WADDINGTON, N.Y. — “I Love New York,” is a popular advertising slogan used since the 1970s to promote tourism in the state. The use of a red heart as a symbol for the word “love” makes the logo stand out.
What stands out about Florida pro Bernie Schultz is that he indeed loves the entire state of New York. His B.A.S.S. career scorecard proves the point.
On Schultz’s resume are 25 tournaments fished in New York. Of those, Schultz has 9 finishes inside the top 20. His best, a 6th place finish in 2013, came on the St. Lawrence River, here in Waddington.
Schultz is back in familiar territory. He currently ranks 8th at the Huk Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence presented by Go Rving. He got there after catching a Day 2 limit weighing 19 pounds, 2 ounces, to bring his total catch to 41-8.
That begs the question of why Schultz so loves New York?
“The first time I came here I fell in love with it,” he admitted. “The fish were shallow and I caught them on every lure category that existed.”
Deep diving crankbaits even worked. From topwaters to jerkbaits, jigs to spinnerbaits, the smallmouth and largemouth eagerly hit the lures. Part of the reason, back then, was a lack of fishing pressure. There was a peculiar reason why.
Black bass were just gaining respect by anglers for their sporting value just prior to Schultz’s first New York visit in 1986. In the early 1980s, tales of walleye anglers hauling aboard smallmouth and clubbing the “trash” fish were common on the St. Lawrence River. Those anglers eventually came around after witnessing anglers like Schultz catching, enjoying and making money by catching the green and brown fish.
Schultz went on to win a Canadian Open tournament, a major event in that country, and another lucrative tournament later on. Each time, the more he learned about New York fishing, the more he enjoyed it.
Schultz discovered that power fishing, one of his angling strengths, could be modified to work in the clearer water. Sight fishing worked too, but not like the Floridian was accustomed to in the ultra-shallow waters. The clearer water enabled him to see smallmouth in deeper water, up to 10 feet.
“Overall, you always feel like you have a chance to win, it’s just that good,” he said. “You have a lot of options with the largemouth and smallmouth.”
Catching mixed bags in tournaments isn’t uncommon. What is unusual is finding quality catches of smallmouth and largemouth in the same fishery, during the same tournament. You can do that in New York.
“I’ve had days where the smallmouth were challenging, and to go catch largemouth oftentimes restored my confidence,” he admitted.
Those days are rare. More common are days like today, when Schultz continued exploiting the options and leveraging the above-average smallmouth fishing.
Narrowing down the New York love to the core produced this answer.
“Versatility,” he said. “You’ve got to keep thinking because things can quickly change.”
“Being versatile plays into my wheelhouse and I pride myself on versatility,” he added. “I can play that card here, just about anytime.”
That’s understandable when you get to go fishing during the prime time for some of the nation’s best smallmouth angling. And the largemouth fishing isn’t bad, either.