Sight Fishing with Pro Angler Jared Lintner and G.Loomis (continued)

These beds with shiny characteristics are what I was used to identifying and we found many that were clearly beds but had no resident fish. My first thought was that fish could have finished spawning and moved off, or possibly even have been caught during one of the recent tournaments, but Jared prompted me to take a longer look in many cases.

Can you see the two fish? Jared did.

Where I normally would have seen an empty bed and kept on moving down the bank we kept our distance and waited. Sure enough there were some instances where a fish had not fully locked on yet and was still cruising the perimeter. In some of these occasions fish were still very spooky, but in some cases they were catchable. Jared would test the perimeter using a variety of baits and if he could get the fish to exhibit territorial behavior he knew they were catchable.

Jared pitches a tube targeting a fish in the shallow water

Throughout the day I was astounded by what Jared was seeing, or more rather what I was failing to see. Sight fishing is not just for shallow water and he would point out fish holding in 20 foot plus depths. In one rocky area he pointed out a fish holding on a bed over twenty feet down. I could barely make out the bottom let alone see a shadow or outline of a fish, and when I didn’t believe it Jared grabbed a white Texas rigged lizard and proved it to me by dragging the bait over the area only to cause the fish to suddenly break away.

Bruce and Jared take turns pitching to the same fish

Only when seeing the motion of the fish swimming did I finally see the healthy largemouth! Now catching them in this depth was going to be another challenge. Bruce and I worked the fish cast after cast for over twenty minutes using a combination of drop shot, creature baits, and the lizards. We used brightly colored baits so we could see lure in action and properly position it in front of the fish. “I’m not sure we can get this fish to go off,” I said. “I bet I can get her to bite in ten casts or less, go ahead bet me” Jared replied. “20 bucks, show me,” I challenged.

Jared loads up on a fish that was bedded down in deeper water

Jared grabbed a flipping stick and used a massive white tube and cast into the exact same spot, literally bumping the fish. No reaction. He switched to the exact same Texas rigged white lizards Bruce and I were using and literally dragged it right over the shadow of the fish, suddenly it turned. “She’s almost ready,” Jared predicted. Cast after cast Jared continued to bump the fish and just when I thought I was going to win the bet Jared loaded up on the 9th cast! The fact was that we were finessing the fish too much, Jared demonstrated that when the fish are really locked on there are times when you literally have to thump them on the head, basically “piss them off,” enough to get a reaction.

Jared uses a variety of G.Loomis rods, selecting from different lineups to match the way he prefers to fish each application

We continued to sight fish and Jared continued to see fish that I could not. “How are you seeing those fish?” I finally asked. Jared explained that he had trained himself to pick up attributes versus the outline of fish. Many of us look for the outline of an entire fish or try to find a shadow on top of a visible bed. Jared instead looks for distinguishing angles, like just the angle of a fish’s head or more often just the shape of a fish’s tail versus the background. Another thing that I noticed both Jared and Renaud constantly doing was to stare at the water and place their hands on both sides of their heads to further isolate both the light leakage into their polarized glasses as well as focus their field of view.

In the afternoon we head to the other side of the lake to sight fish some fish under and around docks

That afternoon we changed locations on the lake and started to fish docks and rocky structure versus vegetation. Here the challenge was making out beds and fish in shadows, and the fact that the wind was picking up and causing a ripple on the surface made things all the more challenging. Still Jared was able to find the fish and he had a couple of tactics to make the largemouth both more visible and catchable.

Bruce targets a fish holding near the docks