AIM Hastings the great debate begins

So it has been long debated which pool on the Mississippi has the best fish and or fisherman I suppose. So for the first time ever due to AIMs CRR format we will finally get to fish POOLs 2-3-4 and the St. Croix head to head. The conditions and time of year are setting this up to be a big time shootut from top to bottom of the Miss. and I hear good things about the Croix as well. So whats your predictions for average length and what pool- Croix is it going to come from? I think this might be a good side pot to start? Teams designating a pool/team that they would sign up with and winning pool splits the pot? Sign up until Midnight tonight guys so lets see which pool is truely the best. My prediction never bet against pool 4!

I see pool 2 producing the win. No trophy fish ever pulled not as much pressure. But you never know when pool 4 is gonna give up a 35lb bag too.

If this was a weigh tournament I would say P-4 hands down. Since the weight is being calculated off of length it’s anybody’s guess. P-4 usually produces heavy bags but the fish fall short on length. I’ll say pool 2 if the locks can be timed right.

Good luck to all who are fishing!

I’m going to go with Pool 2 as well.

Those released pigs get bigger every year even though they die quickly.

I’ll go so far as betting .25 on it!

My Dam Cousin tells me there’s plenty of people pre fishing.

In a normal year where we have high water for the spawn I would say you can’t rule out Pool 3 but this year’s low water during spawn has to have hurt Pool 3 some. Those wing dams around the back water areas of 3 still are holding good fish though. It should be a very interesting tournament.

Fast boat + Pool 2 = THE WINNER

Being a die hard pool 2 guy I would go with pool 2. That is if there is not a barge hogging up the lock like there was this morning at 7am.

I can’t pick a winner because honestly they could do this derby 3 weeks in a row and it could be won out of a different pool each time. It is a pretty big advantage to be able to use 4 lines a boat on 4 and 95% of 3.

I’m fishing in it and will live or die on Pool 2. But I also think there are fewer fish over 25″ in P2 than there have been in the past. At least, the number of 26″+ in my boat is down over the past 1.5 years. I’m really looking forward to the tournament either way!

With so many options and so much water to pre fish, the team/s with the best network of info will be tough to beat. I’d guess you will need a 25 inch average to be in the top 10.

I like seeing AIM (or any pro-level circuit ) on pool 2. Hope there is one in the future limited to pool 2 only.

-J.

john23 wrote:

I’m fishing in it and will live or die on Pool 2. But I also think there are fewer fish over 25″ in P2 than there have been in the past. At least, the number of 26″+ in my boat is down over the past 1.5 years. I’m really looking forward to the tournament either way!

Too much electronics and fishing pressure.

I couldn’t help myself.

I bet it is won in pool 4. Too many big fish!

Too much electronics and fishing pressure.

I couldn’t help myself.
[/quote]…Now BK … …rrr

Just saying with the catch and release fishing on P2 those fish are very seldom taken out. Few die from hook mortality and there’s much less fishing pressure up there. Electronics, new baits, spot lock…doesn’t matter when they are released.

There should be more and larger fish.

Oh, Brian. Fish can go through population cycles, or at least have good spawning years and bad ones. It’s not as simple as “leave them in there and you’ll get lots of big fish”. I believe there are good numbers of fish in P2 right now but not as many big ones as there were a few years ago. A few years from now I expect there will be more big ones than there are now because a fair number of the 20-23″ fish that seem to be so prevalent will get bigger. And I obviously don’t think there aren’t any big fish at all or I wouldn’t enter the tourney! Speaking of which, I’d better get some sleep.

I have never fished #3 so I cant say how the numbers or size of the fish compare to pools #2 or #4.Either way I would say pool #2,without a doubt if I were fishing a tournament thats where Id spend my time

I watched the take off this morning, 19 boats from the field taxied through the lock up to pool 2. I don’t know how many boats are actually in the event.

drifter295 wrote:

I watched the take off this morning, 19 boats from the field taxied through the lock up to pool 2. I don’t know how many boats are actually in the event.

50 boat field light turnout with 2 other tournaments going on this weekend on big stone and Mille lacs.

Pretty sure 50 boats was a full field.

Good showing for the pool 2 guys. Congrats!

-J.

50 was half of a full field.

Pool 2 showed it’s potential today with the top 3 weights and over half the checks cashed coming from it’s waters.

Congrats to those that made the run north and put it together.

Fantastic showing from pool 2 yesterday. Way to go guys.

Pool 2, 3 or 4 all had their chance to win this event. The wind in weather really made a big difference yesterday. Two days earlier and it could have been a whole different story. Hopefully AIM will look at these waters again in the future and we get a second chance to see if P2 can hold up with the lower waters.

Pete and Kevin did very good.. Big congrats to those two.

It was also very cool to see Ross win with his 8 year old son. That is pretty awesome!

This was a very good event and Jim did a great job directing this. Thank you

Hopefully AIM will look at these waters again in the future and we get a second chance to see if P2 can hold up with the lower waters.

Pete and Kevin did very good.. Big congrats to those two.

Totally agree!

P2 is Perfect for AIM and AIM is Perfect for P2.

It’s a large enough pool to just be a P2 only event.

Congrats to all the folk that fished the tourny in those unpredictable winds!

Thanks, Brett and Jim and everyone else at AIM for putting on a really fun event. It was a new experience for me and everything seemed really well organized. And congrats to Pete and Kevin for the best weight among the P2 regulars — they’re two good guys and good fishermen.

There definitely were not many 28″+ fish caught during the event (I only heard of one), but the winners had a super nice bag of fish from any pool! They fished smart and earned it for sure. Plus, it was really cool to see a father/young son team win. The most surprising thing to me was the small weights from 3 and 4, but most seemed to attribute that to the wind messing up the key spots. The number of weights around the 20# mark from P2 shows just how many low 20″ fish are in the pool right now (22″ is 4.22# on the AIM conversion). There are great days to come because of the C&R regulation.

AIM is perfect for any waters. It is good on the fish and fishermen. No culling or worry of fish going belly up in the well. One less thing for a guy to worry about. It is a win-win situation

I agree with everything stated above. Fun tournament, great to see a Father son combo win. P2 is a fun place to fish, I fish the Pool often and I still took away a lot from other fisherman during the tourney. Aim is a fun format to fish.

Leading up to this event, I truly thought Buffalo slough had a chance to put out more than one 30lb bag. The bigs just didn’t bite as good in there Sunday as they did the days leading up to the event. Our first fish was a 26.5, and we thought it was going to be game on. That was not the case, the bites were few and far between.

The guys that made the run up to pool 2 to fish in the wind earned it. Good job guys, and it was pretty cool to see that young man up there with his dad.

Super impressed with a.i.m. Love how the big fish were respected. I’ll fish it again and imho this is how all tournaments should be rollin.