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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Brian Bashore (00:01.954)
Hey guys, thanks for tuning in this episode of real talk fishing with no limits today. We're sitting down with the chairman of the board, the aim tournament series, Mr. Brett King. We've had Brett on here before we talk fishing. And of course we're going to talk a little fishing again today, but what we're really going to get into is aim next. is correct. Aim next, next level NXT tournament circuit that is coming to the wall. I world in 2026, Brett is going to give us the insight, kind of break it down how it's set up. Still a lot to.
to get established with it. So it's a little fluid. we want to get the word out there though. So you have some time to get into an aim tournament yet this year so that you may qualify to fish in this level. a next level tournament series next year. This is a pro level type aim series. It's awesome. Timing's great. While that world's kind of in a little disarray and tournaments, a lot of different factors. but we're going to kind of, we touch on that and break it down for you to see kind of what.
You know, there's one out there for everybody, NWT levels, aim levels, MWC levels. So there's just more options and giving everybody some different opportunities with maybe less travel, different styles of fishing, team, not teams go up in, not scope and whatever, you know, there's some strategies to be played in all this stuff. Catch, footer release versus, know, weigh-ins. There's positives and negatives to all of these and all the circuits are trying to do everything they can do. The name next has got a lot of this figured out.
And it's very interesting and you're going to to learn about it. So tune in and listen. Brett King tells about the aim next level tournament circuit coming in 2026 coming up next.
Brian Bashore (00:03.291)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of real talk fish. It would no limits today. We're joined by the chairman of the board, the man no other than leading the way with the aim tournament circuit. Mr. Brett King here to tell us a little bit about what's not breaking news, but it's not old news, but it's kind of new news. We just want to make a big deal about it because pretty new. Um, but the aim next series getting ready to launch here in 2026. So we're going to touch on that guys. They were going to touch a little bit. Brett is literally just home.
Brett King (00:21.151)
Pretty new.
Brian Bashore (00:32.503)
A couple of days ago from Lake Huron on the third NWT stop. Brett, how you doing? You're recovering from the, big Huron waves.
Brett King (00:39.605)
Yeah, I got home about 830 Saturday night. laid pretty low yesterday. Of course, just licking wounds and recovering and getting a little extra sleep. fun event out there. Sure. I mean, it was great. Love that system. Challenging, spooky, clear water fish. but there's some nice fish in that system.
Brian Bashore (01:05.4)
What so we were there in sag and what you were you wanted that year you went up to alpena is that 18 19?
Brett King (01:10.828)
That was 18.
Brian Bashore (01:12.635)
When 18 I remember that water being so clear as only place I remember I was clear that I guess charity island. And that was whoever was prefetched with me, like Kevin Scott. And I was like, I could literally feel like I could take a glass and just dip it in the water and drink it.
Brett King (01:18.006)
Yep.
Brett King (01:26.964)
You know, if it wasn't too windy, you could see down about 30 feet pretty clear. It's definitely those fish are hard to get, you know, within probably 70 feet is about as close as you can try to get them in most conditions out there. But, that, that puts an additional challenge to it. And it was fun. mean, it's a cool fishery. mean, obviously I want to go back.
fish totally different than 18. know, 18, there was only a couple of us that were willing to go up to that playground and now we left from that playground. So it fished totally different than it did in 18 for sure. and of course I, my back was against the wall a little bit on the whole point situation. So I had to fish a little bit conservative, which I don't like doing that anymore, but, did what I had to do.
wanted to have a reason to go out to Dunkirk with a purpose instead of a hope and pray mission. So it was a good week overall. We had good weather, one super rainy day.
Brian Bashore (02:29.723)
All
Brian Bashore (02:38.747)
Which is huge out there. mean, that place is all about, you need some good weather because it can get rough. It's the roughest of all of them by far.
Brett King (02:43.092)
It is.
Brett King (02:46.954)
That is one of the most challenging bodies of water to drive a boat on that I've fished. Doesn't take much. The currents and stuff ripping around those islands and points, it can really whip up some choppy stuff pretty fast. The waves don't set up like you expect them to. You'd be running.
going through and going through and all of sudden there'd be something coming from a completely different direction. It's like, where did that come from? On top of all the freighters going through, you know, they go through and a half hour later, all of a sudden you're dealing with this chop and this mess. It's like, where'd that come from? Oh yeah, that freighter just went through. So, good community, it a good host. Yeah, like I said, cool area. Definitely want to go back.
Lots of structure. You fish what you want. You can fish weeds, rock, deep rock, shipwrecks. So all of that was cool. It really was cool.
Brian Bashore (03:55.289)
Yeah, that's always good when you got some stuff to throw around in structure. heard, know Hunter said he was fishing pretty shallow and some guys ran way north up, you know, the Sioux area. And I'm sure, but it's not like it didn't fish like it did last fall, which obviously it's summertime when guys went further south, you know, towards Saginaw. It was just kind of a scatter, kind of a mix. So, right, go about anywhere you wanted right now to spend on the class of fish you're going to land on.
Brett King (03:58.825)
Yeah.
Brett King (04:12.606)
Eww.
Brett King (04:18.441)
It was just, it was tough to chase them down. mean, the stories you heard, you know, believe them or not. I'm sure most of them are true. And what guys are going through to get on those fish, especially scoping them. You know, I opted to go a little bit different direction than that, but again, I was more about being a little bit conservative and just trying to get through and get some points. So.
Brian Bashore (04:46.331)
Let's go put them 70 feet out. mean, that's not really, that's still a flip of a cast, but you're also doing some deep water and some super spooky fish. You're, mean, it's a little, that's, that's not typical. So.
Brett King (04:51.902)
Me.
Yeah.
And it seemed like they just never quit moving. They're always swimming. They just don't stop. And you had to chase them, chase them, chase them. Then you think he can set up on a cast and you throw the cast, but because they're moving two miles away, two miles an hour away from you, next thing you know, your, your cast has fallen way short. So
Brian Bashore (05:00.603)
Murrweth.
Brian Bashore (05:18.395)
So you're 70 feet to turn into 130 feet cast to get in front of them. Is that just because all that current that just keeps them on the move probably or the pressure.
Brett King (05:20.821)
Yeah.
Brett King (05:25.769)
Yeah, that and I think that just the pressure they see the boat and they do all that and they're just moving probably to eat so.
Brian Bashore (05:34.949)
Tilt rolling kind of I mean there's probably a handful of guys spreading it all out with the planer boards and
Brett King (05:38.92)
Yeah, I was actually trolling for this one. I was putting up a fairly consistent four pound average. When I was doing it, I figured that'd be enough to get it done. That's about what I did in the tournament and it set me up pretty good going into Dunkirk. So we'll take it.
Brian Bashore (05:47.387)
It's not bad out there.
Brian Bashore (05:59.163)
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. I see they haven't updated the anger of the year standings, but I'm sure it shook it up a little bit. But like you said, you got to get, you got to fish conservative and that's, love the point system with a top 40 when, when that got changed up a few years ago, um, instead of pay to play, you know, paid entry, which is exactly what we're going to be dealing with at the aim, you know, next series. And that's just, that's the way I think it should be. I don't know how it's going to work out as far as championship payouts or.
