The AIM Championship was a great tourney this year. I finished 12th and ended up fishing trees. The winners fished bridge pilings and other top finishes came from trees. Many anglers ran 90 miles one way to fish flooded trees on Peoria flats in sustained wind of 18 mph. This image is what he trees looked like as the water rose and some trees are in the water.
For the high tech guys, I used Fugawi on the boat computer and this map for trolling the trees. This allowed me to stay on the trees and find new trees quickly.
The next image is the fish in the trees.
I used slip bobbers, trolled crankbaits over the trees and trolled bass spinner baits through the tress. All methods worked well. I also pre-fished shoreline and suspended fish at 60 feet and caught fish everywhere of all sizes.
Many crank baits caught fish and I ended up using Husky Jerks and the Salmo Perch 8 SDR with the Husky Jerks deep divers being the most productive. My 3rd best lure in practice was the Bomber 24A. All colors worked this year; it is amazing how fish change their color preference by one year. Last year they liked pink and white!
