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Share with you such topics as favorite fishing spots, favorite techniques, rigging tips, product information, and some great pictures taken from the tournament trail also up-to-date patterns for catching fish at the tournament locations visited. Got a question about a boat, lure or fishing spot E-Mail us and we will respond the team fishes from the best, with the best, and at the hottest spots in the quest for Monster Walleyes. Sam
Anderson Here is a tip to put in your bag of tricks. When casting crankbaits in a river or lake area that has rip-rap or even sharp points with weeds and other debris, cast your bait up into the cover or rocks and crank down until you get a taught line. Then pop the crankbait off the structure into the water. Bass fisherman have been doing this for years and it does produce walleyes in stained water or low light conditions such as mornings and evenings. You might lose some lures until you get the hang of this type of fishing but it is very effective for taking some trophy fish. Don't forget to check your line periodically to see if it has wear from the structure. HEAVY FOR HEAVY'S In cool fall waters where crank baits can have a devastating impact in producing large eyes may be a bit of a different technique that will promote hard strikes and big fish. Recently while pre fishing a tournament I decided to run a 5 ounce bottom bouncer, spinner tipped with minnows at crank bait speeds. I zig zagged water where I graphed fish from 15 foot to 22 foot. The results where more than awesome. This technique produced continuos action and big fish. The vibration of the spinner running through the water a crank bait speeds promoted aggressive hard strikes and out produced cranks ten to one. Next time you are working cranks try running a heavy bottom bouncer along side your crank and wait for great results. Have a great season of fishing Lake Sakakawea Pure Fishing Guide Service Contact Mike for more information www.captainwalleye.com 701-572-6403 or e-mail captainwalleye@dia.net 
Storing Your Leaders By Ron Miltzow Storing your leaders or snells in plastic bags works
well, but I have found that I have trouble with the longer leads getting
tangled, and are a pain in the neck to straighten out. I have seen
method used by a few guys including myself that works very well. 1. 1 ½ inch diameter foam pipe insulation.
Great outdoor fishing and hunting information for Illinois and surrounding communities. Illinois Outdoors -dedicated to fishing and other outdoors sports in Illinois and those nearby places that Illinois sports enthusiasts often visit. CoHosted by Don Dziedzina & Rich Komar. This bi-weekly studio show has guests from the fishing and outdoor industry, new and unusual products, fishing & outdoor tips by Ron Miltzow, and photo and tip contests where you can win FREE fishing tackle. This show is aired on AT&T Broadband out of the affiliates in Dolton (where it is taped), Hickory Hills and Orland Park. This means approximately 60 communities from the O'Hare Airport and south get the show. Days and times vary by community. Getting your Boat and Trailer Ready By Ron Miltzow Boat Fishermen, now is the time to get your boat and
trailer ready for the upcoming season. Here is a small checklist for things to check on your boat: 1. State sticker is current. A good idea is to take the U.S. Coast Guard
Auxiliary Skills and Seamanship coarse, which is offered all across
the country, and the cost free. The course is great for kids, and
you will get money off your boaters insurance. Rod Care Tip By Ron Miltzow With the growing cost of graphite fishing rods, and the amount of
equipment needed, especially in walleye tournament fishing, good rod
care is becoming increasingly more important. Everyone at one time
or another will bang their rods against another rod, drop it on some
hard object, or just plain abuse it when the fishing gets hot. With
a graphite rod it is very important not to put a chip in it, and create
a weak spot.