Brett King (06:15.101)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (06:26.811)
Entries since NWT is not getting that 125 boat average or only averaging like 83. Yeah. You know, is Johnny gonna up, up, you know, a little bit, pay the difference again? Cause this seems to be more and more every year, but this, this is going to be a lot bigger chunk this year. little bigger ass.
Brett King (06:31.018)
We won't know that.
Brett King (06:43.771)
Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's really disappointing to see the numbers going the direction they're going. mean, from what I know, they were, they were pretty challenged getting the Coangler field to fill. There's a magnitude of reasons for that that we can get into or not get into, but definitely just does not feel like it's going the direction we need it to go.
Brian Bashore (07:11.963)
Let's get into that and talk about all of this. Cause this is all tied into what you got going on and why I think that's right. That's a good segue. We're a real talk. We're keeping things real. There's nobody else who keeps it a lot more real than me. The mr. Brett King, Tom McKeeva are a couple of guys that left. They like to keep it real and, you know, to say it out is, but the Coingler challenge, that was a big deal going into this one to sound like they're about 10 guys short. Obviously if you filled it, however they did it, I mean, I know.
Brett King (07:18.538)
Okay. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (07:40.921)
back in the day they had, they'd bring in some on, you know, if you're 10 short, brought in 10 at a hundred dollar entry fee and those 10 competed against each other. Right. Just to, so you, yeah, I don't know what they did for this one, but why are we short on co-anglers when it's such a big demand and it's usually a waiting list.
Brett King (07:49.25)
Right. Yeah, I have no idea how they did that, but that's.
Brett King (08:00.074)
we'll go down the rabbit hole, but...
Brian Bashore (08:03.579)
It's our best guess. We don't know because we're not them, but I think it's the live scope has obviously got something to do with it.
Brett King (08:06.161)
Right.
Brett King (08:10.353)
I think it's the technology. It's, you know, quickly turning into something we're attempting to address with the NXT. that's, it's very hard for a coangler to fish with a accomplished, I'll call it scoper, right? They're so fast. They're so methodical in how they go about things, that it's, it's hard for somebody to fish from the back of the boat.
I think that's part of it. I think guys are getting a little bit fed up with coming in the boat basically for a boat ride. mean, don't sugar coat it or not. It's basically a boat ride. and you know, I kind of called that out a few years ago, to different people that this could become a problem with.
Brian Bashore (08:49.883)
for a boat ride.
Brett King (09:08.893)
with the whole scoping situation was, you know, how long are we going to keep the coangler situation alive when a lot of times they just don't really get the fish like they want to. Great learning experience still for them if they want to learn the aspect of the new technology. No better place.
Brian Bashore (09:33.819)
But on that note, Tom went to university. A couple hundred bucks. Right? I could do it from home and for half the price. I could do it from home and revert back to it. So, I mean, get it. There's still on the water stuff. is no better place to learn than on the water. Period.
Brett King (09:39.4)
Yeah, there's nobody better at it than Tom, for sure.
Brett King (09:48.612)
I learned.
Brett King (09:53.798)
Yes. But if, you know, a lot of times it seems like our coangler generation, that's a nice way to put it, the older, you know, more towards retirement people. And if they don't want to engage that game, what are they going to do it for? You know, I will say last few years, I've seen a pretty good crew of younger
Brian Bashore (10:22.629)
Yeah, yeah.
Brett King (10:23.88)
co anglers that want to learn it. But you know, are we eventually going to run out of those? I don't know. It's just seemingly trending that way with the numbers we're getting or not getting, I guess is a better way to put it. So Dunkirk will be interesting for sure to see what kind of numbers we do pull out there.
Brian Bashore (10:38.651)
not getting.
Brian Bashore (10:48.761)
It is a, it's a system that trolling is completely in play. Dunkirk just like Huron, like I plenty of guys trolled. mean, it could very easily have been one, you know, trolling, we all know we think that and then it's top 10 or still scopers. I mean, it's just, when you get to pick out the fish, when you get to pick out the fish you want, you know, and you're confident and patient with it, it does work. It's hard. It's really hard to compete against it.
Brett King (11:03.035)
Yeah, for the most part.
Brian Bashore (11:12.891)
Eerie is a little, a little bit different. mean, you know, buddy and some of those guys did, they're due well in the spring out there last time. I don't know how that'll set up out there now with that, that area and those fish being that deep. Maybe it's perfect for scoping. don't know. Maybe it ends up being a trolling and copper line type bite. knows, but.
Brett King (11:12.977)
Yes.
Brett King (11:29.467)
I used to kid myself and play the weather, know, the whole scenario on whether scoping will come into play or not. And I've pretty much been proven wrong every time.
Brian Bashore (11:39.515)
All right. Don't matter.
Brian Bashore (11:45.391)
Yeah. After that blowy day at Erie on day two and they scoped and giant rollers it as it's like, yep, well they can do it anytime, anywhere. doesn't even matter at this point. Nope. And I've gone out and practiced it myself and it's just both control and confidence and patience. It can totally be done and get those. Now these trolling motors come with these longer shafts to crack in. can get a custom old tracks, you know, and all these other, you know,
Brett King (11:53.786)
Yep. No, it doesn't. So.
Brian Bashore (12:14.139)
The controller motors are all 70 to 75 inch shafts now so you can keep that motor in the water and you can do it in these higher winds.
Brett King (12:19.527)
I will say, you know, as a guy that sells boats every day for a living, the amount of dual power pole boats I see on the water anymore, it's fast, fastly going that way.
Brian Bashore (12:35.237)
Yeah, we fished the NTC. partner, John Westwood had two power. He had a warrior with two poles on the back and it was supposed to blow. So we yielded to take his boat and he had the crack and I took my crack and I'll put my Ultrex back on because I'm in the back of boat and I need that remote system. And sorry if that remote system just works a lot better than that crack and remote is that long shaft and things is great. But he had that on, ended up not really blowing that bad and it was fine, but we definitely use those poles a little bit.
And then that's great when you can drop them back and actually just go with the wind instead of always having to face into it. It's a nice little control. like, that, yeah, this definitely makes a difference.
Brett King (13:07.469)
Right.
I'm pretty surprised I have not seen more of the quote-unquote crappie breaks this year. I've had a chance to fish with those and it's crazy good. If that's your game, I'm just blown away. We haven't seen more of those yet systems, but it truly is. That is the beast. If this is what you're going to do.
Brian Bashore (13:39.407)
Well, that the Kraken had to reverse installed onto it or an update. So it's got the reverse on the motor, but you can, fin gear's got the new surge paddle type things. I think you can add onto there that, you know, the Drake came out with. So that's the evolution is there with all the new, you know, it's lures and rods, everything's leaning this way. got, we've got a fishing line, we got rods, we got lures all made for it. Now we got, which isn't, you know, it's, we're, while our world's a little behind the bass world, getting all this type of stuff, obviously.
Brett King (13:43.365)
Yep.
Brett King (13:48.675)
Yeah.
Brett King (13:54.585)
It is.
Brian Bashore (14:07.611)
But it's there, it's there for anybody to use and find a way. We really just have to modify it. We got to make things longer and deeper and you know, versus bass boats. So, and it's coming. So yeah, you're completely right. You're seeing less kickers and more power poles with drip paddles.
