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Night Hawk Stories... Entry 20

Accessories That Will Help Win Walleye Tournaments

click to enlargeEDITOR'S NOTE: Gary Parsons of Glidden, Wisconsin, a professional walleye fisherman, specializes in tournament fishing, speaking, writing and walleye-fishing promotions. Gary, who has fished in walleye tournaments since 1983, has won Angler-of-the-Year titles on all three pro-walleye circuits: the North American Walleye Anglers in 1995, the Professional Walleye Trail in 1993 and 1994 and the Masters Walleye Circuit in 1988 -- the only angler to accomplish these feats. Parsons and his business partner, Keith Kavajecz, won the Masters Walleye Circuit Team of the Year and World Championship in 1988. Gary and Keith co-host "Bass Pro Shop's Outdoor World," which airs on TNN.

QUESTION: Can you give us three final tips on how to win a walleye tournament?
ANSWER:
TIP 9: Replace the factory treble hooks on your crankbaits. When you go into a competition, you want to eliminate as many lost fish as possible. Replacing your factory crankbait hooks with premium hooks proves one of the best things to do. By switching to premium hooks, you'll lose fewer fish. Most hard-core tournament fishermen do this. Just remember to never use a hook physically heavier than the hook you replace. If you don't use a hook of the same weight, it can destroy the crankbait's action.

click to enlargeTIP 10: If you fish tournaments, you'll find that you'll spend many long, tedious hours stripping line off your reels and replacing it. Usually you'll use so many different techniques that you probably won't have enough rods and reels for all the various tactics, which means you'll have to replace line, which is both time-consuming and tedious. But Berkley has a great solution. Berkley offers the best Line Stripper in the business and also carries a first-rate Line Spooling Station. Because of its small size and compactness, tournament fishermen can easily carry it.

click to enlargeTIP 11: When trolling crankbaits, the name of the game is reproducibility. If you have a certain crankbait with X amount of line let out, that bait will go to a certain depth that you try to target. While you troll, you'll probably experiment with different depths and crankbaits. But invariably you'll come up with a combination that works. When you find a combination that works, you need to have the ability to do exactly the same thing again to get that second, third, fourth and fifth bite. Fishermen commonly have one rod and reel that catches almost all the fish when they troll. To try to even things out more as you troll, make sure you use a line counter reel, which measure the amount of line you have out. Then once you put together the right combination, you can do it again. For instance, if you let that crankbait out at 98 feet, then you want to do exactly the same thing the second time as well as on one of the other rod and reel setups, too. By using line counters, you can duplicate that success.

 

Entry 16-How To Win A Walleye Tournament
Entry 17-Tips For Using Fluorocarbon Line and Rattles
Entry 18-Tips For Catching Walleye With Crankbaits
Entry 19-Tips For Using Berkley's Pre Select Line And FireLine
Entry 20-Accessories That Will Help Win Walleye Tournaments

Night Hawk Stories