Great outdoor fishing and hunting information for Illinois and surrounding communities. Illinois Outdoors -dedicated to fishing and other outdoors sports in Illinois and those nearby places that Illinois sports enthusiasts often visit. CoHosted by Don Dziedzina & Rich Komar. This bi-weekly studio show has guests from the fishing and outdoor industry, new and unusual products, fishing & outdoor tips by Ron Miltzow, and photo and tip contests where you can win FREE fishing tackle. This show is aired on AT&T Broadband out of the affiliates in Dolton (where it is taped), Hickory Hills and Orland Park. This means approximately 60 communities from the O'Hare Airport and south get the show. Days and times vary by community.  Ted
Takasaki Spinner rigs I Spinner rigs combine flash and vibration with the natural scent and feel of live bait. The Lindy X Change System makes them simple to use. Clevises easily snap into place so you can change the size or color of your Lindy Hatchet or Colorado style blades in a matter of seconds. No more need to retie the entire rig every time you make a change. Lindy Little Joe applied the same X Change System principle to bottom bouncers. Weights come in various sizes so you can choose the right one to maintain bottom contact. They are held in place by a plastic grommet and slip on or off the wire fast. Spinner rigs II The unique shape of Lindy Hatchet blades creates a fish-attracting vibration at slower speeds than other blade styles. Start with metallics of gold, silver or bronze when the sun is shining; use fluorescent colors when it's cloudy or in dingy water. Experiment and let the fish tell you what they want. If action stops, change up. Scout before you go The most important time of your fishing trip comes before you
launch. Locate fish by visiting bait shops and boat ramps to
talk to guides and local fishermen about where big schools of walleyes
can be found. Buy a topographical map of the body of water and
have them mark the spots. Note the type of structure that the
fish appear to be utilizing and find similar spots on the water.
Ask for details about the tactics that are producing.  Dan
Vinovich Changing Leader Lengths Most people use a standard leader length of about 48 inches. This length of leader is sufficient for most 3-way applications. However, changing your leader length can make a big difference in putting more fish in the boat on a given day. When I start a search pattern trolling 3-way rigs in rivers, I always set each of our rods with different leader lengths. One rod will be at 24 inches. The rest I will increase the leader length 24 inches all the way to 10 feet. The fish will tell you where they want the baits. You simply change the rest of the rods to the length that is catching fish. The same holds true with the dropper length. A good rule of thumb to go by is the colder the water, the shorter the dropper. As water temperature increases, so should the dropper length. Dan
Vinovich Putting More Action Into Your 3-Way Stickbait Trolling When you cast crankbaits, do you usually cast and reel? No, you change up your lure speed and pause the bait. This change of speed imitates a dying or fleeing bait fish, which, in turn, causes the natural instinct of the predator to strike. You can add this kind of action into your 3-way presentations by changing the size and the shape of the weight. For example, if you are running a 1 oz. pencil weight on a 3-way rig, the weight is sliding along the bottom, keeping the crankbait swimming with a non stop forward action. Now if I change the shape of the weight to a bell sinker, the action changes. The weight catches momentarily on the bottom. Thus, the rod loads up with a slight bend. As the weight frees itself, the rod springs forward causing the crankbait to lunge forward. As the weight catches on bottom again, the bait pauses before lunging forward. Now change the weight to a pyramid style sinker and the weight snags up a little longer, causing the rod to load up a little more, and thus, a longer pause and a sharper lunge forward of the bait. By increasing the weight of any given sinker, you can vary the length of the pause and sudden lunge of the bait. Try this the next time you are trolling crankbaits on 3-way rigs. I am sure it will help you put more fish in the boat.  Sam
Anderson
The key to locating walleyes in the river in the fall and early winter
starts with locating a series of obstacles and then allowing your
bait or lure to present itself in a natural manner so the walleye
can race from behind the obstruction to acquire the offering and then
race back into the slack water area to digest his meal and await another.