Brett King (14:15.201)
Yes. Yep.
Brett King (14:23.856)
Less kickers, more power pulls. Absolutely.
Brian Bashore (14:26.683)
And obviously, I mean, I would say 90 % of everybody's got lithium in there now to run all this stuff.
Brett King (14:32.634)
Yeah, I mean, that's a whole nother conversation, but yeah, lithium is a big part of it anymore. it's going to continue to grow and be a bigger part of it for sure. that's just technology and the evolution of fishing and boats and, everything that goes with it. I mean, I sell this stuff every single day in my day to day job and the boat motor trailer part of this thing is becoming smudge.
Brian Bashore (14:36.046)
Yeah.
Brett King (15:01.091)
So much of a small part of the equation compared to the accessory part of it. Impossible for manufacturers to keep up with and dealerships. You know, you just can't win because we have so many options now, which is a good thing. But to know to physically put a quote unquote stock unit, you know, on the floor.
Brian Bashore (15:20.475)
That's it. Make your job easier though.
Brett King (15:29.444)
It's very challenging because you're likely to You know have a guy come in and you've got it all set up and code a hummingbird Whatever it is and I want garment then you have to change on rig do all that stuff so Definitely making some challenging moves that way for sure
Brian Bashore (15:50.203)
Yeah. And like I said, it's not changing any, I'm off to ICAST tomorrow. Hopefully they keep canceling my flights, but you're going to see all these new things that are coming out and it's tough. just did a little video with a St. Croix new physics rod, which is designed for Ford facing Sonar. I'm like, this stuff is going so fast that it's technology in a sense, but it's products that we can't hardly keep up with it. mean, electronics have been a challenge enough to stay updated on what you already have.
Brett King (16:01.528)
Yeah.
Brett King (16:17.889)
Used to only be a couple of choices, honestly, and now it's like, where do you go? I mean, it's, it's across the board. got four players, four companies and they're all in, they're all good. They all have their ups. They all have their downs. I'll be interested to see what's coming out of ICAST. I'm not going. I have my dealer meeting next week. I'll be leaving for Arkansas on Sunday. So.
didn't feel like doing a turn them burned eye cast and then right back to Arketson. Especially after just getting home and you know, it's not going to be too long and we're headed for Dunkirk.
Brian Bashore (16:49.563)
No, you just gotta... Yeah, no doubt.
Brian Bashore (16:56.641)
Yep. Yeah. It's a, it's, it's very busy time of year, obviously. And you guys started your pre-fish over the fourth of July holiday. So, I mean, you missed enough. Stay home. got a pretty, pretty new bride. Let's stay home little bit. Yeah. We both been down that road of one too many times.
Brett King (17:08.357)
It's another issue you want to get into.
Brett King (17:14.616)
The stories of the stories, I was fortunate enough to have a buddy to stay with out there. So he opened the house to us, me and Shakira. And so we were good, but the stories I heard of guys getting out there and their, their VRBOs and stuff were double booked. Or they couldn't get in till Monday. You know, those stories just very eye opening about.
Brian Bashore (17:34.715)
Brett King (17:42.852)
probably why you don't plan those on holiday weekends.
Brian Bashore (17:45.507)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Brett King (17:49.975)
Yeah, there was a few guys that I don't know if they ever did get into their places or if they just had to find other means.
Brian Bashore (17:58.137)
Right. Yeah, that sucks. You don't need added layers of things to deal with when you already have to do a flake here on within itself is enough stress.
Brett King (18:06.306)
Yeah. You know, when I sat down with the schedule this year and I'm fairly central for the most part, it was 80 hours of drive time to, pull the schedule off. That's a lot. And you know, this next one really is like, God, we're going to drive by how many hours of premiered, premiered walleye fishing.
Brian Bashore (18:21.851)
it is.
Brian Bashore (18:30.351)
Really good fishing.
Brett King (18:34.573)
just to get to a specific state to pull off this event that we could have done five hours closer. But that's not my schedule to set. So we deal with it. We choose to deal with it. it's what we get to play.
Brian Bashore (18:53.071)
Yeah. It's a, you don't like it, don't fish it. Right. It's that simple. got met choices. Nope.
Brett King (18:55.512)
That's right. Right. And you're not alone. I mean, there there was a few people I noticed that weren't at this last one, and I'm sure there'll be a few more at not at the next one. So.
Brian Bashore (19:08.191)
Nope. We got to make some tough choices. We want to, I want to go. would have been all of them, but you know, did kind of did a crappy season last year and you stay home and work. It's a lot of guy trips though. So I'm going still get paid vacation. So we need to stay home and work once in a while, or we just need to do a hell of a lot better tournaments really. But you know, that, is what it is. Rumors of next year's schedule sound, sound great. You know.
Brett King (19:17.549)
Yep.
That's right.
Brett King (19:31.875)
You know, the, the rumors I've seen, you know, you and I shared one back and forth that kind of replicates what I had heard before. that is a good schedule. depending on the timing, we don't know the timing of the events yet. if we can avoid the holidays and, all of those things, and then we hit the right bodies of water with the right timing, it will be a, it should be a very stellar schedule next year.
Brian Bashore (20:00.315)
Yeah.
Brett King (20:01.046)
to fish and the fishing itself should show that. So we'll cross our fingers and hope they do the right things and that's all we can do.
Brian Bashore (20:13.167)
Yep, that's it. And then we'll see what it comes out and then everybody will decide whether they want to get in or not. And hopefully there's been some lessons learned, I would imagine. And they take a hard look at it, listen to the anglers little bit, make some adjustments and, and the things start trending the other way because things are trending the wrong way in the walleye tournament world. So, but aim next has got the solution for a lot of this stuff. Aim circuits. just had a bagel tournament, I think last week and it was full.
I mean, some of them at the river circuit look like 30, 40 boats, North Dakota has kind of been tinkering on the, the lower side river circuit. Look, that's kind of up, your Minnesota, Wisconsin tournaments all seem to have pretty good turnouts.
Brett King (20:53.452)
Pretty solid. And that's always been our core. We always try to expand into, you know, the Dakotas and, you know, the river thing.
I will say, if...
If you look at the like the river division, which I fish myself, our numbers are definitely up this year and we're going the right direction. Solid core group of guys. Everybody's inviting friends and other guys to come in and we're getting some newcomers. We had some guys that just decided to, you know, not fish anymore. You know, that whole story is we bought the the Watt trail out, which the
The Watt Trail always kind of concentrated on that south of the, you know, Iowa, Illinois part of the river. But we're trying to realize that we need to bring this further north towards, you know, the Red Wing, La Crosse area where there's a lot more anglers to play with. so we lost some of those Southern guys, but we picked up a lot of new guys and they're excited. They like it.
Brian Bashore (21:58.447)
Yep. Lots. It's a really good fishing.
Brett King (22:10.849)
Yeah, they're engaging it. Competition, of course, is fierce. Um, and we hope to see it continue to grow. Um, we called it the river division for a reason. It doesn't have to stay on the Mississippi. Um, you know, we're just targeting moving water. So we have a lot of options to move that thing around to, um, Dakota numbers are picking back up where they should be, uh, tough to compete with the casino.
cup tournaments out there that are, you know, guaranteed jackpot tournaments. know, casinos can do that, AIM can't. So yeah, that's just the way it is. So we've hung out there for a long time now and it's a good state, good waters. Yeah, for sure. So.
