By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor


Jared Lintner didn’t want to have to rely on the Bassmaster Classic Bracket tournament as his means of qualifying for the 2019 Bassmaster Classic. So he took care of business at the Bassmaster Opens Championship.

Lintner, who’d finished 41st in Elite Series Angler of the Year points, was slated to be one of 16 anglers in north Georgia this week for the Classic Bracket at Carters Lake. With three Classic berths up for grabs there, Lintner’s odds would have been better than they were at the 28-man Opens Championship last week at Table Rock Lake, but he managed to adjust with the changing conditions and claimed the win with a three-day total of 37-00.

As it stood prior to the Opens Championship, Lintner’s only way to qualify for the Classic was to win it. A runner-up finish wouldn’t have earned him enough points to get into the top 3 in points in the Eastern Division.

“It was unique,” he said of the format. “Everything went by pretty quick. It was neat being involved with it. To win that thing, you first had to qualify and be successful all year.”

He carried a win-or-else mindset into the tournament, a tough task at Table Rock during the fall transition, but he managed to generate the right kind of bites with a jig and crankbait to close the deal.

“Coming into it, 2nd would’ve done me no good,” he said. “Having that mindset going in, I knew I was not going to win a tournament on a shaky head or a dropshot. I thought it’d be won on topwater – a buzzbait or (Whopper) Plopper or a Spook. I had some cool California paint jobs, but couldn’t get that going.”

Ultimately, smallmouth carried Lintner to victory as 14 of his 15 weigh-in fish were of the brown variety.

“If you’d have told me I could win it on smallmouth, I’d have told you you were crazy,” he said. “I never thought it would have happened.”

It did, and here are some additional details about how it went down.

Practice

In two Elite Series events at Table Rock (2006 and 2014), Lintner scored top-20s both times.

“I like the lake and the clear water doesn’t bother me,” he said. “We have a couple lakes back home where we catch them on reaction baits in gin clear water. In practice, there were a few times where I went a few hours between bites. I thought about tying up a Ned rig, then I remembered I wouldn’t win doing that.”

He started practice on topwaters and had a couple bites, but couldn’t generate anything consistent. He switched to crankbaits, which had served him well there before.

“I started cranking and got bites,” he said. “It seemed to be when I knew what I was looking for, it was automatic, but I got enough bites fishing the same style of banks and I just ran with that.”

Lintner also flipped a ¾-ounce jig around cedar trees. He generated some bites, but it seemed to taper off as the weather changed.

“What was weird about the whole situation is that in practice I only caught two or three largemouth,” he said. “The rest were smallmouth and spots. It was driving me nuts because I couldn’t figure out how to catch the largemouth. I shook off the jig fish, thinking they were largemouth, but they ended up being smallmouth.”

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 12-14
> Day 2: 5, 13-03
> Day 3: 5, 10-15
> Total = 15, 37-00

Coming out of practice, Lintner had a slew of options to start the tournament. He wound up focusing on the part of the lake between Kimberling City and Long Creek, where the field blasted off from. He caught three smallmouth in the first hour, but went until 11:30 a.m. before catching his fourth.

“I was like, ‘What is the deal,’” he quipped.

He finally finished his limit, then culled a couple times with the jig to tally 12-14 with one of just 10 limits recorded.

“I pushed that cedar deal because I felt like I needed bigger largemouth,” he said. “It just never materialized, I think, because we didn’t have any sun.”

With rain and much cooler temperatures rolling in for day 2, the fishing improved. Lintner caught roughly two dozen keepers, mainly on a crankbait.

“I had several stretches, but I started on the same spot all three days and caught a minimum of three fish there each day,” he said. “It was a long, flat point with a steep drop on one side that had some rock on it. There were stumps grouped together, too, and if I hit it right I either got snagged or I caught one.”

He mixed in a spinnerbait and tried to adjust to the conditions, but it wasn’t a “call your shot” sort of scenario, he said.

His 13-03 stringer boosted him into 2nd place behind Caleb Sumrall.

