Besides functional navigation lights, a spotlight, black light and lights for the planer boards, having a headlamp or one of those Cat's Eye lights that clips to the bill of a cap is a good idea, as is taping a flashlight to the landing net.

Keeping any gear not being used stowed away is a standard operating procedure for any night-fishing mission. Leave a couple of unused rods on the deck "out of the way" and you'll be thinking about my adage "the surest way to get two lines tangled is to get them within 10 feet of each other" before your night on the water is over.

Trolling reels with line-counter capability will greatly enhance your fish-catching talents because they allow replication of a successful fish-catching pattern. The science of trolling has made quantum advances since those September nights 30 years ago, fishing No. 18 silver/blue Rapalas seven rod sweeps back behind the boat in a long-line presentation. This technique will still work, and could be the most effective way to fish if you're out there alone in the dark. But three anglers in the boat is a team rather than a crowd when offering up a trolling pattern during low light.

Walleyes can move up into as little as 1 foot of water when on a nighttime feeding binge. If you have a rocky point or similar structure where these fish foregather on a regular basis, donning waders or casting from the shoreline is usually a better way to go than trolling.

Removing the front treble hook and holding the rod tip high will minimize hangups on everything but fish. A steady retrieve works better because it allows the walleyes to home in on your lure with less difficulty.

When trolling, lures that run down about 6 feet seem to work best. Bait profile, trolling speed and distance the lures are pegged behind the planer boards are all variables that need to be dialed in as you tweak the presentation. At 1.8 mph, setting Rapala Husky Jerks back 27 feet, Reef Runner Ripsticks at 20 feet and Smithwick Rogues at 35 feet behind the planer boards will put these lures in the strike zone of night-bite walleyes relating to the shoreline or shallow structure. Color isn't as important as bait profile when trolling at night. But chrome/blue, chrome/black, clown and glass patterns tend to work better in clear lakes.

Bring along spare flashlights and batteries, and two landing nets with extendable handles. I have two Beckman nets with rubberized bags to minimize snagging, and I tape a flashlight to the handles of both nets. Multiple hookups are common when you drag your lures over a school of September walleyes at night. Experience teaches that if you have one net and hit a double, the first fish to the boat will be smaller, tangle in the net and take the whole shebang into at least two other lines. The flashlight taped to the landing net's handle will then reveal a walleye doing a headshake on the surface -- just barely hooked and inches out of net range.

Such an encounter is the rite of passage for night-stick walleye anglers, who all have one more trait in common: They have never lost a little fish.