Brian Bashore (22:48.227)
Right.
Brian Bashore (23:02.519)
Excellent, excellent waters. So.
Brett King (23:07.851)
But no, the NXT is exciting. It's been a project on the Bolton board for a long time. you know, timing is everything with bringing something new out and about. With where the present things are working in the industry, not 100 % sure about this year, but we can't sit back forever either.
Brian Bashore (23:33.019)
Well, there's so many unknowns and variables with the economy, right? The election thing was coming in, NWT thought this year was going to be a lot better as as, you know, non-endemic sponsorship and getting things to move. theoretically, fuel, mean, nothing's price wise, nothing's really changed a whole hell of a lot.
Brett King (23:38.783)
Yeah.
Brett King (23:49.316)
No, it hasn't. you know, it's, being worked on hard every day. We had a couple key meetings the last few weeks, as far as working on title sponsorships. And hopefully once we get that secured, then we can start divulging a lot more of the whole plan. I mean, honestly, without that, this is where we sit, right?
That's why everything so far has kind of been announced tentative. This is our intent. This is our plan. Here's kind of where we hope to be with this thing. We're trying to give the anglers a tiered system. That's a qualification process to go from A to B. And C is on the Bolton board as the next step.
But we have to, we've got the foundation, we've got the roots with the Weakman series for sure.
Brian Bashore (24:48.473)
Yeah. You're creating the funnel like all mass circuits basically have in a world really hasn't had it and kind of earning their way up to this. next aim Nexus. This is the next level pro team yet circuit.
Brett King (24:56.916)
Yes.
Brett King (25:03.648)
And we're not trying to hurt feelings by excluding people. That's why we set off the qualification process the way it was. It's fairly lucrative, depending on how fast it fills. Those fill numbers are possibly negotiable. May expand it. We'll see what the reception is. 75 right now. So.
Brian Bashore (25:21.741)
We look in. Is it a hundred boats is the goal? 75.
Brett King (25:31.509)
You know, that's something we'll have to just kind of take as it comes and see where it ends up. Ultimately, we'd love to have 150, but we have to build a structured process to continue this on and hopefully again, again, get to the C project on the bulletin board. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (25:53.243)
So basically, Hey, we got 75 slots. First tier is first dibs, right? These are their top 40 or whatever through the aim. There's like kind of four tiers in a sense. The last one basically saying you've had to at least fish named tournament one time in your life to qualify, but it's like taking your top 40, then you're kind of by regions or something like that. Second tier. know it was kind of, I haven't read it for a little while, but point.
Brett King (25:58.75)
Yep. Yep.
Brett King (26:08.032)
Absolutely.
Brett King (26:17.28)
It's a points thing, it's a placement in team of the year standings. And then, yeah, all the way down to you fish an aim somewhere along the way. Obviously aim is a catch, record, release format. So we want people coming into play at this level. I mean, it's going to be fairly high stakes poker to be comfortable with our system, not be caught off guard with the system. One thing we do is we try to tilt the line.
as hard as we can with the rules. I think that's us as anglers, all we've ever wanted was that fair playing field to not feel like, you know, something's getting overlooked here or whatever. So it is important to have fished the, you know, our process before you get into this level. The NXT series, we've got some stellar teams.
coming out of those weekend series events across the board, all four divisions.
They deserve a place to right? To fish that next level. Honestly, we have spawned a lot of really, really good anglers into what we have for a top tier now. Not naming names as far as tournament levels. I mean, you take a, I remember fishing Will Pappenfuss, you know, in the Minnesota Aim. Look where that young man is now, you know?
Brian Bashore (27:51.745)
So you got your hunters, you know, underneath he will pattern foos. got Bricko Mackie. These Minnesota, these guys.
Brett King (27:53.439)
Yeah. know, Brickle, Mackie, Evan Rosemore, you know, you got some stellar guys coming out of the Dakotas and they deserve another place to go. And that's what we're trying to do. And we want to give them a reason to travel in a realistic geographic, not get crazy, try to, you know, dot the map in each division per se and get them to travel.
I've had, you know, many guys, many, I've had quite a few guys come up and want to go down the Pro-Am format, right? Which we've done for history. mean, even had one back in the day. But again, there's been so many things with the Pro-Am format that are proven to not be.
It's not be right. It's not working. I think here's the best way I can put it to you, Brian. If if I allowed you to walk into a rules meeting. OK. And there's 100 boats in this field. And you walked in and there was 100 guys lined up on a wall. OK. And Brian Bush over gets pulled boat number 10 on your draw.
You get the 10th pick out of that hundred guys on the wall.
Would you do it?
Brett King (29:33.278)
I mean, absolutely you would. You would go down that line and you'd go boom, I'll take you. Right? Instead of this random, have no idea system. So I've told quite a few guys like, look, look at it this way. I get you want to be, you know, the pro, the main guy in the boat, whatever. If that's what you want to do, pick your partner.
Brian Bashore (30:02.959)
Yep, bring your kid.
Brett King (30:03.741)
Pay the expenses, Do all that, make your deal with your partner that I'll pay everything. This is what we're going to win. This is what you get out of it and treat it as such because it is gravitating towards a kind of a one man band sport, you know, with the support of somebody else in your boat or an observer or whatever. The Pro-Am format.
has not curbed what it's supposed to curb. That's been proven. I'm going leave that right there. So.
Long story short, if you can pick your partner and bring them to play high stakes poker, why wouldn't you want to do that?
Brian Bashore (30:53.229)
Yeah, utilize them however you want to utilize them. it's bring your media, pay for your media guy to come along.
Brett King (30:55.706)
Exactly.
You take a Dylan and a Jill. mean, they're, you know, Tyler, Walden, Nate, they're, they're well, well oiled machines and they can, you know, compensate each other and, and work as that way. So it's really just time to engage that and move forward with it.
Brian Bashore (31:17.878)
Yep. Yeah, we, uh, the NTC, we just took basically both on the front. And if you miss the cast, the other guy followed it right up. Like, Oh, I'm off, hit it. You know, he hit it. And first day, think one of my fish was weighed in and all, all the rest are his second day. One of his fish was weighed in all the rest of the ones I caught third day. I caught some, he caught some, think all of his were probably what we weighed in, but it was a no poles, nobody in the back, both on the front. I'm off you throw, you know, just kind of go, go, go. And it, it worked.
Brett King (31:48.583)
Look at how the boats have evolved. You start to see the front end set up for two guys on the front deck, all of it. That's just where it's going right now. So that's what we're trying to engage in and give everybody another choice playing field to come play at. And we hope they do. I mean, honestly, that's what we want.
Brian Bashore (32:08.283)
But, but their systems like to Mississippi river, like La Crosme, where it's second guy is totally into play. You're going to say it's not always on the bow as much as we, I mean, you're seeing that in bass even this year where they've limited, you know, live scope or NTFL don't allow us to allow certain transducers. MLF is one period, but there's early season ones where they're, I know they're shallow. I don't need to, I, know, you can still use it and kind of be like, Oh, they're, they're over there cast. And so, mean, blind casting can obviously.
