation, that’s a wrap for the AIM Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout, but we’re not EVEN done with the fun. This season is only mid-way through. We’ve got lots of action on the water across four Midwest divisions coming right at ya, starting this Sunday. We’ll have more this Friday. Fire’em up, teams, let’s go get’em!
Follow all the fun at AIM’s Facebook page. Go to aimfishing.com to join in the most affordable, lucrative walleye tournament existing.
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, Power Pole, Worldwide Marine Insurance, Off Shore Tackle, Gemini Sport Marketing, JT Outdoors Products, McQuoids Inn, Rosemore Outdoor Gear, Outdoor Authority fish house rentals, Adventure Recreational Finance, Oconto County WI., Forever Barnwood