There may not be a better young fishing mind in the pro ranks than Rapala Pro Staffer Scott Fairbairn. A fisheries biologist by schooling, a fisherman through lifelong passion, he has joined the growing number of souls who make their living competing in professional fishing tournaments. Far from the used car salesman type, Fairbairn is soft-spoken but open and approachable, a thinker, a man who questions every bit of traditional fishing lore and never quits experimenting.

In one of the most dramatic come-from-behind stories in the history of tournaments, he came from 49^th place on the final day of the final event of the year to win both the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail Fort Peck title and Angler of the Year honors.

He fishes walleyes for a living, but studies the habits of bass, crappies, pike, and every other fish that swims. Regardless of what your favorite fish is, you can learn something as you digest his thoughts in the interview we did with him after his big win.

Q: Despite the fact that walleye fishermen make their living trolling, we’d like you to talk to us about casting with crankbaits, something many people love to do. You mentioned that you’ve noticed something that goes against one of the rules of crankbait selection. What is it?

Fairbairn: There is a stereotype that short, fat-bodied crankbaits are for bass fishing, and long, skinny minnow plugs are for walleyes and other long, slender predators.

The traditional thought is that those body styles represent what the different species of fish eat, but that’s not always true. In a lot of systems, walleyes are eating food that resembles those fat-bodied baits, and bass eat a lot of long, slender baitfish at different times.

Q: When it comes to casting, does either style crankbait have any advantages over the other?

Fairbairn: Fat-bodied baits have definite advantages to them, especially when

You’re casting. A Down Deep Rattlin Fat Rap, or a Risto Rap, will dig a lot deeper on the initial part of the retrieve on a cast than the minnow plugs do, which will make a big difference when you’re trying to fish down a 10-foot weed edge or crank down a sharp point. They’re just a lot more effective bait under those circumstances.

There’s another instance where those fat-bodied baits seem to have an advantage.

Bass fishermen have traditionally liked to bounce crankbaits off objects while retrieving them, to give the bass a chance to eat ‘em. Those short, fat-bodied baits have a different dive angle that allows them to bounce off rocks or wood or stumps or whatever it is you happen to be fishing. And when you’re trolling them, in a river situation, they’ll bounce off the clam beds or riprap, or any timber that’s down there, a lot better than the traditional walleye baits do.

Q: There you go, talking about trolling! We wondered how long a walleye guy could go without mentioning the ‘t’ word. So what you’re saying is that the longer, more slender baits tend to catch bottom more easily, because they behave somehow differently in the water?

Fairbairn: Yeah, they have a different dive profile. A Shad Rap dives at a slightly below level angle; a Risto Rap dives at more of maybe a 45-degree angle. The Risto Rap is going to deflect off those objects a lot better, which keeps your line in the water longer, which may end up meaning more fish in the boat.

Q: Which brings up another question. What do you think it is about a lure bumping into an object that sometimes can trigger a strike from a fish?

Fairbairn: I don’t think it’s because they’re used to seeing minnows running into stumps (laughs). What I think it is, is just a pause that allows a fish that’s been following the lure to get a shot at eating it.

If you cast a crankbait and can see fish following it in clear water, you’ll see them flare their gills several times during the retrieve, trying to get it. If you’re retrieving at a steady rate all the time, you can be causing fish to flat-out miss your lure even when they’re trying to eat it, unless the fish is really aggressive and actually slashes at the lure. But if the bait hits an object along the way, it pauses, and now, when they flare their gills, they get it. So, bumping crankbaits off of structure is not done because fish want crankbaits bouncing off from rocks (laughs again). It’s done because it gives them an opportunity to eat that bait.

Q: In clear water, when you can see a fish following your lure, what would be the first thing you would try, to help that fish successfully get the lure into its mouth, or at least try?

Fairbairn: When I’m casting crankbaits, I like to do what I would call jigging a crankbait. All fishermen, or most fishermen, know how to jig. We’ve all done it at one point or another. If you’re casting crankbaits and you see a fish following, it would be kind of a rip-pause motion, where you pick up slack in between ripping it. The bait stops, you pick up the slack line, you rip it again. Kind of like a jigging motion. That creates lots of times where the fish can get in there and get the bait on a slack line, where you’re not pulling it away from them at a steady speed.

Q: Is it ever important for the rip-pause-rip-pause action to be steady to the point of being predictable, which might help the fish sense a pattern of movement that helps it time its attack on the lure? Or is a more panicky retrieve, with no rhyme or reason to the motions, better?

Fairbairn: Whichever one happens to be working at the time. It’s an experiment.

You’ve got to play around with it. Maybe you do one cast with straight rip-pauses all the way back in. And then the next cast you do a straight retrieve for a little bit and then stop the bait. Then retrieve a little bit more and stop the bait. You’ve got to experiment with the retrieve until you figure out what’s triggering the fish. Because usually, when it triggers one, it triggers all.

Q: Really? So it’s your experience that, let’s say you’ve got 10 catchable fish in an area: you don’t think it’s going to take 10 different presentations to trigger those fish? You’re saying that, in your experience, on any given day, it would more likely take just one general retrieve pattern to trigger all the fish that would be susceptible to being caught?

Fairbairn: I think so, because you’re mimicking something in nature that the fish are thinking is real. Let’s say walleyes or some other fish are feeding on ciscoes. They have an entirely different way of going about eating ciscoes than if they’re eating shad or shiners. So, you experiment with your retrieve until you’ve dialed something in that’s similar to what they want, to what they’re used to.