Tom Huynh’s Back-to-Back Walleye Tour Championships: More Than Forward-Facing Sonar

The inspiring story of a nail tech turned walleye champion rewriting the rules of tournament fishing.

Tom Huynh, two-time National Walleye Tour Champion, proves success is about more than forward-facing sonar. Discover his journey, fishing mindset, and how he’s changing the sport. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

He Can’t Stop Huynh-ing National Walleye Tour Championships

Tom Huynh racks up his second NWT Championship. | outdoorteamworks.com | NWT

Tom Huynh (pronounced “win”) recently won his second consecutive National Walleye Tour (NWT) Championship, taking home over $115,000 in cash and prizes and the biggest, most coveted trophy in professional walleye tournament fishing. And in case you missed this part: for the second time in as many years.

Late Summer Walleye Fishing on Lake Pepin

Late summer walleye fishing on Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

Just two weeks before his second Championship, I found myself in the fortunate position of getting to know Tom by spending a couple hours in the boat with him on the Lake Pepin stretch of the Mississippi River. I was in town to cover the Bassmaster Elite Series season finale at La Crosse, Wisconsin thanks to the good folks at FXR Pro Fish apparel, and Huynh is on their pro staff. Since the bass tournament wasn’t starting until the next day, I jumped at the chance to ride along with the current, reigning NWT champ (at that point, still just one time champ).

Huynh had warned me that while Lake Pepin was probably our best bet to catch a couple walleye in the area around La Crosse, he wasn’t super familiar with it, and the current condition reports he had received from friends were not encouraging. I let him know I understood and that catching fish would just be the cherry on top. A day of him explaining and demonstrating his approach would be all I needed to justify this outing, even if the walleye didn’t cooperate. Spoiler alert: Huynh under promised and over delivered.

What a Banana Myth Can Reveal About an Angler

This is the banana on Tom Huynh's boat. It turns out it may not be bad luck at all. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

As I left the hotel that morning, I raided the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet for snacks and drinks. The apples looked terrible, so I grabbed a couple bananas. But as I was getting out of the car at the launch, grabbing my camera gear and supplies, I remembered that lots of fishing guys still hold on to the idea that bananas are bad luck in the boat. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous, but not wanting to start on the wrong foot, I made sure to ask Huynh if it was okay. “What? Oh, yeah. Of course, bring a banana.”

I was glad to hear his non-typical fishing guy response, but as I learned more about Huynh and his unlikely background and unique, and obviously effective, approach to tournament fishing, it made perfect sense.

From Farm Ponds to Fishing’s Biggest Stage

Tom Huynh has taken a unique path to get to the top of the walleye fishing world. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

Huynh grew up in Arkansas, fishing from the bank of a small farm pond under the guidance of his grandfather. It was never anything fancy, but he did develop a love of fishing. As an adult, he moved to Minnesota to attend Minnesota State University Moorhead to study computer information systems. To fund his studies, he took a job in a nail salon which ultimately led to a long, successful career in the finger nail salon business. During this time, Huynh went through a 15-17 year span where he really didn’t fish, except on the rare occasion when he would visit family back in Arkansas.

Eventually, looking for a new pastime, he decided to buy a couple rods and fish the banks of the Red River around the Fargo/Moorhead area for catfish, or whatever would bite. It was enough to remind him of how much he’d loved fishing as a kid, and soon decided to really dig into this hobby and buy a boat.

“I waited for a rainy day, so there wouldn’t be any other boats at the launch, because I had never backed up a trailer before. I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually, I figured out how to get the boat in the water. I idled across the lake through the rain, thinking ‘Dang, this is cool! I did it!’. Then the bilge started pumping and I knew something was wrong. Turns out I put the drain plug in the wrong hole. And then managed to put it in a different wrong hole the next time.”

Tom Huynh didn't get into tournament walleye fishing the same way most people do, but that doesn't stop a lot of walleyes from ending up in his boat. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

But in Huynh’s estimation, those challenging moments and all the lessons he’s learned the hard way since then, are what’s guided him to success he’s found in the past couple years. “I’ve learned everything I know about fishing on my own. And, most importantly, not as a kid. I was already an adult with a lifetime of experiences and a long successful career.”

