There’s something to be said for a long-time fishing pro who has stuck with it through the bad times and the good. One of the more respected professional anglers fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series is Toyota Bonus Bucks member Bernie Schultz. Widely known as one of the hardest workers in the fishing industry, he’s looking to close his 2024 season on a high note as he returns to some of the most productive stomping grounds of his career.
“When we do this Northern swing, I just always love the change of scenery and the weather is so nice,” Schultz said. “I live in Florida, so I’m leaving 100-degree temperatures and when I arrive at the St. Lawrence, my Tundra reads 70-something degrees. It is such a welcome relief from all of the heat in my area.”
Aside from the beautiful weather conditions, however, are the enormous smallmouth that inhabit the crystal-clear waters of the St. Lawrence River. You might think that a Florida-based fisherman might have some difficulties catching these fish but in Bernie’s case, you very well might be mistaken.
“I’ve been coming up here since the 80s and part of the allure is, of course, we don’t have smallmouth where I live,” Schultz said. “But my gosh, when you hook into one, they’re an outstanding game fish. They fight until the very end, they’re acrobatic and they eat all kinds of different lures; everything from bottom-probing baits to topwaters and everything between, they just seem to eat it all when the time is right. It’s just so fun to chase them.”
It might be easy to simply talk about your love of a region of the country and a fishery, but Schultz sincerely loves this area in the throes of summer. When it’s unbearably hot in his home state of Florida, you won’t be hard-pressed to find him around the St. Lawrence area.
“When Bassmaster first started coming here, it was a learning curve but it clicked for me,” Schultz said. “The fish were shallow, aggressive and responded to what I was most comfortable doing. Whether it was spinnerbaits, topwaters, jerkbaits—the stuff I loved doing was really paying off. Then I found out about the 1991 Canadian Open and I drove up just for that tournament and ended up winning it. I’d stay for a month at a time because I loved the fishing, area and climate so much.”
Although he’s still comfortable with the St. Lawrence River, Schultz does admit the fishery has drastically changed since his early days. Smallmouth bass used to be viewed almost as a trash fish in that era, so they faced very little fishing pressure and would be more prone to attack power-fishing techniques such as jerkbaits, topwaters and even spinnerbaits. Now that more Northern anglers have been exposed to the excitement of chasing big smallmouth bass, fishing pressure has certainly changed his approach in recent years.
“Fishing pressure, along with the advent of gobies and zebra mussels, has drastically changed things but make no mistake, it’s still a phenomenal fishery,” Schultz said. “They don’t eat spinnerbaits like they used to and those topwater plugs are a very periodical thing and rarely, if ever, produce a winning bag. It’s much more of a finesse thing now. Light line and forward-facing sonar are pretty much a requirement to win a four-day event.”
The veteran pro has high hopes for this upcoming event despite some recent struggles. In baseball terms, his swing was just barely “off”.
“I feel like I was just a split-second behind the fastball this season,” Schultz said. “I had some outstanding practices where it almost seemed too easy. But for whatever reason, I just didn’t adjust quickly enough during the actual tournament. You can miss by just a smidge but at the end of the tournament, that’s a huge deal. You can be 30 minutes early or late to one of your spots and that can define your entire tournament.”
Will past success equal present victory for the long-time Elite Series veteran? Time will only tell. But one thing is absolutely certain: Bernie Schultz is ready to play hardball with some giant smallies this week on the St. Lawrence River.