Dan
Vinovich 2 Motor Method For Wing Dams Trying to hold on the upstream face of a wing dam can result in drained trolling motor batteries and hard feelings when the wind is blowing and the current is strong. To conserve power, I will start up my Mercury 9.9 kicker motor on my Targa 2000. By using my kicker as my main base of power and steering with my bow mount electric, I can maintain a precise presentation and not drain my batteries, enabling me to hold on the wing dam all day if I choose. This will result in more fish because the fish always turn on when the batteries are going dead!!!! Winterize Your Outboard and Boat NOTE: Avoid injury due to accidental engagement of your prop, we
recommend If your motor is water cooled; running your outboard without an adequate
1. Fill your fuel tank and add a conditioner. Mix thoroughly 2. Run motor for about 5 minutes at fast idle to ensure the gas with
3. Use engine tune up spray on your engine before winterizing. The
spray 4. With engine running fog in the carb's with a good grade outboard
fogging 5. Fog until engine stalls. Make sure you alternate between carb's
or better 6. Change gear oil. Put a pan, to catch the oil, under the lower
screw hole. 7. Refill by inserting the new gear oil tube spout in the bottom
hole and NOTE: It's easier with the quart or larger containers and the small
hand 8. Grease all motor zerks. 9. Remove fishing line around the prop thrust washer. 10.Disconnect your batteries. Clean the terminals with baking soda
solution, 11.Store outboard in down position if possible. If not, and you're
in an Other Considerations: 12.Grease trailer hubs and bearings. 13.Wash and wax the hull. 14.Inspect all nuts and bolts. 15.Block up trailer axle, remove the boat weight from the tires. 16. Remove drain plug, this allows drainage during storage outside. 17.Open all hatches. Place an open bag or two of charcoal in the
bilge and Boat control and rigging under the toughest of conditions by  Mark
Martin Jigs and rigs are some of the most common and some of the oldest methods of catching walleyes. The definition of a rig is misunderstood by many beginning walleye fisherman. It’s easy though if you fish with a hook and splitshot, you’re riggin. If you push the splitshot down so it touches the hook you’re jiggin. It does get a bit more complicated from there. The tackle industry has a huge variety of rigs and jigs to choose from and many are designed for special situations and conditions. Each one is a different tool for a different job. Through any fishing year, professional and amateur anglers will catch millions of walleyes with this endless variety of rigs. On of my obvious favorites and certainly the most versatile and easily altered rig is Northlands Roach rig. Roach rigs are made up of a quick change “foot shaped sinker,” a bobber stop and bead stop which allow fisherman to adjust the lead length. The rig also has a swivel; a leader (anywhere from 24” to 10 to 12’ long) and a hook which can be a plain hook and bead, or a floater like a gumdrop of Floating Foxee. During a tournament in 1993 on Mille Lacs lake Minnesota Gary Roach and myself took first and second place with this rig and some special boat control techniques. We were fishing a very large mud flat and active fish were located on the edge of the flat between 27 and 31 feet of water. Nasty weather and heavy waves forced us to use special boat handling techniques to control our position and presentation. Two to four foot waves tossed the bow of my boat like a bucking bronco. I filled my bow live well with water, plugged the outlet holes and let water overflow into the bilge to add ballast to solve the problem. It helped but it still wasn’t enough to give adequate boat control. So I attached a sea anchor to the bow. This acted like a big fist gripping the water, when a wave tried to throw the boat up the sea anchor pulled it down. The bow slowly rose only a few inches with a big wave instead of jumping several feet. Now that my up and down movement was under control, I needed forward and reverse control. The big 50# thrust Motorguide electric proved all the control I needed. This technique is one that only a pro or very experienced boater should try. I wouldn’t even attempt it with any other boat than my high-sided well-constructed Lund tournament Pro V. The walleyes were grouped in pockets along the edge. The “meal of the day” was a big black shiny and very lively leech. By using a 10 to 12 foot long leader on my roach rig and a very light weight Tru Turn hook with a small red bead in front, we gave the leech the freedom to swim up down and around. We moved very slowly or remained motionless while fishing a spot. By holding the roach rig sinker six inches to 2-4 feet off bottom and letting the leeches lively action antagonize the walleyes we could cover from 6 inches to about three to four feet off of bottom where the fish were located. To keep our long leaders from tangling with each other, I sat in the bow of my Lund while my partner worked the back. I controlled the path of the boat with slow continus bursts of thrust from the electric motor so it would barely move along the drop off edge. My presentation was on the deep side while my partner worked the shallow side. If the walleyes were shallow or deep one of us would catch fish. If conditions would have been different, and had the fish been holding tightly on the bottom, I would have shortened the leader so the leech was under tighter control and closer to the bottom. Doing so is as easy as sliding the rubber bobber stop up or down the line. A couple of important tips about rig fishing. Keep the line angle at 45 degrees. In other words keep the rig below your boat or as close to the boat as possible and letting the rig down to bottom slowly so that your snell doesn’t tangle back up with your main line. Put your bait in the water followed by the sinker. Then let it down two to three feet and stop. Repeat until the sinker reaches bottom. You will then know your presentation is lad out without tangles. I’ve had partners who plunked it over the side of the boat and let it plunge to the bottom. Twenty minutes later reel up to check the bait and have a tangled mess. For more great tips like this check out Marks book  Year'