Brett King (32:14.64)
Yes.
Brett King (32:32.444)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Bashore (32:35.291)
A certain guy can totally come into play and put a lot of fish in a boat. mean, we can't discount it completely, a Great Lake, a Huron, open water, a Lake Oahe or whatever. one guy can do it. It can pans down, be one by one person in the boat period.
Brett King (32:49.852)
Absolutely. So that's kind of the overall concept behind it. Absolutely, like you said, bring your kid. We welcome that. That's awesome. And you see a lot of that. Bring your wife, your girlfriend, whatever.
Brian Bashore (33:07.781)
Don't bring your mistress, but you there's a lot of photos in this circuit. Be smart. Be smart.
Brett King (33:09.476)
Yeah, no, that's probably not a good plan.
Brett King (33:16.796)
You know, to go down the media path, we're working on that. That's kind of tied up into the original pitch we had with the title sponsor is the media offering.
Brian Bashore (33:30.403)
It's a big demand nowadays, but it's not cheap. And I don't sure that the general public understand what goes completely into it. What they see. And I've said this a hundred hundred times within the bass world and stuff is multi-million dollar productions, tens and hundreds of million dollars worth of production level. And the walleye world has tens of dollars, maybe thousands of dollars. So it's kind of do your own stuff.
Brett King (33:33.147)
Thank
Brett King (33:50.529)
Yes. You kind of hate to say it, but if we can pull some of it off, we're going to be as good or better than what we currently deal with now. Sponsor wise, we hope to bring all our current sponsors for the Weekend Walleye series in. This is a total separate entity. We want the Warrior boats. We obviously want the Yamahas.
You know, they're definitely all going to get first crack at some of this, 100%. And we hope they all come in and engage into a whole new, you know, pool of anglers and the process.
I don't know if you ever got to see any of the Pro-Am series aim events back in the day on how we did the stage show. We've got, you know, a concept on how we're going to do that. Anybody that's watched like the graha event, you know, aim runs. We don't run it, but we produce, I guess is a good way to put it that event. You know, we do the show, we handle all that and that's a good show.
Brian Bashore (34:52.441)
Mm-hmm. That's big. Yep, you're right.
Brett King (35:06.542)
You don't have to, you don't have to bring these fish in to do this, right? Like how many fish do you, and I'm not picking on any one circuit, but how many fish do you physically see on a stage?
Brian Bashore (35:22.083)
Very Soleimani.
Brett King (35:24.352)
So why do we need to do that? Right. We've talked about many of spitball ideas like, hey, you know, if we need to create the show. With a fish, why can't we do like bass does when they go to Texas? You can bring one in over 24, you know? Yes. You know, if you want to bring on in and you feel like you need to.
Brian Bashore (35:45.785)
Yeah, Lake Fork rules, think it is. 22 or 25. Whatever, it's a monster frickin' bass for Lake Fork.
Brett King (35:55.022)
go ahead and bring it in so you can hold it up on stage, but you don't have to. So all of that stuff is open. It's a pretty open book. We got a lot of work to do, and simple, but.
Brian Bashore (36:11.951)
But the cat's out of the bag, so now you're accountable to doing all the work. So you gotta get it done.
Brett King (36:15.578)
I remember back in the day, I think it was 12 years ago when we started the weekend series, myself, Chase, was Kemos.
Jim Carroll at the time might even been Mark Martin. We're going back a ways here. When we decided to pull that together and we hired Denny Fox, that was like September when we started that process and we kicked it off in April. So it can be done. We can do it again.
Brian Bashore (36:53.147)
totally. Totally. Once tournament season is over, we all have a lot more time.
Brett King (36:58.522)
No, then Bocho season starts. So no, not really, but in theory, you know, one of our challenges, I'm just going to throw this out there is always manpower. We've got Mike Lilimo on board trying to sell sponsorship package stuff for us. He's been engaging companies and going down that path. We're still in need of tournament directing, whether that's for a state division.
Brian Bashore (36:59.611)
Yeah, not for you, but you're right. In theory.
Brett King (37:28.204)
free up time or everything. know, Denny Fox is a great employee, stellar guy. He's only got so much time. We have his hands full. He's already running.
Brian Bashore (37:39.809)
He's running raggedy, he's all over.
Brett King (37:41.763)
Through the four divisions and the graha and the, you know, we do the warrior tournament up on Lake of the woods. we handle that for them. He's got his hands full and that's a lot in our short season when you only have, you know, basically four or five months to play. That gets to be a lot. So we, we still need some manpower. I need to take some pressure. You know, I shouldn't say I, we as a board need to take some pressure off Denny, and get him some fill in work to help out.
Haven't had a ton of success doing that. It's not a full-time gig, part-time gig. Somebody that wants something to do on a few weekends. I mean, if anybody out there is listening and interested in that, please reach out. We're all ears.
Brian Bashore (38:24.475)
if you're recently retired, love tournament fishing, great way to get back, stay involved. Or if you're a young college kid coming up and looking for something to do in the summer to learn and get involved with the industry. Another kind of a great person to have, think, filming that role.
Brett King (38:28.269)
Absolutely.
Brett King (38:38.617)
I think all of us that have been around doing this for a while realize a tournament director takes a pretty special person to do. I mean, you got to have a thick backbone and be able to, you know, work through all that and pull that off, be fair, but you know, you have to walk the line and, and tout that line. So, I'm still looking for some of that. If anybody knows anybody who wants to...
throw their name forward, put their name on the hat, please reach out. Be glad to talk to them.
Brian Bashore (39:12.377)
Yeah. Reach out to Brett guys and get in on it. So next we got, obviously you got to get all, there's a whole lot of work to do to get sponsorships. Numbers will determine payouts, schedule. looking at three qualifiers and a championship, right? That's the tentative plan. this is fluid and know, people, tentative folks, but you're taking top 40 to a free entry championship. Okay.
Brett King (39:28.876)
That's right. tentative. Everything's tentative right now. We have.
Brett King (39:39.852)
Yes. So right now it's, it's on the board for 75 boats total, 40 go under the championship. Then there's a cut line where, you know, eventually you have to, would have to go back and re-qualify up, you know, kind of like what basses run. that's the whole idea behind it. You know, you need to maintain your position, but yet it opens up room for guys coming up and through the weekend series to.
fight their way in and get in there. we have a tentative payout schedule out there. You know, that's going to reflect on what we can obtain for sponsorship.
All that as far as where the actual numbers will fall. But right now we're looking at roughly 30K to win, which is a pretty good number when it's a cash check, right? To win a qualifier.
Brian Bashore (40:28.699)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (40:33.211)
Yeah. Oh yeah. Especially with only 75 boats. mean, you're looking at least a hundred to get to that normally. So, but $1,400 entry, but once again, you're on a team. that's not.
Brett King (40:38.411)
Yeah.
Brett King (40:43.849)
Right. And there again, it's your choice. You want to fund the whole thing and just bring somebody with you to assist or do you want to split it up? Which makes it far more affordable for a lot of guys to, you know, okay, here's your budget. I mean, you know what a budget is for an NWT event. mean, it's hope my wife doesn't see that. Yeah. You know, and if you're splitting it versus paying it all yourself,
Brian Bashore (41:01.529)
Yep. It's more than 1400.
