OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – Jared Lintner of Covington, Georgia, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces to win the Toyota Series event at Lake of the Ozarks and earn the top payout of $38,289. Over the three days of competition Lintner weighed in 15 bass totaling 51-8 to earn the win by a 3-14 margin over Dennis Berhorst of Holts Summit, Missouri, who finished second with a three-day total of 47-10, good for $15,837.
Three things you can count on in an early-fall tournament on Ozarks: the bite might be inconsistent to tough, the lake’s multitude of docks will probably play a key role and the winner must avoid any costly one-day fumbles.
Check, check, and check for Lintner, who made the most of an inconsistent fall bite by running a wide-open, “hit and run” dock pattern for three days at the Plains Division season finale, wrapping up his first career Toyota Series win.
“We moved out here to be closer to lakes like these,” Lintner said as he accepted the trophy, referring to his move from Central California to Georgia two years ago. “Living where we do now, I can see a tournament like this on the schedule and go ‘Oh, I think I’ll fish that.’ I like fishing all of these Ozarks lakes, but I couldn’t really jump into tournaments like this living in California.”
His consistency was key at as he followed up a 16-3 first day with 19-6 on Day 2 and 15-15 on Saturday. Berhorst’s 19-4 on Saturday was the second-biggest bag of the event and followed up 16-3 on Day 2, but he only caught 12-3 on Day 1.
Lintner earned the nickname “the Milkman” when he worked as a dairy-delivery driver around his home in Arroyo Grande, California, before committing to a full-time pro career. His approach on Ozarks lived up to his nickname – he spent all three days with both his big motor and trolling motor warmed up at all times, running “at least 40 or 50 docks a day” in search of docks where he believed he could catch better-than-average fish.
“I covered a ton of water every day, looking for real specific docks,” Lintner said. “I wanted docks that were close to a main-lake point and were somewhat isolated. If there were a bunch of docks together, that wasn’t the deal for me. I was looking for real specific areas where there was one, maybe two, docks in a quarter-mile stretch. And the bigger the dock, the better.”
Lintner’s dock attack turned up 16-3 on Day 1, good enough for third place, most of it on a 5/16-ounce ARK Wes Logan Swim Jig in blue magic with a white Zoom Z Craw trailer, and a 1/2-ounce ARK Randall Tharp Flipping Jig in old-school brown. He spent that evening poring over the maps on his Garmin EchoMAP Ultra 2 in search of more isolated docks to add to his expanding collection of waypoints.
Day 2 brought clouds and shade on his docks, which Linter exploited with a 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen ChatterBait Jack Hammer (white/gold blade) with a white Yamamoto Zako trailer and the same ARK swim jig.
“Eighty percent of the water I ran every day was brand new,” Lintner said. “I’d pull up the map and zoom in on docks that looked like what I wanted, and I’d just spend the day running to those docks. That was a key for me in having consistent weights – the volume of docks I ran. I caught a ton of fish every day – probably 50 a day – but only had five to seven keepers a day. Getting those keeper bites was hard, but I think running all new water really helped me. There wasn’t really any reason why a 3 1/2- or 4-pounder would show up, I couldn’t replicate it. I had to just keep fishing as many docks as I could.”
Lintner returned to the reaction baits on the final day, weighing all but one fish on the ChatterBait and swim jig (but catching his biggest fish on the flipping jig).
“I’ve picked up that dock deal over the years fishing all of these lakes around here: Bull Shoals, Table Rock, Lake of the Ozarks,” Lintner said. “It’s something I knew coming into this week, and I caught fish at all kinds of depths doing it. I caught some as shallow as a foot and a half deep, and some where my boat was in 55 feet of water.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1st: Jared Lintner, Covington, Ga., 15 bass, 51-8, $38,289
2nd: Dennis Berhorst, Holts Summit, Mo., 15 bass, 47-10, $15,837
3rd: Andy Newcomb, Camdenton, Mo., 15 bass, 47-8, $11,787
4th: Brock Reinkemeyer, Warsaw, Mo., 14 bass, 43-12, $9,822
5th: Casey Scanlon, Eldon, Mo., 15 bass, 43-10, $8,615
6th: Chris Digino, Dallas, Texas, 15 bass, 42-11, $7,658
7th: Jake Lawrence, Buchanan, Tenn., 15 bass, 42-10, $6,701
8th: Corbin Bailey, Camdenton, Mo., 14 bass, 42-6, $5,743
9th: Jason Moppin, Cross Timbers, Mo., 14 bass, 39-12, $4,786
10th: Lawson Hibdon, Versailles, Mo., 15 bass, 39-6, $3,829
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
With all three regular-season events in the Toyota Series Plains Division now complete, Jake Lawrence of Buchanan, Tennessee, was crowned the Plains Division Angler of the Year (AOY), earning the AOY payout of $5,000 with 773 points.
