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WalleyeFIRST Interview: Marianne Huskey

Category: article

 Oct 1st, 2012 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Oct 1st, 2012 at 12:00 AM

Marianne Huskey made fishing history as the first woman to win Angler of the Year in any professional circuit that included men. She achieved the feat in only her fourth year of fishing the Anglers Insight Marketing Circuit, which features competitirs that include some of the best walleye anglers in the world. The AIM tournament trail that doesn’t just include men-it’s ALL men except for Huskey.

Huskey recently married Matt Pikka, who travels with her to tournaments and fishes as an amateur. She now lives in Shawano, Wisconsin on Green Bay
OutdoorsFirst talked to Huskey recently about a lot of different topics, ranging from her personal goals to her feelings of what makes a truly professional angler. She is a pro among pros, giving insightful, well-thought-out answers. It’s little wonder she has accumulated sponsors that include Lund Boats, Mercury Motors, Navionics, Optima Batteries, Lowrance, Frabill and Fin-Tech.

	Lund/Mercury Pro Marianne Huskey- AIM Photo

OF: How many days a year do you fish?

MH: Open water and ice fishing I would say about upwards of 170.

OF: Did you always fish that much?
MH: I always did fish a lot-I used to fish a lot more on the ice than on open water-used to fish six days a week. I lived  in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for 12 years at St. Ignace, and would go ice fishing after work on places like the. St. Marys River, Mullet Lake and at Cedarville on Lake Huron. Mostly targeting walleyes perch and northerns.

OF: When did you get into walleye fishing?
MH: 1997. I caught my first walleye through the ice. Just to feel the bite changed everything somehow.

OF: What’s your favorite way to catch walleyes?
MH: I used to prefer trolling crawler harnesses, that was my favorite, but now I really have gotten a liking for rigging–bottom bouncing with rod in hand-not Minnesota-style rigging, Lindy Rigging. I like being able to feel the bite and with the new electronics and using down scan and side scan from Lowrance, just gives us such an extra edge to see the structure these days.

OF: What about a least favorite technique?
MH: There’s nothing I dislike, whether it’s trolling leadcore-anything-I enjoy it all.

	Marianne’s Ride

OF: If you had to pick one walleye water to fish the rest of your life, where would it be?
MH: The Missouri River, Lake Oahe. The reason is the Missouri river is so vast from Pierre, South Dakota all the way up into North Dakota, there would be enough water there to spend a lifetime on. I’d never get sick of it. You can do anything there. Pitch jigs, cast cranks, bottom bounce, troll with leadcore, troll with FireLine-whatever you want to do there.

OF: I think you probably already answered this, but is there a lake or river you fish professionally that you really look forward to having a tournament on?
MH: I do look forward to going to the Missouri River. Yeah. Plus, the people out in the Dakotas are just so welcoming, so nice-it’s almost like going to a different world sometimes.

OF: What’s the latest, hottest deal in the professional ranks?
MH: Don’t really know if there’s a latest technique. It seems like every year people are coming out with new products, but if there’s something to watch for, live baits are definitely becoming an issue. As time goes on, state regulations are going to limit our use of live bait. Now is a good time to find the artificials that subsitutute for live bait and learn how to catch fish with them because eventually we might all be using them whether we like it or not.

OF:Speaking of artificial baits, you promote the Slimers product (artificial flesh sold in various shapes). How have you used them in place of bait?
MH: I’ve used them in the winter. The white grub, the white leech, they far outfish a live minnow when fishing for perch. Pike and walleyes like it also. I’ve trolled with artificial crawler on a harness. Used leech not only for jigging, but also on Beetle Spins with a heavier jig on it in dirty water and caught fish in two feet of water right next to the boat.

OF: Do you scent them or use them right out of the tube or jar?
MH: Both ways. I’ve used some of the natural scents Slimers offers and those work pretty good. The best is menhaden.

OF: What parts of the walleye game do you feel like you need to improve on?
MH: I think that would be being able to cast cranks to the spot on a spot. I’m not really good at it yet, I just think it’s a lack of having the time or place to do it. If I’m tournament fishing and I’m not on a lake where I would be using the presentation, I don’t take the time to practice. I have set up rings and cast in the backyard, but that still isn’t the same as doing it from the bow of your boat.

OF: When did you fish your first tournament?
MH: Professional tournament? 2008. I did it because I had been fishing some tournaments at the grass roots level and felt it was time to make a move to the next level up, and in my case that was going to be the Michigan Walleye Trail or something of that nature, but some of the pros I’d met expressed to me that it would be in my best interest to fish at the top level, that I would learn more because you’re out there by yourself. Then in 2009 I fished the entire AIM circuiti and have fished every one of theirs ever since, along with a few FLWs.