Round Walleyes by Mark Martin 
form
Sam
Anderson Once fish have been located and the crankbait bite falls off, I will offer them a selection of light jigs. I usually start off with 1/16 or 1/8 ounce Fuzzy Grub, tipped with a minnow, leech or a nightcrawler. As the fish tend to move deeper I will switch to a live-bait rig or a Hatchet Harness Spinner attached to a Bottom Bouncer so I tick the bottom and stay out of the rocks. Be sure to visit Sams new website www.samanderson.com Sam
Anderson To slow down your lure presentation a little use a jig tipped with a minnow. But don't get stuck in a slow pattern. Utilize extremes. Rip the jig back to the boat on one retrieve, then work the jig slow, bouncing it along the bottom on the next retrieve. My favorite jig in this situation is a 1/4 ounce Fuzzy Grub jig tipped with a minnow. I prefer the Fuzzy Grub because it is round and I can easily attach a stinger hook to the minnow and up my chances of catching a finicky walleye. When in doubt if you have contact with the bottom, increase the size of your jig and minnow. You might get hung up more, but you might also have a wallhanger on your hands. Be sure to visit Sams new website www.samanderson.com
Sam
Anderson Boat control can be defined as; the location and
speed of a trolled lure is largely dependent on how you maneuver the
boat that pulls it, and how you counteract elements that affect your
speed and direction especially wind and current. One way that I have
solved the problem with boat control is by using a sea anchor.
A sea anchor is a cone-shaped under water wind sock, similar to those
at airports that detect changes in wind direction. Drift Control
sea anchors aid boat control in two ways. First of all, they slow
your drift in strong winds. Secondly, you can use them to fine-tune
subtle boat maneuvers in rough seas or heavy current. Be sure to visit
Sams new website www.samanderson.com
Sam
Anderson When fishing with live bait it's tough to beat a Lindy
Rig. Keep your bail open and a finger on the line as you slowly
troll. When you feel a pick-up, drop the line. The slip
sinker rig allows the fish to take the bait without feeling any weight.
You can vary the size of your sinker and hook, and change the length
of the leader to match conditions. Use a floating jig to lift
your bait off the bottom. Many types of artificial lures work for walleyes, but most fish are caught on live bait. Most anglers prefer to use minnows in the spring and again in the fall. Leeches and nightcrawlers are used during summer months, and will catch fish throughout the season. Crayfish and live frogs work, too. Remember, big baits often equal big fish. If you are looking for a trophy use the largest minnows, leeches, or nightcrawlers you can find. Be sure to visit Sams new website www.samanderson.com
Sam
Anderson . To catch shallow fish, I use my bow-mount 
to get as close to shore as possible. I face into the current
and cast upstream so the bait moves downstream. This is essential
because 90% of all fish in a river face into the current in order to
feed. When I make my first cast it is critical to present the
bait to the feeding fish in a natural life like manner. I will
cast upstream as close to shore as possible, then I point my 
rod directly at shore. This gives my crankbait a direct
downstream run. By extending my arm and using a long 7 foot rod
I can get as close to shore as possible. As the bait starts down
river I will use my wrist to jerk or flick the bait causing it to dart
and dive representing a wounded minnow. As the bait approaches
the boat I will also take in as much slack as possible to allow myself
better feel and better hook setting leverage. My next couple of casts are going to be deeper. Here, because the water tends to be deeper, I will change my presentation to more traditional casting. My cast will be ahead of the boat and I will retrieve the lure with a bait bumping approach. My next cast might be even deeper to see if the walleyes have moved out, but again it will be a normal cast and retrieve method. Under low-light conditions or in darker water, walleyes will be shallow 1 to 7 feet. But it it's bright or there's a lot of boat traffic, they move deeper. When I am fishing along the riprap I use a method known as "slipping the current". Basically this method allows the operator of the boat to stay in one spot or to drift downstream slowly by using the electric trolling motor. I set my bowmount
to match the speed of the current and occasionally I will increase the
thrust to move up stream to new water. Your electric trolling
motor is important for you to use in this situation, because it provides
a quiet approach to fishing fish in the shallows. Where as a gas
engine is likely to spook the fish and the method of staying in one
place to combat the current with a gas engine is difficult at best.
