Presented by Yamaha Motor Corp USA and Warrior Boats Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 5, 2024
Contact: Denny Fox, 920-505-0122
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™)
‘Scattered, Finicky’ Fish So Far As AIM Teams Doing ‘The Devils Work’ At NoDak Championship Find Tough Going
They’re finding plenty of eater-size walleye, but teams pre-fishing the AIM Yamaha Motor Corp. USA North Dakota State Championship this week are reporting having a devilish time finding the ones it will take to get to get’er done on Devils Lake to take both it and Yamaha Team Of The Year points honors Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6 and 7. A cold front moving in may make it even more challenging.
“Saying that NoDak’s Devils Lake can be tricky at times is an oxymoron, but teams out since Labor Day weekend are finding that its name and reputation are spot on in September,” said Denny Fox, AIM national tournament director. “With lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s flowing in just in time for the tourney, the looming fall might also have something to say. But someone’s going to get into them, and come Saturday evening, 10 teams will land a shot to represent the state at the 2025 AIM Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout. It all depends on who figures out this bite.”
Reached on the water Wednesday, 21-year-old Ethan Pankow of Minot will be missing his classes at Minot State University to fish with Bryce Hall of Burlington. He’s one of several “young guns” fishing the full North Dakota AIM circuit this year, while also crossing the state line to take in a Minnesota Division tournament or two as well, and that’s good to see.
Wednesday he was in his Mercury 400 Verado-powered boat, in his first-ever tour of Devils Lake. He was working the fish over with Garmin LiveScope in the mix with his father aboard. Hall was in another boat somewhere on the lake. They’re reporting fish, but he’s also nailing down more waypoints that he’s expecting he’ll have to run and gun to.
“My partner was out yesterday and was catching fish but not the size we want. We’re seeing fish this morning, and they’re either kind of loving it or hating what we’re offering,” Pankow said. They were casting jigs and corking with crawlers to see what the fish don’t love first.
“We’ve caught a few. I wouldn’t say we’ll have five bigs every day. We see a lot of good marks that just kinda follow our bait. We’ve got a few different locations we’ve checked off the list, and a few we’ve put on the list,” he added. When we reached them, they were sitting somewhere on the lake’s east side, where AIM tournaments have been won before. He’s been fishing walleye hardcore for the last two or three years, and he’s already got a target weight.
“We’re going to be shooting for a 30- or 35-pound bag a day. We’d be really happy if we got 30-pounds each day. There’s a lot of structure, and I’ve donated a few Jigging Raps already. We were by the casino (near St. Michael) and it was kind of a desert there,” he said, and it sounds like they’re doing more than a bit better after they moved a few compass points east.
Zack Axtman of Rugby and partner Mike Lenarduzzi of Warwick have been looking for the winners since early this week in both of their boats, one under Yamaha power and the other sporting a Mercury, and both with Garmin LiveScope in the electronics, and they’re reporting scattered, finicky fish.
“They were finicky when I was out Sunday. I think it’ll get better, but we’ve got a cold front coming in and that’s going to be the wild card,” Axtman said. “It could shut’em down.”
“I was out pretty much all day today (Tuesday) and it was tough. It isn’t fishing like Devils. There’s no picking and choosing and they didn’t at all want to bite,” Lenarduzzi said.
“There are winning fish out there, but I don’t know if you can win in one spot. You’re going to have a number of spots nailed down,” Axtman said, adding that is a “loose interpretation” of what they’ve done so far.
“We’re going to just keep checking spots and hoping we get some active fish. The lake is fishing really weird right now,” Lenarduzzi said. “The only thing I didn’t do today was troll. I left my trolling rods in the garage purposely. I think you’ll have to target certain fish to hopefully coerce them into biting. LiveScope will play a big part in this,” because the weather on Friday will be perfect for it. Saturday? A little “iffier,” with winds 8 to 14, gusting to 20 predicted. But, as they both said, this is North Dakota. They’re used to wind in North Dakota, and 20 mph is just a tease.
Both also say it will take over 30 pounds a day to win. The finicky Devils Lake level is also rising, and they also say that’s good.
Rufus Hostetler and Daniel Miller of Bismarck have seen Devils in action lots of times, and echoes what the others are saying: finding five per day is not the problem, it’s finding the right ones, at least after their first shortened day of pre-fishing.
It was cut way short with a trolling motor electrical problem that they hope is fixed, so they planned to hit the water hard both days prior to the start. However, on their 90-minute first day out, he said, they got five.
“What we’ve got so far is not very big, but we did catch our five. We’ve got some intel on a few things that might work. We’ve fished here just over the last five years and we also fished with some guides in the past. We kinda know where to go. We’ve figured out that we still haven’t figured out where the big ones are that it’s going to take to win,” Hostetler said.
“We’re sitting in ninth (in the tight Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Team Of The Year battle). We want to give it a shot and give it all we’ve got. We’ve just got to get to work and figure it out,” he added, and getting kicked off the water due to their now-fixed issues didn’t help. But their enthusiasm makes up for it.
“We’re really excited about it. Devils is always a challenge and I’m always up for a big challenge. We’re going in excited and we’re unsure of how it will turn out at the moment. We hope in the next few days we’ll figure something out,” he said.
That’s a hope shared by every team that will be uncradling their boats at the launch site Friday morning at tournament headquarters, Woodland Resort in Devils Lake. That’s also where boat inspections will take place starting at 5:30 a.m. both days, and where boats will take off starting at 7 a.m. Teams must check back beginning at 3 p.m. both days. Saturday’s awards ceremony, and the crowning of both the 2024 North Dakota State Champion, and the 2024 Yamaha Team Of The Year also will take place at Woodland. Good luck, all teams!
AIM’s 2024 season doesn’t end Saturday, Fan Nation. We’ve still got plenty of action in the Rivers Division through early October. Earn your River Rat nickname by signing up for the next TWO qualifiers coming at you on Sunday, Sept. 22, then a make-up event Friday, Oct. 4 on the Mississippi, right before the Division Championship, which has shifted to Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 5 and 6, due to that makeup event because of this spring’s high water. You can still get in on it all. Go to aimfishing.com to join in the 10th season of the continent’s most affordable, lucrative walleye tournament series. Follow all the fun at AIM’s Facebook page.
You know you want to. You know you can.
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