Some established anglers, like Denny Brauer, can afford to swing for the fences with great regularity. Others, struggling to keep their heads above water, have to do whatever they can to ensure that they get as many $10,000 checks as possible in the course of the year.

“I’m somewhere in between those (two extremes),” Schultz said. “The truth is, the only time I fish exclusively for the win is when I know I’ve secured a check or locked up a spot in the Classic. And that’s probably why it’s been years since I’ve won anything – by fishing too conservatively.”

And therein lies the rub – Schultz is one of several successful and well-respected veteran pros who have not tasted victory with BASS. He’s frequently in the hunt, but not always able to fully throw caution to the wind. 

While Schultz has won on other circuits, he’s open about the fact that the lack of a BASS victory on his resume eats at him: “It’s aggravating for sure,” he said. “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t on my mind.”

Young Guns
While Schultz’s angling IQ continues to increase, so too does the level of competition. Unlike baseball, football or basketball, where deteriorating physical skills may offset any increased savvy, professional anglers can continue to be competitive well into their senior years. So as Schultz improves, the Denny Brauers and Rick Clunns raise their game in lockstep. At the same time, each year a new crop of hungry youngsters enters the game.

“The kids coming in now are so talented and so well prepared,” he said. “With just a little bit of research they can be light years ahead of where we were starting out.”

He doesn’t feel that the twenty-somethings have a physical advantage, and he said that mentally he’s “better than (he) used to be,” but some factors may favor the newer kids on tour. In fact, he believes there are times when being new to the game can actually work to their advantage.

“I have distractions of family and business that keep me from practicing as much as I used to,“ he said. “I won a lot of different tournaments when I was young and I still have the goal of winning every event I enter. When that’s gone, then it’s time to quit. I have to take each event one at a time. I’m not intending to sell anybody short, but sometimes when you just go in with no pressure, looking to compete, you find yourself with a trophy in your hands.”

He also deals with pressure, albeit of the unintended variety, from his two teenage sons. “My kids want me to win more than I do,” Schultz said. “I try to tell them that for every premier player in the NFL, there are hundreds of other great players who are not in the public eye. But they still expect me to win every event I enter, and maybe that’s a good thing.” 

“With my luck, any time I get an early draw (in the take-off order) it seems I have nowhere to go. I always say ‘All dressed up and nowhere to go.’”

He said that he’s had numerous opportunities to win, but on multiple occasions victory “fell through the cracks. Sometimes it was due to mechanical failures. Other times it was the intrusion of other competitors. And of course there were times when I just didn’t perform well enough when it mattered most.”

Still he knows that a victory is “within reach” and remains “hopeful that it will happen.”

Near Misses
The 2008 Elite Series season was a mixed bag for Schultz. From Kissimmee through Murray, he cashed five consecutive checks, but then the ride became a little unsteady at Wheeler and Kentucky Lake as he missed three of the next four top fifty cuts. Only a heroic charge at Oneida sealed his spot in the Classic, his first since 2004.

Along the way, he felt that he had two legitimate chances to win, but neither progressed the way he expected.

“At Falcon, I found a spot that was loaded with (big) fish,” he said. “I just didn’t know how good it was. I started in another location and caught them pretty good. I thought a four to five pound average was good, but then I went there and in seven casts I culled all but one fish in the box. I had five weighing 31 pounds and I left immediately.”

On Day 2, he returned to the same spot and in five casts he had a 30 pound limit in the boat. Once again, he left immediately.

“It felt like attrition would eventually catch up with the leaders,” he explained. “I had two more days to milk that spot since I had no other competition there and I hadn’t put any real pressure on it. But for inexplicable reasons, the third day I never got a bite there. I don’t understand why or where they might have gone. I did manage about 23 pounds with a 9 pound kicker nearby, but the mother lode had left.”

With a three-day total of nearly 85 pounds, Schultz narrowly missed the cut to Sunday, ending up 15th at Falcon.

“I do try to practice to win, but my track record has proven that I’m not able to find the winning fish,” he concluded wearily.

At the season’s final event at Oneida, Schultz once again felt like he was around the fish to win the tournament, all due to his “go early, stay late” work ethic. On a final official practice day when the nasty weather led many pros to curtail their efforts, Schultz pushed the envelope, staying out at a time when he normally would have been preparing his boat and tackle and getting ready for the registration meeting.

“There were really heavy winds with hard rain, so a lot of guys didn’t go out, but I’m still out there at 3 pm,” he said. “That’s when I found a key area that carried me through the tournament. I found largemouth and smallmouth mixed in really thick grass.”

He said that he had most of his water to himself, which is “always crucial on a smaller lake,” but he had to share his best area with fellow top twelve qualifier Terry Butcher and that may have been the difference between 10th place and victory. While he’s not certain that having that area to himself would have earned him a win, he surmised that had either he or Butcher fished there without the other’s presence, it might have been enough to surpass eventual winner Dean Rojas. As it was, Schultz was remarkably consistent, catching four quality limits of bass, but he never managed to sack one of the 17 to 20 pound limit that gave other top qualifiers like Rojas and Mike Iaconelli some separation from the rest of the field. 

Classic Dreams
While the near-misses at Falcon and Oneida disappointed Schultz, they also provided him with points necessary to qualify for his eighth Bassmaster Classic. 

The upcoming championship will be held on Louisiana’s Red River, site of another one of Schultz’s “could have beens.” At the 2000 FLW Championship, Schultz was in position to win the trophy and the $250,000 top prize through the initial round. He led the event at the day two cut, but on day three the weights were zeroed. Even more significantly, the take-off time shifted and that spelled Schultz’s undoing.

“They started us at daylight the first two days,” he said. “Then the third day they started us at 8 am. We knew it would happen going in, but I never understood why they did that. Maybe the officials thought it would draw more of a crowd. It was late summer and it was really, really hot. The fish were not active once the sun got up. They bit the first hour. I was really dialed in. It was mine to win, but that was taken away by delaying the take-off time.”

On the third day, he managed only four small keepers and ended up in 9th place.

Despite that disappointment, he’s primed for the upcoming world championship. But he expects that it will be different than any tournament he has fished there in the past.

“It has always been late summer or fall when we’ve fished the Red River,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what to expect in February. I think they’ll still be in a winter or pre-spawn pattern. I don’t think they’ll be bedding but they should be shallow and I like the amount of visible cover there.”

Whether victory comes in February or further down the road, Schultz shows no signs of slowing down.

“I still want to be out there,” he said. “My best fishing is ahead of me.”