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Winneconne Middle School Students Learn From Pros

Category: article

 Apr 20th, 2011 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Apr 20th, 2011 at 12:22 PM

What does it take to become an AIM pro? What’s the biggest walleye you’ve caught? Have you fished for saltwater species?

Those are some of the questions that peppered three AIM Pro Walleye Series™ pros on a blizzard-like day before 44 boats loaded with pros and coanglers dropped the throttle and started three days of hard, cold fishing on Wisconsin’s Winneconne System. 

	Mike Gofron, Scott Duncan, and Mark Brumbaugh share their time with local 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from Winneconne, WI.

The pros, Mike Gofron and Scott Duncan of Illinois, and Mark Brumbaugh of Ohio, spent nearly an hour with the 6th through 8th-grade boys and girls discussing what it takes to be a pro: the ability to adapt to changing conditions on the water, the generalship to go where the fish were, and the knowledge of marketing to get the word out about your knowledge.

Gofron and Duncan also talked about their soon-to-be active Website, www.walleyeworkshop.com to teach everyday anglers how to properly rig a boat, using a jon boat as their low-tech example.

All three encouraged the young anglers in the crowd, asking their experiences on the water with parents, and telling the students to stay in school, and learn all they can about all aspects of being a professional angler, and not just how to cast a rod or rig a line.

They also reminded the students that on Friday, there would be a special youth angling clinic at Winneconne’s Critters Sports prior to the final virtual weigh-in that would crown the first event champion in the series of four AIM tournaments. The next stop for AIM’s anglers: Brimley MI June 2-4 for the Bay Mills Invitational ( a special, artificial bait-only tournament for invited pros), followed by Dubuque on the Mississippi River June 22-24.