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MARIANNE HUSKY: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CLIMB
MARIANNE HUSKY
I signed up for a local walleye club and began to fish grassroots team tournaments. During the years as a grassroots angler my highest placing finish was 5th place. Spending those 10 years on the St. Mary’s River proved to be incredibly valuable to my future. The river system runs from Lake Superior
to Lake Huron with a lock system in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. You can fly fish for trout and salmon, fish for big perch all year round, fish for king salmon using down riggers, catch whitefish with cane poles using mayflies that you have collected, target huge musky that measure 50” in length or bigger, cast for great lakes pike or you can fish for walleye. The St. Mary’s River experience gave me an opportunity to learn almost all of the presentations needed to be a well versed professional angler.
One of the most important things I learned was boat control. With river currents running as fast as 12mph in the upper river you need to be able to control the boat and hold position using the electric motor on the bow and fish at the same time. Each and every year I would try to learn a
little more about a new presentation such as jigging, rigging, trolling, using lead core and pitching jigs. I also paid very close attention to my
electronics. In the beginning electronics were barely used by any of the anglers that I knew. They would talk about their favourite fishing spot and give directions to another angler simply by telling them to line up the big birch tree with the big red barn located on shore. As the years passed lining up big red barns and birch trees did nothing but frustrate me and encouraged me to start my education on marine electronics. Another part of my education was to
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spend many hours reading books written by professional walleye anglers and paying closer attention to the Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) which had the best walleye anglers competing for huge cash prizes after spending countless days on the water. I remember seeing pictures of the professional anglers in their tournament shirts with all of the sponsors logos attached, and dreamed I would someday wear a fully sponsored professional angler shirt of my own. In 2008, with my son Gunnar, reaching the
age of 15, I made the decision to continue to a higher level of competition. My goal was to fish the Cabela’s Master Walleye Circuit. This is a team format tournament with each boat bringing in their best five fish each day. Surprisingly, I was given advice by others to take another path. One of the PWT anglers said: “Marianne, this is not for you. You are ready
to go to the top, to the professional level or Pro- AM format. You must take this step in order to learn the proper angling techniques. It will allow you to learn more techniques at a faster rate. You will be making all of the decisions in a Pro- AM format and you must perform on your own rather than with a partner. You are ready.” I considered his advice for the next month
and in September of 2008 I decided to begin my life journey as a pro angler: ‘the climb’. The next six months were designated to preparation. Each and every day I would send out letters to bait and tackle companies for both open water and ice fishing hoping to catch the interest of someone and begin negotiation on sponsorship. Over the next few months I was able to get confirmation for sponsorship for Optima Batteries, Off Shore Tackle and the local building company. I was about to begin a career in professional
angling and felt it was necessary to purchase a larger Lund fishing boat that would have more storage and a larger Mercury motor to get me to
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“You must continue to fish! This is the only thing that will carry you through. You will find your strength on the water Marianne. Don’t give up now.”
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