Joe Okada is from Madison, Wisconsin and has been tournament fishing professionally for over 15 years.

He has fished in the MWC, AIM, and NWT walleye circuits. He has held seminars and done a large amount of social media content to promote the sport of fishing. 

Joe started fishing tournaments back in 2004 when he fished the MWC with his dad. One of Joe’s best fishing memories is taking 1st place with his dad in a tournament back in 2012 in the AIM Pro Walleye series on Green Bay. He fished a lot of team events with his dad from 2004-2014 in series like MWC and AIM and then transitioned into fishing more pro-events like the NWT.

Joe describes himself as a very analytical fisherman and extremely detailed fisherman. Joe says his favorite species to fish for is walleyes and his favorite technique to fish for them is using swimbaits. Joe says one of his favorite baits is the Strikemaster Rage Swimmer and that has been a great substitute for live bait. 

When Joe isn’t fishing professional walleye tournaments, he is spending time with his wife and daughter. Joe also enjoys multi-species fishing for bass, panfish, and even carp. Joe says he talks about the amount of support he receives from his family to chase his passion for tournament fishing, and is excited for them to be able to watch him fish live during each PWS event.

Joe is excited about the PWS season and the new format will change the way he might approach a tournament. Since Joe is very detailed and analytical, he normally likes to pick apart an area very thoroughly. With the 5 hour tournament time, he might have to run and gun a lot more. He said that he will look for consistent patterns so he could target a bigger fish and then look for areas where he can consistently catch fish.