Be sure to visit Sams new website
www.samanderson.com
Sam
Anderson .When walleyes are holding tight to cover because of a
change in water temperature or barometric pressure, or because
the water has suddenly risen or fallen, it is essential to fish
the walleyes in a vertical motion. The problem may be that they
are tight to cover and usually shallow, with adjacent deep pockets or
holes near by, but not enough to position a boat over the top of them.
Therefore, a vertical presentation with a Thill float might do the trick. It will allow the presentation of the bait over the top of the walleye (something that is important to remember is a walleye always feeds on food that is in front of them and just slightly above them). The float should be set so that it will present the bait in a suspended offering, and once you find the depth you can work the shoreline around structure like stumps and points. Be sure to visit Sams new website www.samanderson.com
Fizzing Walleyes
On either side of the anal hole you go two scales to the left or right and 5-7 scales forward. Hold the fish upside down in the livewell holding the fizzing needle at a 45 degree angle as you go into the bladder air bubbles will start to come out leave the needle inserted untill all air bubbles are released , remove the needle and let the fish right itself. Tips for Early season Walleye Fishing I'll give you some places to call and double check on conditions
before leaving home. Things change rapidly.
Call anytime for update and information Gary A Engberg 608-795-4208 Sam
Anderson On any given cover the fish that are the most active and
aggressive will be adjacent to the specific cover and will attack the
bait as it comes close to the cover. When walleyes hold tight
to cover because of change in barometric pressure or fishing pressure
the angler has to change or modify the presentation. A perfect
example of this is when you stop catching walleyes on a 
Hatchet Harness and have to switch over to a light
Fuzz-E- Grub and a bobber combination to dabble in the weeds, instead
of running a contour course on the weed edge.
Tips for Setting and Choosing lures 
(From Trolling Top to Bottom ) Courtesy of Bruce DeShano of 
When clarity determines how close to bottom trailing cranks should be positioned. If the water is murky, it's important to positon the bait within a foot of the bottom. In clear water fish can easily see baits and will chase them much further off the bottom. In clear water the angler enjoys the flexiblity of positioning baits two or three feet off of bottom. When setting the lures let out line until you can feel the bait hitting bottom., then shorten the lead slightly so the bait runs just off bottom. A line counter reel is invaluable for determining the ideal lead lengths and duplicating them once fish are caught To find out more about getting a copy of this fine book click here  Gary
Engberg when running crankbaits behind
planer boards in large wind and waves it is imperative that you run
with the waves and not against them. this will make it much easier
to see a strike, control the boat and the boards and also easier to
reel in those monster fish.
Perry Good has this little bit of information when jigging for thoise
monster eyes during first ice conditions try hooking the minnow in the
tail. This will allow the minnow to act more lively and help with
those light biters who will get the whole minnow in there mouth before
they are able to feel the hook.
"Spinner Tying Tips"
(From Trolling Top to Bottom ) Courtesy of Bruce DeShano of
A lot of anglers enjoy tying their own spinners. Open water spinners can be tied with two single hooks , a single hook and a treble hook or two treble hooks. Spinners rigged with a treble hook(s) hold better on large or powerful fish. spinners should be tied using quality monafilament or a leader material such as Stren High impact Hard Mono Leader. Braided lines can also be used to tie harnesses. Choose eight to twelve test for walleye and bass and 14 to 20 pound test for trout, pike and other large fish. Snelling a crawler harness is easy. cut a piece of monofilament 60 inches long and thread one end approximately an inch through the hook eye to be snelled. Pinch this short tag of line firmly against the hook shank with a thumb and forefinger and wrap the main line eight or ten times around the hook shank. Hold these wraps firmly and then take the end of the main line and pass it back through the hook eye from th eopposite direction as before. Hold the hook and wraps firmly untill the leader can be pulled tight. Thread the second hook onto the leader and postion it approxiamtely six inches from the first hook. Pinch the line against the hook shank and snell the hook in the same manner as the first. This method of snelling is easy and allows the hooks to be postioned exactly the same distance apart every time. Once the two hooks are snelled in place add a dozen colorful beads, a clevise and the blade of choice and then tie on a quality ball bearing swivel. For open water fish size 4,5,6,7 and 8 Colorado or Indiana style blades are best. A size No.2 hook and round bend treble hooks size # 6 and 4 are ideal for these harnesses. I myself "Rock N' Randy Tyler" have found
