Angling
Bill Schultz
Age: 58
State/Hometown: New Berlin, Wisconsin
About me: I work at the Medical College of Wisconsin as Executive Director of Alumni Relations. I’m married to Rebecca, a Family Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Professor with the University of Wisconsin Medical School. We don’t have children, but love our three wonderful cats, Tiger Lilly, Motor and Sadie. I wish they like fishing with me. The other activity we do on a regular basis is hiking. We have great hiking west of the Milwaukee area and we have hiked in Colorado many times.
I am very involved in two sports. Over 40 years in racquetball and seriously back into fishing since 1992. I still am involved in racquetball and am the Team Leader in Wisconsin for E-Force Racquetball and am a member of the Wisconsin Racquetball Association Hall-of-Fame.
Favorite Wilderness Systems Kayak: Tarpon 140
Favorite Place to Fish: My two favorite places to fish are a variety of Wisconsin rivers and Door County, Wisconsin (Green Bay of Lake Michigan) for big water smallies.
Favorite Species of Fish: This is an easy one, smallmouth bass. I caught my first smallie in 1994 and since then have caught and released over 11,000. I’ve focused on smallmouth, but also enjoy catching largemouth and panfish.
Favorite Rod/Reel: As a member of the St. Croix Rod Pro Staff I’ve been fortunate to fish with their tremendous rods since 1998. I actually used their rods before joining the pro staff. I use a variety of their rods for both lake and river smallies. Overall I probably use the 7’ Medium Light and Medium actions rods the most. I’m generally using rods from the Legend Xtreme, Legend Elite and Legend Tournament Series. Over the past seven years I’ve done reel review articles and have had a chance to fish a number of outstanding spinning and baitcast reels. Currently, I’m using the Shimano Stradics, the Saros, along with the Symetre. I also am using the Abu Garcia Soron, Pflueger Supreme XT and Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series Spinning and Daiwa Fuego 2000. I don’t fish baitcasters as much, but am using the Bass Pro and Plueger baitcast reels.
Favorite Bait/Lure: For me this is split between the river fishing and the lake fishing. For the smaller rivers I fish, I feel the Rebel Teeny Wee-Crawfish is really hard to beat. In recent years I’ve also been having tremendous success on both rivers and lakes swimming the 4” and 5” Kalin’s Lunker grub on a Gopher Tackle mushroom head jig. Also, for both rivers and lakes I have had great success with a Texas-rigged or Wacky-rigged 3”, 4” and sometimes 5” YUM Dinger. Booyah Spinnerbaits have been productive in Door County and on lakes, while the Booyah Pond Magic Buzzbait has been great on rivers. Another nice river lure has been the Mepps Aglia Streamer.
Professional Accomplishments: My first fishing article was published in 1998, the same year I join the St. Croix Rod Pro Staff. Since that point I have had the pleasure of writing many articles for magazines and web sites www.riversmallies.com and www.lake-link.com. I have also been featured in articles in a variety of magazines and newspapers, including Bassmasters twice, Outdoor Life and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a number of times. This year, 2009, will be my first doing segments on two popular fishing and outdoor TV shows. In 2001 I presented my first seminar at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show and have spoken at that show seven times, Madison Fishing expo in 2003 and 2008, Bass Pro Shops (Chicago) Fishing Classic each year since 2003 for St. Croix Rod, Chicagoland Sports Show each year since 2004 and many fishing clubs, including the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance and Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance. Along with St. Croix Rods, I am sponsored by a variety of other fishing and outdoor related companies. I am very proud to now be a member of the Wilderness Systems National Pro Team.
Why I Love Kayak Fishing: Kayak fishing adds yet another dimension to my fishing arsenal. We have many lakes west of Milwaukee that cannot be fished with a motorized boat, yet have good populations of smallmouth bass and largemouth bass. My Wilderness Systems kayak gives me access to these lakes, as well as a number of rivers, like the Wisconsin River, that are perfect for kayak fishing. I really like the quiet aspect of kayak fishing and not to be overlooked the exercise benefits.
Media:
