By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
There was a lot for Jared Lintner to dislike about the 2017 Bassmaster Elite Series season. He didn’t like that he made just three top-50 cuts out of nine full-field tournaments and finished a career-worst 82nd in Angler of the Year points. He didn’t like that he never settled into a rhythm or flow during the season. He doesn’t like that he won’t be competing at Lake Hartwell in March at the Bassmaster Classic.
As much as he’d like to wipe the year from his memory, there were some valuable takeaways he hopes will help him once the 2018 season rolls around. In fact, he says the lessons learned this past season will be extremely valuable down the road.
“I learned this year more about myself and tournament fishing than any other year,” Lintner said. “I learned to fish through dead periods and be confident that it’s going to happen. Before, I noticed myself spinning out and spazzing out. I learned a lot and trusted more of what I was doing. The problem is the results didn’t show that this year.
“On the Elites, everybody can fish and figure them out. It’s not like you’re in the Tri-Valley Bass Club. What separates guys like Jason Christie and Kevin (VanDam) and guys who are perennial winners is their mental attitude. I’m working on it. I’m still not as mentally strong as I need to be.”
Spun Out Easily
Lintner says he’s frequently gauged how his days are going to go by how the first couple stops pan out or how productive the first hour is on a tournament day.
“I’ve always been one that I need a good start to a day and start catching them right away,” he said.
Obviously, it doesn’t always happen that way and when he wouldn’t get bites during the timeframes he hoped to, his frustration began to swell. He said at several tournaments this year, he’d have dynamite practices followed by dreadful tournaments and vice versa. It was hard to make sense of it all, he said.
“At Rayburn, I had one of the best practices I’ve had ever,” he said. “I caught them on a buzzbait, a frog, flipping and got plenty of big bites. My biggest one in the tournament was a 5-pounder and I caught one. Other guys around me were catching the same size fish and bigger. I kept thinking I’d catch a couple big ones, but it never happened.
“I don’t think I’m a horrible fisherman because I didn’t catch a big one, but it seemed too easy in practice. I’ve had tournaments where I’ve been the guy getting those bites.”
By the end of the season, he’d realized that sticking to his plan was worth the effort. Despite an 82nd-place finish at Lake St. Clair, there was a sequence that illustrated why it’s important to maintain his focus and a positive outlook.
“At 7:30 a.m. on day 1, I had two nice ones in the boat,” he said. “At 3:05 p.m., I still had the same two fish with a 3:40 check in and a 20-minute run to get back. I wound up catching a limit between 3:10 and 3:20.
“When you sit back and think about it – this is something my wife mentioned – our shortest tournament day is 8 to 9 hours,” he said. “That’s a long day. If I fish with a mentality that I’m going to get bites, I’ll have the opportunities. I can’t talk myself out of areas where I know they are because they didn’t bite in the first hour.
“It was tough. If you’re getting outworked that’s shame on you,” he added. “If you’re doing the work and figure something out and it doesn’t happen, you can’t blame the guy in the mirror. You just have to keep working.”
Glass Half Full
Lintner admits he’s struggled with maintaining a positive outlook on the water, especially when frustrating things occur that are outside of his control. A fish comes off at the boat or other anglers around him manage to catch bigger fish, for example. He’s aware of the impact a negative attitude can have and he’s worked to turn his thinking around.
“I always focus on the failures or the negatives and my mind always goes to the misses,” he said. “It’s one thing I need to resolve with myself. I find talking to my son about him playing basketball helps me understand what I need to be listening to – I need to listen to myself more.
“None of us are out there because you think you’re pretty good. It’s not a coincidence that I’m one of the few who’s been there since the Elites started. I’ve just been bad in the past about the glass being half empty.”
At the season opener at Cherokee Lake, he recorded two fish for 3-11 on day 1, a depressing start to the year where the wind and cold creeped into the minds of some.
“I was pretty bummed out,” he said. “I remember that day clearly. In practice, I was catching them swimming a swimbait on a ballhead jig. I cranked a few and caught a couple on the Damiki rig, but I wanted to throw a swimbait.
“I lost a couple early and fought it the rest of the day. The wind was blowing and I was fishing it too fast. The day got away from me. At noon, I had one and I remember thinking, ‘I won’t catch another one.’”
He bounced back on day 2 and went from 99th to 67th on the leaderboard, salvaging what could’ve been a bomb to open the year.
“The next day, I fished same water and had the attitude of ‘What am I going do? Fall another 30 spots?’” he said. “I was culling 17-pound bags. I fished the same baits in the same water and just had a looser mental approach. Little things like that matter."
On day 1 at Ross Barnett Reservoir in April, he had a small limit for around 10 pounds late in the day and felt like he needed a big one to separate himself. He caught a 6 1/2-pounder and a 5-pounder in the last 30 minutes to finish the day with 16-11, which had him tied for 11th place. He didn’t record a limit on either of the next two days, but his 25th-place showing was his highest finish of the season outside of the Classic.
“The thing I’ve learned the most this year based on everything is the very first cast is just as important as the last cast,” he said. “The phrase ‘Never give up’ resonated with me.”