Brett King (41:12.609)
It makes a big difference. Honestly, we hope some of these power guys engage that and go, okay, I'm gonna take my boat, you take your boat. You get a partner to come with you, I'm gonna do the same. And some of that's gonna happen. Some of them will stay together, obviously. But it gives you a lot of freedom, a lot of options on how you wanna go about the business.
Brian Bashore (41:41.049)
It will be, I guess, wouldn't be angered of the year stuff. It'd be team of the year. Is that a category or something that would fall into all that and separate me.
Brett King (41:50.091)
There is, that's all projected. And again, that's going to come down to sponsorships we raise. Right now, AIM Weekend Walleye Series, team of the year, wins a kicker. So that will all be recognized for sure.
And then right now, like the championship, no entry fee, slated to win a boat, to win that. Ideas on the board to hopefully maybe win have first and second place B boats. And, you know, again, all of that is tentative and we're working through it.
Brian Bashore (42:35.737)
Well, you will, you will get there and you have your hands full. It is a, there's a, there's so much that goes into all this stuff on the, on the backend and the management and the money is the payouts. You pick up five, 10, 20 sponsors, the communication, the back and forth with each one of those 20 times so much that people just don't realize what the board has to do. And then to get that into Denny's hands, you know, and yeah, he definitely could use some more help. You know, and, and, and.
Brett King (42:54.564)
So.
Brett King (42:58.999)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (43:03.035)
You have the weekend series going on the whole time and the river series and the graha. And I think there's even a couple other events you kind of help out with the lawyer, you know, like the woods event. It's a, he's blowing it up. It is next level and it's a new avenue for people to go. And I got a ton of ideas on the media side. If you, if you want to listen to him sometime and how I can help you there. I know we've talked about before of helping the.
Brett King (43:24.449)
Sure.
Brian Bashore (43:28.665)
North Dakota and creating just a Dakota's division. So whatever you need on this end to make some of that happen. Cause we don't have a lot over here. We got the fishing crew doing their things, but I think as this evolves and people got to, got to, got to earn their way in, you know, they're going to look for that regional place to go. I mean, I'm cool with going fishing rivers division. Cause that's not too far away, but you know, I mean, people really only want to drive an hour or two, not four or five, if they can, obviously.
Brett King (43:43.841)
Right.
Brett King (43:53.885)
And we want to create those opportunities for guys, know, get them closer, give them a reason to get in. Again, a lot of that, honestly, Brian comes back to manpower.
Brian Bashore (44:04.879)
Yeah, I'm just going to say it's, it's manpower. You need it and that's tough. It's a tough role to fill. It's a tough gig. It's a, it's a no thrills, no frills. And you're kind of like the safety officer in the military. Nobody, nobody likes the tournament director. You got to be the hard hats. know, it's not a very glorified position, but it should be.
Brett King (44:18.409)
No, no.
Brett King (44:25.376)
Definitely not the most popular all the time, that's for sure.
Brian Bashore (44:28.321)
No, no. mean, the winner's like, yeah, but you know, that's, that's about it. There's, there's tough choices and stuff things you got to do, but it's very simple rules rules and everybody should know them. And if you just can't follow them, then sorry, you can't follow them, but it's, get it. Cause we have the, the app, you know, the fishnock you thing we use on a league. And when you're talking about, is that a 15 and a quarter of 15 and a half, right? And then someone's got to make that call. And it doesn't seem like no matter how many times you tell people.
Brett King (44:35.328)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (44:57.433)
how to do something, somebody still doesn't get it right.
Brett King (44:57.974)
Most of our issues, you can just about peg it back to just people not following and listening and, you know, with COVID came virtual meetings, which I think leads to some of that.
Brian Bashore (45:13.455)
Nope. Listening.
Brett King (45:26.474)
But I do encourage guys that are fishing it to pay attention in the meeting, see how it goes. There's a lot of us that have measured, I don't know, thousand plus fish through this process and it never had an issue. But I always try to tell guys, you know, when you're doing this, don't don't trip over dollars to get the pennies because that's what you're doing when you're trying to squeeze that extra, you know, eight inch out. You know, we changed our process this year.
went to a one handed measuring system, which a lot of people threw their arms up on that. I can tell you for certain that has caused zero issues for us this year. And quite honestly, it's the easiest I've ever measured these fish was just one hand on them. It's like when you grab that tail, that's when they get spunky and don't like it.
Brian Bashore (46:23.995)
Yeah, you just got a little belly rub on them there and they'll just kind of kind of lay down for a second.
Brett King (46:27.317)
It really has proven to be and we, you know, there's people thought that was like a knee jerk reaction. That was stuff we played with for almost a year before we brought that forward. You know, we played with pinchers, all kinds of stuff. I mean, that's what we try to do is just make it the fairest playing field we can. And so that wasn't something we just pulled out of thin air and said, Hey, we're going to do this.
We tried and played with it and that's where it landed.
Brian Bashore (47:00.891)
The more I do the catch, foot or release thing, I'm just, I'm loving it. It takes out the whole slot variable and the luck, right? If your fish coming in the right order type thing, especially on Mississippi river. And you got different pools with different slots and stuff. And you, you can't go to one of the other because you got a 22 incher and you can't go to this pool because you can't have any 20 inches, you know, or whatever it is.
Brett King (47:22.95)
Yes, some of those rules get a little bit ridiculous.
The aim format, always seems like truly the best guy that day wins because we don't have to play the slot. It allows us to go places that we maybe couldn't go before because we don't put the fish in the box like pool two, for example, on the Mississippi catch and release only. That is a phenomenal fisher, Re four walleyes, a lot of big fish. And you know, we're able to tap that at times and fish.
where you couldn't do that on a weight tournament. So there's a lot of pluses.
Brian Bashore (48:03.003)
No, you know, and we have tons. have the North Dakota and South Dakota governor cups. think are both coming up this weekend and they're all kill tournaments after 1st of June. I think South Dakota is this coming weekend too, I believe. it, and it sucks because these are killed tournaments, you know, after 1st of June North Dakota. know last year gave them that option to release it when the NWT was there. So maybe they'll do that again, but I don't know South Dakota ain't, but it does have to catch full to release in the tournament.
Brett King (48:12.072)
Are they both on the same weekend? know what North Dakota is.
Brian Bashore (48:32.931)
application format now to check that box, but you're talking two overs and you know, in Hawaii, if you don't have the two overs, your other three fish don't even, don't even matter. You're fishing for two giant fish and with 200 boats, you're going to have 20 % of the field is going to get probably a couple of those. And they're all, and they're all, they're all being killed. You know, whatever day that, you know, two days of it is, whatever that comes to, that's a lot of big fish getting, you know, knocked out. Fortunately, that's a big system. There's a lot of big fish and they just keep.
Brett King (48:40.253)
all things.
Brian Bashore (49:00.965)
showing up big fish after, you know, year after year or so. But just imagine how good it could be if they didn't get killed every summer.
