Articles by Dave Scroppo

When he started fishing the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) seven years ago, Tommy Skarlis discovered an upside to his inexperience. His knowledge of lakes was nonexistent, but his forte...View article

In three In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) events in your career, and you’re doing things right. Very right. Executing on tournament days is one of them. Pinpointing the proper fish in...View article

Minnows, I’m telling you. Minnows. That’s how smelt appear when you’re angling through the ice with hook and line for finger-length fishes....View article

There's no denying that Gary Parsons' and Keith Kavajecz's past lives swayed their current fishing fascinations. To wit, the brainy pair of professional walleye anglers have turned into technophiles...View article

For all intents and purposes, Great Lakes tributaries are a study in contrasts. Despite seemingly similar big-water destinations, there are manic rippers (the Detroit and St. Clair) and mellow ramblers...View article

A century ago, Russian scientist Igor Pavlov had gone to the dogs--his dogs--to gauge what cues would make them drool. For starters, Pavlov gave them food and watched them salivate. The next step in...View article

On Eric Naig's home waters in northern Iowa -- the diametrically opposed West and East Lake Okobojis -- the former pro walleye angler now with Berkley has "issues." Structure issues, that is, affecting...View article

Back when our crew of cronies started night-fishing, years went by before we sharpened up. We trolled with original Rapalas, without fail, before we learned to return to areas that concentrated fish,...View article

Slippery, slithery, and sinuous, crawlers are talented escape artists. They sneak through the cracks of marginal storage systems, wriggling behind consoles, between narrow seams of boat storage bins,...View article

What makes better sense: Leadcore line or snapweights to troll at reasonable, repeatable depths in open water? Depends. In case you appreciate hard-and-fast rules -- make that guidelines,...View article

Ask three different In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail pros for their favorite big-water spinner rigs and you get three different answers, sort of. Keith Eshbaugh, West Alexander,...View article

Q: How slow can you troll? A: Depends how deep you reach into your bag of tricks to pull off a sleight of speed in an open-water trolling scenario. And why would you want...View article

Power tools, jumper cables, cleaning supplies, planer boards, crankbaits--thousands of crankbaits. If you've got 'em going on a road show, a far greater lode than would ever fit or belong on a walleye...View article