T C C UO A NALIESF - T OA U R L P N I A
Story
BY PETE ROBBINS
Photos Courtesy of AFTCO
with Jared Lintner
W
ith a seven-week break between the Elite Series season’s sixth
event at Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas and the start of the tour’s
northern swing, Jared Lintner couldn’t just make a short trip to get
ready for smallmouth country. The St. Lawrence River, Lake Cham- plain and Lake St. Clair are a long haul from his home in Arroyo Grande. But rather
than cursing the darkness, Lintner decided to light a candle, and he went practic-
ing in the most effective way he knew how – in a place where no self-respecting
smallmouth would ever be caught.
He went fishing for calico bass off the coast of California.
“Calicos are very much like a largemouth or a smallmouth,” he said. “They just
pull harder. The places we were fishing, the currents were very similar to those we’ll
experience on the St. Lawrence, and the fish were setting up exactly the same
way they do on the St. Lawrence. I learned a lot about how current affects from
doing things like this. Even if they’re 100-feet deep, some rock piles are just better
that others that seem similar just because of how the current hits them. The tide
affects them, too, but it’s more about the current.”
Unlike some tour-level pros who are all bass, all the time, Lintner tries to
schedule at least a few trips for other species each year, whether it be bottom
fishing in the salt, salmon fishing, or something else altogether. That’s an interest
he shares with multiple other pros, including good friend Jeff Kriet, who seems to
compete as a means of financing his offshore habit.
Time constraints limit the number of trips that Lintner can take each year, so
while relaxation and fun are the primary drivers of where he goes, those that will
pay benefits at his “day job” are also given preferential status.
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