Brett King (49:07.578)
You know, some people like fishing the slot formats and there's pros and cons to it. slot tournaments at times can keep the technology in check, because it's not coming down to, you know, getting the five biggest. Yeah. With the catch record release format, there's nothing saying you can't do that. Right. You can't, okay. you get that, you know,
322 over. It just opens up so many more avenues to play the game and set the rules than if you're actually bringing the fish in. So I don't like killing them. you know, I just don't, I want them to be there for somebody else to catch. We caught a tagged fish on day two out on Huron.
Brian Bashore (49:49.371)
Bye you.
Brett King (50:02.504)
My co anglers recorded all the information. told them I said, dude, you gotta, you gotta send that information to me because I'm always really curious, you know, where did that fish come from to end up out in the middle of here on way over here? Yeah. So, that's the stuff that intrigues me. And you know, whether or not that fish again, swam away after that, you know, after we relocated it, I don't know. I hope it did.
Brian Bashore (50:14.139)
for
Brett King (50:32.487)
But that's just part of the game.
Brian Bashore (50:36.411)
Yeah. Well, I mean, with the catch for the release thing, you get a fish different too. mean, I mean, I'm made of the mindset of I can go over here and I can crank up. Let's get five on the card quick. Right. And it may, may, may, may not be good, you know, put all the strategy, but it's like, I got a spot. I may just go get five on the card quick. Cause we all know we fish better once we got our limit. And then it's like, all right, let's just go target all these and upgrade all day long. You know,
Brett King (50:48.442)
Yes, 100%.
Brett King (51:01.4)
It, I've been lucky enough to win a few events doing that. Yeah. You know, just that way. And, you know, one of them in particular, I felt like I outsmarted pretty much the whole field that didn't do that. they would go out into the abyss, try to catch their big fish, come in with 45 minutes left and catch what they could. No, where I stayed in until I got comfortable with the five I had. And then I went and chased some bigger fish out in the abyss.
And then, you know, eventually the last two days I never left that area. just stayed in there and just kept pounding for, you know, a 25 inch average. That's right. And, you know, you can relate, I can relate. You take systems like on the Missouri river system, the time before this year in Pierre, when we fished sharp, I remember the 75 mileage runs to get to
Brian Bashore (51:40.623)
sometimes those little ones get bigger in there.
Brett King (51:59.986)
two three ounce heavier fish. Same length but they were fat. You know which that's part of the strategy too but if you don't have to do that you know that's kind of cool.
Brian Bashore (52:13.339)
Well, it's safer. You're not, it's cheaper. And the, and if it's a sawger or saw guy or walleye, doesn't really matter. Right. So, that, I mean, there's definitely some nice advantages there, but it's, it's still the same game. It's just a different strategy and it just, you got to wrap your mind around it and how it works. I don't, I'm doing it I love it. And I think it's, it's, it's just, everybody's going to it. Some of these.
Brett King (52:19.858)
Same game, different rules.
No, it doesn't.
Brian Bashore (52:41.243)
Your guy's system, some other people have created their own system, but theoretically it are all the catch photo release. And I would say it's grown two or 300 % just in the last two or three years.
Brett King (52:49.906)
I, you know, we kind of started the whole process way back when it was not acceptable per se back then. And we've definitely punched that through and, kind of made it what I would say is the, the new normal, um, and, uh, made it acceptable. And, know, we kind of sit back and chuckle once in a while about that, you know, like, look what we've done.
Brian Bashore (53:13.659)
All right.
Brett King (53:15.804)
When we started this, people are like, you're off your rocker. You can't do that. That's not going to work. Well, there's a lot of things you can relate, you know, the catch record release thing to in today's tournament era that probably wouldn't be here, wouldn't have been acceptable had we kind of not pushed through that barrier. So.
Brian Bashore (53:39.419)
Well, it's with growing pains like anything. mean, people found ways to cheat or manipulate the system and then you have to make modifications and that's never going to stop. You know, it's just good and with more technology and yeah, there's just ways to get around things. But the reality is if you're going to be those kinds of people where you're eventually going to get caught and found out and everybody's going to know, and you're not going to be doing this.
Brett King (53:43.762)
Mm-hmm.
Brett King (54:00.837)
You know, you hear, you hear so many stories and I'll touch on that briefly, about things happening, things that have happened. You know, the Montana governor's cup last year, Okada and I fished that and all the way home, we were getting phone calls. you got to do this. You need to protest and all of it. At the end of the day, on a catch record release.
photo tournament, whatever you want to call it. If you have to go to means to manipulate a fish, right? To get more length. And we're not going to get into that Pandora's box, but I've heard them all. I swear to God, I've heard them all. But if you have to go down that path in a catch record measure tournament, right? You tell me, Brian, what's the difference between that and putting weights and fish?
Brian Bashore (54:59.053)
It's cheating no matter what, either way you look at it.
Brett King (55:00.867)
And those guys are infamously famous now. We hear about it on the road everywhere we go. People that don't even fish saw that and it's no different. I mean, it's just a different form of how you're doing it. So, so that's what we're always trying to work on in combat.
Brian Bashore (55:04.483)
Yep, infamously. Every time. I get it from my guide clients all the time.
Brian Bashore (55:23.931)
cheaters going to cheat. That's just the way that is. You know, and I met those kinds of people hang out with those kinds of people. And that's just, you know, it's not the only thing on that rap sheet for the, those guys and others. And there's money involved. mean, it's term efficient gambling in a sense. And that just is what it is, but it's some of the greatest people you're ever going to meet on tour and circuit and some of the best guys and just great people. And you're to make a lot of friends and going to learn a lot and the camaraderie. mean, it's all, it's all second to none. Angling community is tight. It's.
Brett King (55:26.427)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (55:53.519)
Very bickery as well as once that it's small, definitely small, but once it's that go, you know, it's, it's also, all right. Our friendships over here now, now we're it's, it's tunnel vision and we're competing and then everybody's pretty intense and, pretty hardcore and Bud's heads and do things. But when it's all said and done, there's no reason we can't always just be like, you know, I screwed up. screw up, made it my bad. cut you off or blah, blah. And, know, we all do stupid stuff just cause we're got tunnel vision and realize it later.
Brett King (55:56.24)
Small, definitely small.
Brian Bashore (56:21.805)
whatever the case is, but overall it's just a good group of guys competing and because they're passionate about it and doing good things. And that's what AIM basically was created by. Right? I mean, that's, it was a bunch of anglers like yourself and chase and guys that got together, everybody pulled in some money. You all are the anglers own it.
Brett King (56:39.152)
77 in the beginning. We've bought some of those back. We've had, unfortunately, too many members die. Too many owners die. So we purchased some of those back. But that's what it is. It's, it's Angler owned, Angler run. That's the whole mission goal. We try to do, you know, even carrying forward into the NXT, we're going to do our best to.
work around schedules to the best of our ability and give guys the opportunity that's still, you know, like myself, probably going to fish the NWT and the NXT. You know, we can only control that so much though, but we will do our part and try to keep it. So you have the ability to do both or several options, not just those two. And,
That's kind of the whole mission, whole goal. One of the things we threw out there was the, you know, the NXT events will, will be ahead of a weekend series event, which for business travel sense, that's what we're going to try to do. but that doesn't necessarily mean if the aim weekend while I series is on Mille Lacs on Sunday.
per se in Minnesota that an NXT series won't be say, win them a gosh, an hour and a half up the road, you know, so it's not impacting pre-fishing and all of the things that go when you combine events. Not saying it won't ever happen, that they'll be on the same body of water, but that's one of the things we discuss a lot and how we're going to do this. So, and we're all open to ideas. mean,
Brian Bashore (58:37.211)
Well, with limited
Brett King (58:37.411)
The board now is myself, Kent Anderson, Jason Shakir, Jake Lapine, Joe Acotta. Anybody listening knows one or all of us most likely. Any input you got, please feel free. Send it our way. We're always open to ideas. Can we do them all? Absolutely not. That's not feasible, not realistic.
