ESPN Freshwater

Here are a few questions for you...

Q1: What is AIM?
Q2: What happened over the Labor Day weekend with AIM?
Q3: Who is Todd Riley?

There is a really huge chance that you were unable to answer all three questions. And that is just sad.

A1: AIM is an angler-owned walleye tournament trail. A bunch of professional walleye anglers banded together, tired of being treated as a disposable commodity by the tournament companies. They decided to run things the way anglers would run things. It's a cool idea and it has some great, business-minded anglers at the helm.

A2: They held their championship tournament in their inaugural season.

A3: The guy who won it all. He is one of walleye fishing's best.

Here's the atrocity. It is estimated that a couple hundred people attended the event, including friends and family. The event was broadcast live on the Internet to a relative handful of fans. In the not-so-distant past pro walleye championships were filling sporting stadiums with thousands of onlookers.

Wow.

Where has the audience gone? Where is the excitement? Where is the promotion? Sheesh.

I realize that we are in a recession. I've been paying attention, despite what you might think. But, I'm pretty sure that the NBA, the NFL and the MLB are not cutting back. Sure, they might be selling fewer tickets now, but true fans will still be watching the games on the tube or tuning in on the radio. They aren't going to stop watching and listening just because money is tight.

So, why is it that the professional fishing scene is so affected by the economy? It doesn't cost to watch it on TV or to dial into it on the World Wide Web. For that matter, when it is in your own hometown, why aren't you there?

Why aren't we tuning in? Perhaps what is turned out for TV is so colossally boring our therapists all recommend against watching it for fear all their hard work will be sucked out in one 30-minute show. That one show could counteract a happy pill.

Whatever the reason, we need to start watching. Start caring. Start getting involved. All the circuits seem to be atrophying in front of our eyes. If we want to keep it around, we better start planting our fannies in front of the TV and Internet. Forget the honey-do list. There's an industry to save, which is much bigger than your own backyard.

Dave and Kristin Landahl host The Fishing Fanatics, www.TheFishingFanatics.com, radio show on ESPN radio affiliate AM 1360 WLBK in northern Illinois Thursday evenings from 6-7 PM Central time. You can also tune in to hear The Fishing Fanatics at www.1360wlbk.com and check them out at www.walleyecentral.com