great addition to this is a quality hook such as the  Troubleshooting
Tips from Mike McClelland
Take Notes on Patterns Keep a journal on fall fishing every year. Record the dates, locations water temperatures and weather conditions. These patterns will hold year after year. What are your electronics telling you Remember you don't have to see a number of fish on your electronics for a school of walleyes to be present. Take into consideration that your transducers cone angle is generally 20 degrees. this means if your in 230 feet of water your looking at only a 7 to 8' diameter circle. For 20 degree transducers divide the depth by four to determine the diameter of circle your seeing on the bottom. For a 16 degree transducer divide by 5. Set the hook on anything you feel When fall fishing set the hook whenever you feel anything . What you may feel and think of as a wet leaf, a piece of debris or a weed could likely be a fish. Many times late fall walleye hits are so light they go undetected. Time and time again, what I thought ws a snag on the bottom turned out to be a big walleye. When fishing crank baits over weeds try this for the extra special effect. Get yourself a tube of Preparation H, yes thats right Preparation H. Smear it all over a Rapala Husky Jerk Bait bait and then sprinkle some silver construction glitter on it. Then cast to the top of the weeds using a twitching type of retrieve and any time the bait hits a weed give it a good snap. First off the Preparation H not only gives a good basis for the glitter to stick to and any time the bait hits weeds they fly off, giving the appearance of scales coming off a bait fish but preparation H is made from shark oil and is a great fish attractant similar to WD-40. Use a reel and rip pattern when doing this which gives an added effect of the scales coming off the crank bait. This tip come from the journals of  Tommy
Skarlis,Sam
Anderson .
While night fishing Lake Erie In-Fisherman Professional Walleye trail 1997 Champion  Rick
"Bigfoot" Lacourse along with touring pro's Rich Mealy and Bruce DeShano
owner of Offshore tackle found some huge "eyes" spread out over 25 feet
of water and need an effective way to nail them in a short period of
time. Using the 50/50 system they ran Rapala Husky Jerks behind
1ounce  Offshore
snap weights and Offshore side planer boards. The problem was
how to detect hits on the planer boards in the middle of the night.
The key to there success was using Panduit wire ties and attaching neon
glow sticks to the planer board flags this allowed them to see the boards
even in the darkness and detect the slightest hit. When searching for those monster eyes in large lake without an established pattern. Try putting out four
planer boards with crankbaits set at four different depths and colors
using a zig zag pattern trolling downwind in windy conditions upwind
in normal conditions. This will allow you to cover a lot of area
and depths untill you find a pattern then switch all baits to that depth
and color. This approach will also let you cover different depths
and bottom conditions if you decide to run the shoreline.
This tip come from the journals of Tommy
Skarlis,Sam
Anderson . In High water river conditions try slipping the wing
dams and current breaks using a medium action rod with a three
way swivel attatched as a dropper use a 3/4 to 1 ounce ball head jig
with stinger and a large rosey red minnow if available to the other
end of the threeway attatch a 4 foot mono leader with a 
Husky Jerk. This will allow you to work the top of the wing dam
and also the front at the same time while keeping the bow of the boat
faced into the current just slip the boat from the outer to the inner
edge of the wing dam. Here are some quick and easy tips and quotes from In-Fisherman Professional Walleye trail 1997 Champion Rick
"Bigfoot" Lacourse. "Never leave fish to find fish" When spotting fish on your electronics never leave the area when they are not hitting, change your methods, speeds, size or whatever untill you can trigger the fish to hit. If I would of left the bridge in the PWT championship I probably would'nt have won the event though the fish were not cooperating in the same manner they had done the two previous tournament days and during pre-fish Let the fish dictate the pattern you will use, lures catch fisherman not fish. Downsize and slow down when the fish stop hitting. When tying your own spinner rigs keep these things in mind they are very important. Use long shank single hooks when rigging for night crawlers and when the fish are hitting short use half a nightcrawler. Also use bobber stops to adjust the location of the quick change clevise so you can change length and location of the blades. Always use blades that at least on one side are shiny or hammered metal. Painted blades will slow down the spinning of the blades. I use 17lb Silverthread and premium Sampo swivels when tying my rigs. In cooler water downsize the blade size but in warm water go to "thumper" blades (size # 4 and up). Speed is relative to the fish but always try to keep the line at a 45 degree angle to the water. MarkMartin