Brian Bashore (58:59.675)
So when your manpower is limited, logistics become very important.
Brett King (59:05.108)
AIM has, we'll just do a running target of a thousand members, right? And when we started down this process, it's like, well, we need to listen to our anglers. Well, you can't listen to a thousand. You'll get nowhere. You will absolutely get nowhere. So we picked a pool out of each division, right? And then some outsiders out of those, you know, maybe not even in the divisions on how to go about these things and kind of.
let that help set our parameters as well. So we try to always do that. Listen to people. Can we do it all? No, we can't. Let's be real. But if somebody comes with a legit, really good idea and plan, we're all ears. So.
Brian Bashore (59:53.381)
That's, that's how it grows. That's how it gets better. Why it's next level folks. That's it. That's aim. It's next level. I head over. We've been, it's been under quite a while. I told brothers to be short. It's not short. Cause we just have so much good information to share out there. We got to get this out. People know if you want to look at it, getting in the next level aim next for next year, you still got it. You got some opportunities to jump in some aim weekend series yet this year. I believe there's still a couple, a couple opens. There's still a couple left jump in them. So river Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Brett King (59:55.758)
That's right.
Brett King (01:00:17.526)
Yeah, there's some left. We've got a Otter Tail event this weekend in Minnesota. Yeah, there's quite a few left. check it out. know, AimPro Li Series, you know, on Facebook, we've got a, obviously a web page. Shoot me, any of the board members, a Facebook message. We'll get back to you and try to help you when we can. Well, you know, we'd love to see.
everybody out there that's not real, as many as we can. You know, we're hoping we can pull this thing off, get the companies behind it, get the funding behind it, and looking forward to actually setting a hard schedule for next year that will travel throughout the Midwest.
Brian Bashore (01:01:08.205)
have no doubt you'll get it done and I have no doubt you'll exceed to 75 boats. I think you can fill that up.
Brett King (01:01:15.371)
Well, the old saying, you put your money where your mouth is. I'm going to say within about 15 minutes of registration being open, it's quote unquote going to be full at 75 votes. But we'll leave it.
Brian Bashore (01:01:18.809)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:01:28.261)
Yeah, I would, I would think that I think the timing's good, but like you said, we'll see, you know, things we are always optimistically surprised on how this tournament, there's a lot of tournaments out there. I mean, people get to pick and choose, you know, where you want to go, where you're to put your money in as far as costs and economy things. Like right now, I think people are just choosing a fish closer to home. And, but like you're trying to keep that a little tighter like it is.
Brett King (01:01:39.841)
That's right.
Brett King (01:01:51.031)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (01:01:56.069)
We'll see. We'll see. Things can change real fast in a few months in this country, as we know. So, and hopefully for the better.
Brett King (01:02:01.867)
Well you go enjoy Icast.
Brian Bashore (01:02:04.507)
I will, I will, uh, hopefully make it there. My flights keep getting canceled. I'm supposed to be there tomorrow afternoon and now it's turning into tomorrow night, but we'll see. I hate flying. That's why you need to drive. got control, but Florida's Florida's a little bit of a drive from South Dakota. So it's just a quick two day trip. Get back. a, some guy trips rolling in on, Friday to get back to. So, all right folks, check it out. AIM next level. got, there's a big fresh release over on their website. Click on the news tab, go down and read all about it.
Brett King (01:02:17.933)
Yeah, it is.
Brian Bashore (01:02:33.423)
Covers a lot of stuff that Brent talked about the qualifying, the tiers, everything very fluid. I'm sure as more things come, you guys are going to continue to put more information out. But the bottom line is jumping at aim series tournament, if you can yet this year to start your qualification process to get in, to get your name and get in that funnel. So when there's an opening, you know.
Brett King (01:02:40.749)
Yeah.
Brett King (01:02:54.157)
Go fish a truly fun tournament series to fish. It really is.
Brian Bashore (01:02:58.747)
And that's the a hundred percent. need to a fish one of your, the style and your guys's format before going into the level so that you're not up there with a learning curve and doing it all jacked up. You've, you've done it, whether it's once or, or 50 times, you got the idea. And you guys do it really better than anybody with the cameras and everybody's got the same cam, the same ruler, the same stuff. whether guys were using all of the other resources out there, yours is.
Brett King (01:03:08.439)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (01:03:25.499)
This is the best way to do it. It's completely level across every boat.
Brett King (01:03:29.706)
There's reasons we do what we do. So, yes.
Brian Bashore (01:03:32.111)
Nope. And they're, they're, and they're a good reason. So congrats on your 18th place. it here on, anytime you can catch, no, you can catch a check on here on it. It's, good. You can leave, leave it a top 20 out here on that's a, and I think 20 or 21st was the last check probably anyway with the, with the small numbers, but not an easy place to fish by all means challenging. And I think wall anglers are wall anglers because we like the challenge.
Brett King (01:03:40.087)
That sounds terrible, but thank you. I'll take it.
Brett King (01:04:01.663)
Yep. We do.
Brian Bashore (01:04:02.669)
And boy, you know, we didn't claim to be smart or anything like that ever, but we definitely liked the challenge. Yeah. We like to catch the hell out of them when the bites great, but those, like those tough bite tournaments kind of sometimes too, or when it's you just, you got to really figure it out. And you kind of know, even when you're pre-fishing, when you think, when it clicks for you or you're like, I think it might be doing something good. You know, you never know. It's after day one, you'd be like, wow, I really got to figure it out. You're like, Nope. What I thought was really good. Wasn't very good, but.
Brett King (01:04:07.133)
Never. Never.
Brett King (01:04:31.445)
Nope.
Brian Bashore (01:04:32.239)
But you still figured something out and that's the name of the game is figuring out the hunt that leads up to the catch, which turns into fishing. So, Alrighty. Well, thanks for your time, Brett. Like I said, reach, reach out to them, get the, get the low down. got questions, jumping on aim, checking out on the website. And, I think that's about it folks. That's a wrap. Anglers, co-anglers comment below. Let us know why you're not getting into these tournaments this year. What is it you want to see change? What is it? What's the holdup? Why are you guys?
Brett King (01:04:42.507)
Thanks for having me.
Brian Bashore (01:05:00.367)
Why are terma numbers kind of on a decline in some formats? Some it's not, you know, comment in here. Let us know. Check this out over here on YouTube or the Walleye Guys Facebook page. And you can find us on all the podcast platforms on Spotify, Amazon, Google, Apple. It's a long list. If you just want to listen to it, or you can watch it on YouTube and see Brett's pretty face for the hour. So, all right. Thanks again, Brett. We will see you soon. So stay safe and we'll see you on the water.