He caught a limit in the first hour of the final day and figured with the post-frontal conditions, the jig bite around the cedar trees would be a viable options. They produced one bite so he resorted back to the crankbait.

“With the wind blowing around 1 p.m., I thought they’d bite that,” he said. “I never had a bite. I changed colors and retrieves, but never got them to bite. I felt like I was letting it slip away.

“What made matters worse was I was fishing down a stretch and I see these guys in a duck boat. They move onto a flat and I’m cranking down the edge of it. They catch two, so I figured if they’re catching them, everybody must be catching them so what’s my problem.”

Entering the final day, Lintner figured a 13- or 14-pound bag would keep him on Sumrall’s heels, but he was certain another of the 12 finalists would come in with a big bag in the 17-pound range.

“I felt like I was a couple bites away,” he said. “I was really disappointed because I felt like I let it slip away.”

In reality, he was putting the finishing touches on a Classic berth.

“That’s the primary goal at the start of the season – making the Classic,” he said. “You want to win a tournament and Angler of the Year, but the primary goal is to make the Classic.”

Winning Pattern Notes

> Lintner said the deepest he fished all tournament was around 18 feet, mainly around the cedar trees. He cranked the 6- to 12-foot section of the water column.

Winning Gear Notes

> Jig gear: 7’5” heavy-action G. Loomis GLX flipping rod, Shimano Chronarch G casting reel (8.1:1 ratio), 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, ¾-oz. homemade pitching jig (camo craw), Strike King Rage Tail Bug trailer (blue craw).

> The jig Lintner used was poured by fellow pro Terry Scroggins.

> Cranking gear: 7’2” medium-heavy Shimano Expride fiberglass casting rod, Shimano Metanium MGL casting reel, 12-pound Sunline Cranking FC fluorocarbon line, SPRO RK Crawler (phantom brown), Jackall MC-60 (custom color).

> Lintner swapped the front hook on the SPRO crankbait for a #4 Lazer TroKar treble.

> In practice, Lintner tried some original Wiggle Warts, but didn’t feel it was getting deep enough. “When I’d get out to the 9- to 15-foot range I saw more fish,” he said. “They weren’t up on the bank and Wart didn’t get down there, but the RK Crawler got to those fish.”

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – “I felt comfortable with what I was fishing and I didn’t waver. I didn’t go, ‘I should pull out a dropshot.’ There are only so many hours in the day and there was never a time in the day where I said I should be doing something different. I was comfortable with my game plan even when they weren’t biting. Having that confidence all the time was a big key.”

> Performance edge – “The Garmin mapping for Table Rock is awesome. What I was looking for was not really main points, but the sides leading into creeks or pockets that had a steeper drop. If it was flat or too steep, it was no good. It was a certain contour I was looking for. It could be a flat pocket, but if you zoomed in there was one little spot where they’d be.”

Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here.

Final Results

1. Jared Lintner -- Arroyo Grande, CA -- 15, 37-00 -- 200 -- $56,500
Day 1: 5, 12-14 -- Day 2: 5, 13-03 -- Day 3: 5, 10-15

2. Brandon Lester -- Fayetteville, TN -- 15, 34-11 -- 199 -- $17,000
Day 1: 5, 10-10 -- Day 2: 5, 12-09 -- Day 3: 5, 11-08

3. Derek Hudnall -- Baton Rouge, LA -- 15, 34-01 -- 198 -- $5,500
Day 1: 5, 10-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-08 -- Day 3: 5, 11-09

4. Bobby Lane Jr. -- Lakeland, FL -- 14, 32-07 -- 197 -- $10,000
Day 1: 4, 08-06 -- Day 2: 5, 13-06 -- Day 3: 5, 10-11

5. Scott Suggs -- Alexander, AR -- 14, 32-03 -- 196 -- $1,000
Day 1: 4, 08-09 -- Day 2: 5, 13-11 -- Day 3: 5, 09-15

6. Carl Jocumsen – Queensland, Australia – 13, 31-15 -- 195 -- $600
Day 1: 4, 07-12 -- Day 2: 5, 13-05 -- Day 3: 4, 10-14

