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Skarlis Wins Shootout at Inaugural AIM Walleye Tournament

X-Change Jig, Old Guide's Secret Spinners account for big sacks

Brainerd, Minn. May 25, 2009 --Tommy Skarlis is no stranger to the winner’s platform when it comes to professional walleye fishing, but winning the inaugural event of the Angler’s Insight Marketing (AIM) Tournament Series at Saginaw Bay is one memory he’ll treasure for years. “This was pretty special,” said Skarlis, the defending FLW Walleye Champion. “I had a great bag on day one, then Gary (Parsons) came back with a super bag on day two. I’ve never been in a shootout like that with him and the competition made it pretty sweet.”

Skarlis stormed into the lead on day one with an impressive bag of seven fish weighing 39.94 pounds. On day two he brought in 29.4 pounds – enough to stay in second after a phenomenal performance by Gary Parsons. Skarlis retook the lead on the final day with a sack weighing 31.58 pounds for a three-day total of more than 100 pounds to win the first ever AIM Tournament.

Skarlis caught five of his 21 fish pulling Old Guide’s Secret spinners behind planer boards out on the bay. The rest came from vertical jigging on breaklines and hard spots in the mouth of the river. “In seven feet of water or less, I used a ¼ ounce X-Change Jig,” he said. “When the water dropped to eight feet or deeper, I snapped on a 3/8 ounce head and kept fishing.” Skarlis used this quick-change technique during practice to eliminate unproductive water and concentrate on big fish in 8- to 12-feet of water.

Drifting with the current, Skarlis employed a simple “lift-drop, lift-drop” technique with his jigs and found the walleye hammering it on the drop about four inches off the bottom. He caught 50 to 60 walleyes each day of practice with this technique, along with a host of drum, carp, catfish and other species, but he was definitely tuned in to the walleyes during the tournament.

At one point he ran out of X-Change Jigs and switched over to Fuzz-E-Grub jigheads. “I lost my last few X-Change heads in the 3/8-ounce gold color and had to make the switch,” he said. “I tried to get replacements from a local tackle dealer that carries the X-Change heads and he was completely sold out – these things are so hot the stores can’t keep them on the shelves around here.”

AIM anglers will have several weeks to rest after the inaugural event before heading to Green Bay July 2-4 for the second tournament of the season. Excitement is high as this new AIM Catch-Record-Release™ tournament format is living up to its promise of making walleye tournaments more about fishing and less about catching fish in the right order.