OF: On your website, (www.mariannehuskey.com) there’s what seems to be your motto or something: “It’s not what’s on the other side, it’s the climb.” Now that you achieved Angler of the Year, you’re kind of seeing the other side, no?
MH: I don’t believe that. I think it’s always a climb. I think sometimes people lose sight of the excitement and lose the drive to get there, which is the climb. You can’t advance if you just say ‘I’ve gotten to the top.’ It’s a long fall to the bottom! You have to keep climbing.  You have keep doing things with other anglers and promoting the sponsors and getting youth involved in the sport.

	Marianne With Team Lund Friends- OFM Photo

OF: What are you doing to get youth into the sport?
MH: I’m the director of the AIM youth tournaments through the National Professional Anglers Association And I do a lot of work with Walleyes for Tomorrow-we’ve had a big youth event for the past two years here in Shawano. Then I just spend some extra time after my seminars to talk to kids about things that they can try, and just answering their questions.

OF: Do you have kids and are they into walleye fishing?
MH: I have a 19-year-old son who used to do a lot of fishing with me, but now he’s more into hunting, which is just fine.

OF: What’s the attraction of tournament walleye fishing?
MH: The competition, the adrenaline rush. The majority of tournament anglers are type A personalities and I personally live for that adrenaline rush, being naturally competitive.

OF: Is being a woman on the tournament trail an advantage or disadvantage?
MHL: I don’t think that it makes a difference when it comes to competing. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female. It all boils down to who can catch fish, bigger fish, and who can’t. As far as the rest of the industry, career-wise, I don’t think it makes a difference. What makes people a good promoter is being able to speak well, promote, catch fish and you need to be able to draw attention to those products you’re talking about and be knowledgeable about them. Most of all you just need to be professional.

OF: What do you mean by “being professional” when it comes to fishing?
MH: Professional anglers need to conduct themselves well. They need to respect others, always be polite, make themselves available for interviews to the media. I believe in my eyes, I would say a pro angler is an angler who fishes an entire circuit and who also promotes during the off season, promoting for their sponsors both on and off the water.

Other than walleyes, is there another kind of fish or type of fishing you like to do?
On occasion, northerns, crappie once in a while and accidentally a bass here and there.

OF: You ever consider fishing pro bass events?
MH: No. If I were going to pro bass fish I would have to rewind 15 years and live them fishing for bass to even think about that.

OF: How long have you been a guide and charter captain?
MH: Only for 2012. Just started. It felt better for me as a tournament angler to let’s say get a positive reputation out there to the public and let them know I knew how to catch fish before I got guide license. This way they know who I am and that I can catch fish. The fact that I do seminars all year around, people can actually take an open water class with me to learn different techniques and how to use different gear, like Lowrance electronics and Offshore planer boards. Simple things like the different settings on Offshore boards, learning how to use inline weights and using crawler harnesses. They can learn and use those presentations on their own and increase their catch rate.

OF: What’s the future hold? What circuits you going to fish in the coming year?
MH: As of right now waiting to hear the schedules for both the FLW and AIM.

OF: What sport shows do you attend?
MH: I will be attending Showspans Ultimate Sport Shows one in Grand Rapids, Michigan and one in Novi, Michigan. And I’ll be working at the  Green Bay Boat Show and will be at the St. Paul Ice Show in December.  I’ve also been contacted by quite a few walleye clubs and will be doing seminars at their banquets throughout the Midwest.

OF: Any other big events this winter?
MH: From February 3 to February 8, (fellow pro anglers) Mike Gofron, Mark Brumbaugh and I will be at Lake of the Woods, Minnesota doing our North American Ice Fishing Adventure. It’s five days, four nights, all meals and lodging, goodie bags, seminars on breaking down the lake, what’s new on the ice, new gear by Frabill, bait management etcetera with lots of fishing and hands on learning for attendees. The thing is up there walleyes only bite during the day. When you take a large group out like this everyone can see and once the sun starts going down, the bite shuts off . So it’s going to be a really exciting trip. (Learn more about this at www.MarianneHuskey.com.)

OF: Do you have any hobbies?
MH: No. Even when I’m not fishing, I’m fishing. It’s been that way since 2009. Before 2009 I used to be a very avid bowhunter-I was out from October 1 to New Years Eve. You would find me New Years Eve in a tree stand. It was every day in the woods. Now I’ve moved to Wisconsin and I missed the deadline for hunters’ safety by two years and I haven’t found the time to take a hunters safety class. Plus, here in Wisconsin I first of all I would have to lease some land, while when I was in Michigan I owned a cabin next to Hiawatha National Forest, with no neighbors so I had all the hunting land I wanted.

OF: So are you done hunting and just fishing?
MH: No… I think I’ll be going back to the hunting but it won’t be this year. I just have too much going on right now.

Watch for more from Marianne in an upcoming OFM Interview on Fishing Bay of Green Bay!

AIM VIDEO| Watch it!