In some of the most unfavorable conditions Mark worked out a second
place finish netting him $14,000.00 last year while fishing an In-Fisherman
professional Walleye trail tournament in Dubuque Iowa under extreme
high water river conditions on the mighty Mississippi River
Mark was able to weight in 23.88 lbs for the three day event that left
many fine fisherman fishless. Mark used a technique that not used
very much but worked with a little finishing touch help from friend
J.R. Mazure. Mark trolled two areas of the river one at
Mile marker 577 between catfish creek and mile marker 578. The other
just down from nine mile island at mile marker 575.5 to 576.5. He ran
at a speed between 1.5 and 2 M.P.H in the swift current He trolled
upstream on the edges of the main current but at times no more than
20 yards off shore, keying on areas where natural rock out croppings
protruded and interupted the current. On Marks  level
wind reel on a Gary Roach 7'10" flippin stick he ran 20#  Fireline
, Mark then placed a 5 ounce sinker just below a three way swivel.
Four feet back he ran a #9
floating Rapala behind a wire leader with a #3 chartreuse  spinner
and bead leader. Four feet above the swivel he tied in another swivel
and ran a #8 Husky jerk 40 feet back. All fish that were caught
on the long leader were hand lined in which made for a lot of excitement.
Day one Mark weighted in 4 fish at 8.38 lbs. Day 2 weighted in 6 fish
for a total of 9.39 lbs and the final day Mark weighted in 4 more fish
for a total of 23.88 lbs for the three day event. He also received the
T-H Marine live release award and also took the third largest fish on
day one at 4.43 lbs. Mark also made note that the people from  NAUTAMATIC
MARINE SYSTEMS TR-1 Autopilot and throttle control installed
one of these units at the tournament and this helped him maintain control
of the boat and also continue fishing in the tough current and windy
conditions.
Tommy
Skarlis on working with long runs of rip-rap and rock-strewn shorelines.
Tommy says that while casting cranks along these edges is effective
and the most common way they are fished, it is a time consuming presentation.
The standard way to approach this type of structure has always been
to cast a crankbait, spinnerbait or other quick coverage presentation
to find areas or "spots on the spot" that hold concentrations of fish
and then slow down and fish these spots more methodically with a jig,
live bait rig or some other finesse style presentation.
To speed up the fish finding process, Tommy trolls The great thing about this style of presentations is that you can not only target fish tight against the rocks, but you can also run other lures along the bread, base of the break and on the other side of the boat to target basin oriented and suspended fish. So the next time your arm is about to fall off due to extensive casting, or you feel that you are not covering enough water, snap on Off Shore Side-Planers and and let the boards do the work the "Off Shore Way". Sam
Anderson with a few tips on running crankbaits courtesy of  .When
those eyes are in a dormant or non feeding state either hanging in the
weeds, brush or timber sometimes they need an extra bit of enticement.
You can sometimes provoke those eyes to hit by varying the lures retrieve
speed or action. The action can be varied by using
Suspendots or Suspenstrips. As Sam demonstrated at the the
Bass Pro shops in Gurnee Illinois Hawg trough there are
many ways to attatch the dots and strips. First always make sure
the surface of the lure is dry you can
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Greg
Horoky
Mike Mladenik 
Measure the length of the tennis ball containers and cut the pipe
insulation so that it will fit inside the can while still being able
to put the lid back on the can. 
D16Z Wide Gap Bait hook (octopus style) red in a size six along with
a 
quick change clevise will add the extra sure fire hooking power and
versatility of being able to change blades quickly will put more hawg
walleyes in the boat such as this that I caught while bottom bouncing
spinners on the Mississippi River In Lacrosse Wisconsin during the
month of August "slow days" Remember
at times when a certain size or color blade is not producing
you may need to change color, size and or speed to hook into some
of these pig's I changed not only color and size
of blade but speed and that was the final touch that turned a nothing
day of just looking at fish on my 
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