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Waynetown, Ind.
–As the prize money has increased in the sport of professional bass fishing, so have the stakes of the game. As the rewards have increased, both on and off the water, so has the level of competition for those benefits. It takes a consistent angler to place in the top 10 regularly.
36-year-old FLW Tour pro Shad Schenck of Waynetown, Ind. has been one of those anglers since the end of the 2007 season. Schenck ended last season with a 7th place finish on the Potomac River in June, a 5th place at the Detroit River in July, and a 17th at the Forrest L. Wood Cup.
As the 2008 FLW season opened at the Kissimmee Chain in the beginning of March by putting together his third regular season top 10 finish in a row when he finished 9th..
His FLW tournament career has included seven top 10 finishes, four trips to the FLW Tour Championship, and career earnings that total nearly $275,000. He has been a member of three different FLW fishing teams, including Conseco, 7up and until this season was on the A&W Root Beer team.
History of an FLW Pro
He is a graduate of Purdue University where he started the University’s bass fishing club and competed in three “Old Minnow Bucket” tournaments against Indiana University before graduating with a BS Degree in Agri Business Management.
After graduating from Purdue, Schenck worked his way up through fishing local bass club competition, to fishing local team tournaments with his best friend Dan Guard. He then stepped up to competing in the Indiana Federation, where he won the 1994 Indiana Federation State Classic.
After winning his state championship, Schenck turned his attention to the FLW Wal Mart BFL then to the Stren Series, where he finished 6th in the points race to receive an invitation to fish the FLW Tour. He took the chance on competing amongst FLW’s best, and hasn’t looked back since.
“As I look back on the whole thing, I have really covered every level of tournaments since I started,” Schenck told The BASS ZONE. “My career is evidence that someone can truly follow his dreams from club level to the FLW Tour.”
Success in Florida
His effort at Kissimmee was largely due to his opening round limit of 21 pounds, 3 ounces, a limit he caught by picking up his Fenwick flipping rod and put together a day of fishing that was based on efficiency and precision. While the majority of his competitors either stayed in Lake Toho, or locked through to Lake Kissimmee, Schenck ran to Lake Hatchineha and fished by himself.
“I try to fish as efficiently as I can,” said Schenk, who grew up on a grain and hog farm. “Success in fishing is much like anything else; it requires following a plan and doing it in the most effective way possible, it’s why I fished like I did in Florida.”
His program in Florida found him flipping the base of reeds looking for the last piece of available cover leading into open water for fish that were in transition from the shallows. “I flipped both Berkley Chigger Craws and Sweet Beavers there, but I wasn’t just running down the bank flipping just anything,” he said. “I was looking for the little points that extended the farthest from the reed patches into open water.” The program was responsible for his heavy sack on day one, and was good enough to maintain his place in the finals.
“I think my program was best on the first day in the cold conditions,” Schenck said. “The water temperature dropped, and it seemed to make the fish get tighter to the cover; after the first day it did get a little tougher though.”
Shad the Fisherman
Dock talk happens at every level of the sport, but Schenck said he tries to avoid it. “I have really tried to practice my own way, and not to listen to what is being said by the rest of the field,” Schenck said. “I try to analyze the bites that I get and let them tell me what I need to do based on the cues the fish are giving me.”
It is an analytical approach to fishing that he feels gives him an advantage when formulating his game plan. “If I get 10 bites on a certain bank, I will study each one to find out what the hidden similarities are,” Schenck said. “Once I am able to do that, I will begin to see what was keeping those fish there, and how I am going to approach them based on the information at hand.”
Schenck said that his greatest fishing strength is being able to find the most detailed pattern he can, and fishing as efficiently as possible. He said he is at his best when he has a flipping stick in his hand, and he is most comfortable fishing around some sort of aquatic vegetation. “Grass is my favorite type of cover to fish,” he said. “Put me around some grass and I will be ready to go.”
What’s Ahead?
That path to the FLW Tour has thus far put him in position to earn his fourth top 10 finish as the FLW Tour heads to Alabama’s Lewis Smith Lake and the second stop on the schedule. “I’ve never been to the lake before,” Schenck said of Smith Lake. “But, I’ve been fishing so good lately that I am looking forward to being there and giving myself a shot at extending my streak of top 10 finishes.”
He is without a corporate sponsor at the moment, but is working on a couple of deals that will step in where the A&W contract left off. “I am working on those partnerships and getting ready for Smith Lake,” he said. “The fans in Alabama make things really exciting; they make you feel very welcomed and I am looking forward to being in Birmingham.”
More about Shad
Schenck works for Specialty Seed Company as a salesman; he has been employed there for 16 years.
Schenck travels with Wesley Strader to and from tournaments; he said Strader is a great angler, and a man he has a great deal of respect for. “Wesley is in my opinion one of the 10 best fishermen in the world,” Schenck said. “He’s a great guy to be around too, his friendship means a lot to me.”
Schenck and his wife Sara were married in November, 2007, on the day after Thanksgiving. Sara will fly in to the tournament site for the weekend and to ride home with him after the tournament.
The BASS ZONE will be on location in Birmingham as the FLW Tour makes its second stop for the 2008 season April 3 – 6. BASS ZONE will bring you up to the minute details from on the water as the tournament progresses.
Information will be presented daily on our Live Chat, Photo Galleries and FLW Tour Videos with Dan O’Sullivan and Chad Morgenthaler. BASS ZONE’s coverage of the FLW Tour is presented by Jasper Engines and
Transmissions.
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