MINNEAPOLIS — Tournament walleye fishing, Dean Kaminski says, is an addiction. Sort of. The long road trips, the motels, the boat rigged just so. Also the camaraderie with fellow anglers, everyone on the FLW Tour hoping to finish in first place and win the big check.

The $100,000 check.

But the primary reason that Kaminski, 42, of Columbia Heights, Minn., travels to Lake Erie, to Lake Sharpe, S.D., and to other faraway places each summer is the competition.

"It's the mano-a-mano thing," he said. "I started competitive fishing 12 or 14 years ago and slowly have graduated to this level. I began fishing one tournament a year, on the smaller circuits.

"Now I fish the FLW Tour, which has four qualifier tournaments this summer: Lake Erie, Lake Sharpe, Cass Lake and Bay de Noc, in Upper Michigan. The goal is to do well enough to qualify for the championship in Bismarck, N.D., in September."

The winner there goes home with $150,000.

To earn that kind of money, Kaminski needs the right kind of gear, not least the proper rods and reels, and lots of them—specific kinds for specific types of fishing.

Consider the following, Kaminski said, when outfitting yourself with rods and reels this summer:

ACTION -- "My rods vary widely in action. There is no one perfect action. Different lines, different baits and different techniques require different rod actions. If I'm running lead-core line with a crankbait, for instance, I like to use a fiberglass rod, something with a lot of give to it but that has backbone. On the other hand, for jigging I like a fast-action rod. Or, say you're bottom-bouncing, you don't want a really fast tip, you want a rod that can take some strikes and still give a little bit. Bottom line is, if you don't fish a lot, a medium-action rod will work. But if you fish a lot, and you need to catch fish, like I do, you'll need more rods."

LENGTH -- "Again, different applications require different rods. I use some 12-foot-long rods for trolling with lead-core line, or pulling crankbaits with monofilament line. My jigging sticks will come all the way down to 6 feet. For bottom-bouncing, I like a 7-foot rod, and for contour trolling, staying close to cover, I like a little longer rod still, something 7 to 10 feet long."

MATERIALS -- "Graphite has been the material of choice for some time now. But they've made modifications over the years. Today's rods are very, very high modular, meaning they're strong but light. Boron rods, they were popular for a while. But they aren't around so much anymore. Don't forget fiberglass. Fiberglass rods come in handy. These days so many of the lines we use have little or no stretch. It can be good to have a fiberglass rod in some instances; something, again, that can bend with the initial shock yet has sufficient backbone."

ROD GUIDES -- "I don't have that much of a preference. If I spent my fishing days casting, I might be more particular. But walleye fishermen don't generally cast that much."

REELS -- "There are three types: Spinning, which I use for jigging, live-bait rigging and casting crankbaits up onto rock piles, that kind of thing. Second are small, level-wind reels. These are bait-caster-style reels, not the type used for bass fishing, but similar. Level-wind reels have great drags, and they're easy to hold in your hand all day. Third are level-wind reels with line counters. These have one purpose: to count how many feet of line you have running. No matter whether you're running monofilament, lead core or Fireline, these reels will count exactly how much you have out. Then, when you strike a fish, you can duplicate exactly that presentation."

ROD AND REEL BALANCE -- "It's important mainly because I'm out on the water for 10-14-hour days. Especially if I'm jigging or live-bait rigging, in which I've got the rod in my hand all day. Don't forget also that Minnesota is one of the few states where you can only fish with one rod. Other states it's two rods. So I need a very, very well-balanced setup if I'm fishing with two rods, so I don't get too sore in my wrists or shoulders."

PRICE -- "I get this question asked a lot in seminars. You don't have to spend hundreds for a reel. A few years back, the reels weren't as good. Nowadays, there is so much competition with reel makers, most people seem to be making a very, very solid reel. I think most weekend fishermen can get by spending only $50 or so on a reel, so long as they take care of it. Rods I'm more particular about. I think $100 to $180 is a pretty good price point for a graphite rod. You can spend more or less. But for that, you can get a rod to last a lifetime."

REEL CARE -- "Keep them clean and lubricated, that's the most important thing. Probably four times a year I go through all of my reels completely and regrease them. That will keep them working the way they're supposed to."