Arroyo Grande, Calif.'s Jared Lintner is the BassFan Rookie of the Year (ROY) for 2006, making him the best "true rookie" in all of tour-level pro fishing (Bassmaster Elite Series, FLW Tour and FLW Series). That means he's the best fisherman who had not fished as a boater at that level before this year.
Lintner's win has been a long time coming in that he's had to wait patiently for the final two FLW Series events to conclude. But he's been at the top of the standings since the Elite Series wound up 2 months ago.
The last event of the 2006 season that's counted in the ROY Race, the Lewis Smith FLW Series tournament, was last week, and Georgia's Paul Driskell was the FLW Series rookie highest in the ROY standings. But thanks to a 17th at Lewis Smith, fellow Georgian Tim Farley, who also won the first FLW Series event of the year, winds up the best rookie on the FLW Series this year. He finishes 9th in the ROY standings.
As previously covered here, Florida's Thanh Le was the best FLW Tour rookie this year.
Lintner joins these previous BassFan ROY winners: Pennsylvania's Dave Wolak (2005), Japan's Shinichi "Shin" Fukae (2004), California's Mike Reynolds (2003) and Ohio's Frank Scalish (2002).
Previous Standings 
