By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Bernie Schultz's performance was one of the feel-good stories of the 2015 Bassmaster Elite Series season. At age 60, he cashed checks in seven of the eight regular-season events en route to an 18th-place finish in the Angler of the Year race.

The 2016 campaign was a different story altogether, though. The Floridian posted five finishes of 82nd or worse in nine outings, including three of 104th or lower. His final placement on the points list also contained three digits – 100th on the nose.

The worst part about it is that he has no ready explanation for his 82-place tumble in the AOY standings.

"I actually feel like I did almost everything right, but that certainly wasn't evident by the outcome," he said. "I felt optimistic at every event – they were all shallow venues, and that plays to my strengths normally. I was really looking forward to the season going in and I did quite a bit of prep work.

"I felt good at every event, but amazingly, most of the time the fish weren't there on the tournament days after I'd had productive practices. Things just didn't materialize. At some point, after you've done things right in practice, it should be easy on the tournament days, but it never was."

Fell Apart in a Hurry

Schultz's season actually got off to an okay start as he logged a 44th-place showing in the opener at the St. Johns River in his home state and a 34th two events later at the Bull Shoals/Norfork combined venue derby.

The St. Johns outcome was actually a bit of a disappointment, however, as for the only time all year he was sand-bagged by some lost fish that would've greatly aided his cause. Bull Shoals/Norfork was just the opposite – he felt like he capitalized on everything he'd found and was confident that the tournament would be a springboard for the remainder of the season.

Unfortunately, there were no more good vibes to come. His average finish over the final six tournaments was 93rd.

Although he hails from the extreme southern end of the country, he's traditionally fared well in the northern portion. That wasn't the case this year, though, as he concluded the season with finishes of 93rd at Cayuga Lake, 106th at the Potomac River and 105th at the Mississippi River.

Perhaps the most disheartening of those was at the Mississippi in Wisconsin, where not only did his practice fish disappear, but so did the cover he'd found them in.

"I went to the pool above the one we launched out of on the first practice day and found a good group of fish on a frog," he said. "I left them alone after that, and then we had those really bad storms come through.

"When I went back on the first day of the tournament, that whole matted area was gone – it'd been totally blown away by the storms. My fishing spot had actually disappeared."

Not Much to Take Away

Schultz's season was so dumbfounding that he isn't sure he learned a single thing from it.

"All I can do is put it behind me," he said. "I wish there was a way to gain something from it. I do a thing for (Gary Yamamoto's) Inside Line at the end of every year called 'Lessons Learned', but I haven't written it yet for this year because I don't know what to write.

"I don't know what I would've done differently based on what was going on at the time. Most of the time on tournament days everything looked like it should have when I got out there and I expected the same results (from practice), but it never materialized. I tried to make adjustments, but I just didn't figure it out."

He doesn't look for places to lay the blame – he knows it was all on him.

"I don't want to make excuses. If I'd done my job right, I'd have had some backup plans for those events, and clearly I didn't. If anything, maybe next year's focus will be on having something to fall back on if things go south."

Notable

> Although Schultz again likes the look of the 2017 Elite schedule (although not quite as well as this year's version), he's not enamored with the driving logistics involved. "That wasn't planned out as well as it could've been," he said. "There's a lot of back and forth to a certain part of the country. It could've been streamlined and made more efficient by putting some events back to back, but B.A.S.S. decided to spread it out, for whatever reason. There's twice as much driving as there needed to be."