Presented by Yamaha Motor Corp USA and Warrior Boats Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug 9, 2024
Contact: Denny Fox, 920-505-0122
Anglers Insight Marketing LLC (AIM™)
What’s It Take To Win AIM Weekend Walleye Series Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Team Of Year? Consistency
What’s it take to win the coveted AWWS Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Team Of The Year? Fan Nation, we’ve said it before. It’s consistency. It’s putting your head down and plugging away even when you’ve gotten beat up at an event. It’s being versatile.
And, it’s knowing that you don’t have to win’em all, and a bit of luck will get you there. Just ask Brett Walser of Fond du Lac and Vince Moldenhauer of Onalaska, the 2024 Wisconsin Division Yamaha Team Of The Year titleholders after finishing fourth at the state championship on Lake Winnebago Aug. 2-3.
“These two show that you don’t have to finish first all the time to finish first,” said Denny Fox, AIM national tournament director. “They finished fourth at the championship, but throughout the season, kept at it to win the overall Team Of The Year Honors, a 9.9 Yamaha kicker worth $4,000, and a guaranteed spot in the 2025 Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout.”
Walser and Moldenhauer were versatile enough to fish the way it needed to be done regardless of where, in their Mercury 300 Pro XS-powered and all Garmin-equipped boat, and that’s how they won, Walser said. Their target was a TOY plaque and that 9.9 Yamaha all season long.
“Trust in Garmin, 100-percent. Keep your head down and trust your Garmin because if it says there’s a big fish there, there’s a big fish,” he said.
“You don’t want to be stuck to any one technique. If you have to troll, you troll, and if you have to jig, you do,” Walser said. “I’m not afraid of any technique. If you can be in the top six every time, you’ll probably win Team Of The Year.
“This year, we were in it for Team Of The Year. At Oconto this year, I wanted to win TOY, so I went for a 40-pound bag,” he said, instead of swinging for the fence and going north to try to win it with 55 or more pounds. That move is always risky.
“Part of the story of going for the 55-pound bag is, you might catch zero. And you don’t have time to rebound,” he explained.
Their year included a fourth place on the Fox River at Green Bay. They won at Winneconne, definitely didn’t win at Petenwell, which became their “throw away” (teams count their best three of four qualifier showings for TOY points) tournament, and at Oconto came in sixth, and fourth at the state championship.
We trolled in our first event. In that situation there were so many boats, we put out bait. At Winneconne was a fine example of keeping going and looking for fish with our LiveScope. Our teammates started in one spot, and we fished it at the end of the day and filled our card within 45 minutes. At the end of the day the fish were there.
At the championship, he said, they lost a couple of heavyweights, and boated five under 17-1/2 inches pre-fishing, he said. “But, we still stuck to it and eventually caught the big ones. Even on Green Bay at Oconto we had fish going but they were a long, long, long ways away, so we figured we’d better catch 35 or 40 pounds and played it safe.
“We really appreciated Isaac Lakich pointing us in the right direction there. We’ve been good friends for years. To be consistent, you have to be versatile.”
“The same can be said of the second-place team of Isaac Lakich of Richfield and Tristan Beckwith of West Bend. After a pretty slim showing at Winneconne, they put it to it and finished strong. They charged hard at the end to win the championship, but finishing second in TOY points to Walser and Modenhauer, Lakich also said it was consistency that did it.
Lakich also credited their comeback to not giving up and remaining consistent and confident after missing the first qualifier on the Fox River and having a terrible second qualifier at Winneconne in April.
“We didn’t fish the first event. We fished the second at Winneconne and literally caught one 13-incher and ended up in 80th or something in points,” Lakich recounted. “After that, we won Petenwell. We took second at Oconto and we won the championship, so we did excellent.” He also said that neither he nor Beckwith could practice for the Winneconne event, but they still had fun, another one of the crucial keys to a good season.
“The last time Tristan and I fished it at Winnebago we won it, and it was the exact same thing. We lost Team Of The Year by eight points or something. This is the second time Tristan and I fished the entire series and we took second both times in Team Of The Year,” he said.
“Consistency is always the key. Staying cool and calm. It comes down to a lot of moving parts moving correctly together. A lot of people think you can just go out there and get lucky. I strongly disagree. It comes with a lot of time and preparation, and working well together,” he added.
“It comes together for a reason. You’re making decisions fluidly. You’re not arguing everything with your partner. Everything is clicking. That’s what it takes in the fishing world, for sure,” he said.
“When we go fishing together, we always have a good time. We typically always fish with a pretty ‘swing for it’ mindset. Sometimes when you’re doing that you have days when it doesn’t work out.
“We never really go into a year trying to win Team Of The Year. I show up to every event to try to win and if the cards fall and you end up the leader for Team Of The Year, it is what it is. The best way to do good is to try the best at a given event. If you’re doing certain things a certain way you don’t overcomplicate it. With us it’s about going out and having fun,” he said.
“I don’t like losing. We couldn’t do any better than we did at Petenwell or at the championship. I don’t think if we’d taken first at Oconto that it would change anything either. We lost because we just bombed on Winneconne. That’s fishing,” Lakich said.
Rounding out the top five placing Team of The Year earning a Shootout berth for 2025 are 3rd place Dylan Peotter of Kaukauna and Anthony Englebert of Little Chute, 4th goes to Mark Maas of Appleton and Cade Fredrick of Oshkosh. The 5th spot goes to Trent Papesh of Little Chute, and his father Scott, of Appleton.
Because the 1st and 2nd place TOY double qualified the 6th and 7th place TOY teams will be invited to the Warrior Boats National Championship Shootout. 6th place Slawomir Wiater of Franklin Park, Il, and Thomasz Gorgon of Oswego and 7th place Randy Fifrick of Kronenwetter, WI, and Brandon Biggs of Milladore.
Fan Nation, here’s the Top of The Seventh lineup in the 2024 season: The last North Dakota qualifier is this weekend, Sunday, Aug. 11th, out of Parshall on Lake Sakakawea. The NoDak Championship is on Devils Lake Sept. 6 and 7.
Minnesota’s championship takes place Aug. 23-24, headquartered at Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods. The next Mississippi River qualifier for the Rivers Division is Sept. 22 in Dubuque.
Whatcha waitin’ for? The AIM Weekend Walleye Series is the most affordable, lucrative fishing tournament around, now in its 10th season. There’s still plenty of action left to go. And, get ready to sign up for 2025. Just go to aimfishing.com. Follow all the fun at AIM’s Facebook page.
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