How Forward-Facing Sonar Shaped Huynh’s Success

Huynh has always been fascinated with forward-facing sonar technology. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

After learning how to fish from a boat, he decided to trade up to a new fiberglass bass boat in 2019. At the encouragement of a friend, he loaded the boat with the current best equipment, including something which was still fairly new at the time, forward facing sonar (FFS).

“I was fascinated when I first dropped that transducer into the water. I just started off casting at everything—weeds, rocks, trees, fish—just to get a reaction and understand what I was looking at on the screen.”

So, the now 45-year old Huynh was nearly 40-years old when he first started using FFS— widely considered a younger man’s game. The misconception that “kids these days” are so good at that “video gaming” sonar because they were born doing it, doesn’t really fit with Huynh’s story. And now, Huynh is well known for his FFS prowess and isn’t shy about sharing his thoughts about the effectiveness of this new tool. He even sells detailed courses on using FFS online at his own Tom Huynh University.

Lake Pepin Lessons: Identifying Walleye on Sonar

Huynh has developed the ability to interpret the marks on his sonar to an amazing level. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

The day I rode with Huynh on Lake Pepin was in mid-August and really felt like the end of summer was near. It’s pretty well known as a time of year when the fish can be a little funky and unpredictable. Like I mentioned, Huynh warned me that it might be tough.

We started out on a big, mid-lake, mid-depth flat, seemingly in the middle of nowhere—no obvious cover, no obvious edges or depth changes. Huynh speculated that there may be a small amount of current from a creek that flowed into the river, way, way, way over there, like half a mile away, but then added that there really didn’t appear to be much.

Huynh landed a shocking number of big walleye that day. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

But the screen was lit up with fish. Unfortunately, a vast majority of them weren’t walleye. So, he started describing to me how he was using FFS to identify the one out of every 50 to 100 fish that was a walleye. He had stared at so many little blobby marks on his sonar over the years that he immediately sees the differences that untrained eyes might miss.

For example, sheepshead move around a lot, but walleye generally sit still. So you’ll see the sheepshead marks flickering and tilting and moving around the screen, but then you’ll notice that one mark that isn’t moving. “That one gets a cast.”

Also, sheepshead create a bright dense return, while walleye are a couple percent less bright—almost a little fuzzy around the edges. Sheepshead create a taller, more vertical mark, while a walleye is more of a rounder blob. The differences are subtle, but after looking over his shoulder for a while, I did start to see what he was talking about and accurately predicting which blobs got a cast.

Then I realized he was taking it to another level, carefully analyzing everything about that fish in that particular moment— the way it reacted to his lure, where it suspended in the water column, how it related to the other fish, and a bunch of other things I probably didn’t notice.

Following is a short video showing the entire catch of one of the bigger fish of the day:

And that next level is what I suspect led to him putting together a pattern that afternoon, where each fish he caught was bigger than the last. In fact, in our 3-1/2 hour outing in the middle of the day, when we really hadn’t expected much, Huynh boated five walleye over 25-inches, along with several others over 20. I was surprised, impressed, and glad to get the opportunity to learn from one of the best while snapping a bunch of great photos of big walleye.

In fact, it had gone so well, I never even stopped to eat that banana. We laughed about it as we headed back to the dock. I jokingly told him I thought it was best if I leave that banana with him.

A Banana in the Boat: Part 2

Cut to two weeks later. Tom Huynh had his second NWT Championship trophy. I shot him a text to congratulate him and ask if we could do a follow up interview. He responded with a photo of the banana—now with quite a few brown spots, but the same banana from that afternoon on Lake Pepin.

The same banana that had ridden in the boat with us on our exceptional afternoon of walleye fishing on Lake Pepin, rode in Huynh's boat during the Championship he won on Green Bay. Myth busted! | Photo by Tom Huynh

“After that trip with you, I put it in my fridge with the leftover nightcrawlers,” Huynh told me. "Then when I was packing to head to Green Bay for the Championship, I saw it still sitting there, so I decided to throw it back in the boat and see if this theory is true, one way or the other.”

A lot of big walleyes got a quick tour of Huynh's boat before heading back into Lake Pepin. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

Myth busted, I guess. Also, it’s just another great example of the unique approach Huynh has to tournament walleye fishing. He’s not coming at it the same way as everybody else, but his results suggest he’s doing it exactly right.