7. Stephen Browning -- Hot Springs, AR -- 13, 31-08 -- 194 -- $600
Day 1: 4, 08-13 -- Day 2: 5, 13-14 -- Day 3: 4, 08-13

8. Luke Palmer -- Coalgate, OK -- 14, 30-10 -- 193 -- $1,000
Day 1: 5, 10-09 -- Day 2: 4, 10-02 -- Day 3: 5, 09-15

9. Caleb Sumrall -- New Iberia, LA -- 11, 28-15 -- 192 -- $1,500
Day 1: 5, 15-01 -- Day 2: 5, 12-03 -- Day 3: 1, 01-11

10. Mark Rose -- Wynne, AR -- 11, 27-01 -- 191 -- $2,750
Day 1: 5, 15-09 -- Day 2: 3, 06-01 -- Day 3: 3, 05-07

11. Justin Atkins -- Florence, AL -- 11, 26-06 -- 190 -- $600
Day 1: 5, 10-04 -- Day 2: 5, 14-02 -- Day 3: 1, 02-00

12. Tyler Rivet -- Raceland, LA -- 8, 22-13 -- 189 -- $1,000
Day 1: 5, 14-06 -- Day 2: 3, 08-07 -- Day 3: 0, 00-00

The following anglers missed the cut and did not compete on day 3.

13. Brad Whatley -- Bivins, TX -- 10, 20-10 -- 188
Day 1: 5, 09-04 -- Day 2: 5, 11-06

14. Rob Digh -- Denver, NC -- 8, 20-04 -- 187
Day 1: 3, 06-07 -- Day 2: 5, 13-13

15. Toby Hartsell -- Afton, OK -- 9, 20-04 -- 186
Day 1: 4, 08-15 -- Day 2: 5, 11-05

16. Todd Auten -- Lake Wylie, SC -- 8, 20-00 -- 185
Day 1: 3, 07-05 -- Day 2: 5, 12-11

17. Harvey Horne -- Bella Vista, AR -- 9, 19-11 -- 184
Day 1: 4, 09-07 -- Day 2: 5, 10-04

18. Wesley Strader -- Spring City, TN -- 9, 19-07 -- 183
Day 1: 4, 07-00 -- Day 2: 5, 12-07

19. Mike Huff -- Corbin, KY -- 9, 18-15 -- 182
Day 1: 4, 08-01 -- Day 2: 5, 10-14

20. John Cox -- Debary, FL -- 8, 18-08 -- 181
Day 1: 3, 06-05 -- Day 2: 5, 12-03

21. Chad Pipkens -- Lansing, MI -- 9, 18-07 -- 180
Day 1: 4, 09-06 -- Day 2: 5, 09-01

22. Ed Loughran III -- Mechanicsville, VA -- 8, 17-14 -- 179
Day 1: 5, 12-12 -- Day 2: 3, 05-02

23. Garrett Paquette -- Canton, MI -- 7, 17-05 -- 178
Day 1: 3, 06-03 -- Day 2: 4, 11-02

24. Patrick Walters -- Ladson, SC -- 6, 12-06 -- 177
Day 1: 2, 03-08 -- Day 2: 4, 08-14

25. Frank Talley -- Temple, TX -- 6, 11-12 -- 176
Day 1: 4, 07-14 -- Day 2: 2, 03-14

26. Yusuke Miyazaki -- Forney, TX -- 5, 11-04 -- 175
Day 1: 2, 04-06 -- Day 2: 3, 06-14

27. Brock Mosley -- Collinsville, MS -- 3, 07-00 -- 174
Day 1: 2, 04-11 -- Day 2: 1, 02-05

28. Drew Cook -- Midway, FL -- 3, 05-11 -- 173
Day 1: 3, 05-11 -- Day 2: 0, 00-00