Jordan Lee's Pattern, Baits & Gear

Jordan Lee didn't have to go far to catch the bass that nearly won him the tournament. He fished an expansive area not far from the MetroPark along with several others who finished in the top 12, including Mosley, Jamie Hartman and Takahiro Omori. "Big smallmouth related to that area," he said. "There's no telling how many bass were there. I know I struggled on the last day, but there were still two 20-pound bags caught there." He was not getting more than 10 to 12 bites on his good days so felt very fortunate to have caught and landed the fish that bit. "St. Clair is one of the luckier lakes in my opinion as far as finding the fish," he said. "To win here, you have to have a lot of luck on your side and you need to make the right drift to find the fish. "There are no real variations in grass. There's nothing different. It's all the same so I feel like I got pretty fortunate this week."

The areas where he caught his bigger fish were gathering spots for baitfish. He said when his sonar screen would indicate bait in the area, it wasn't long before he'd get bit. He relied mainly on a dropshot rig using a fluke-style bait. The bigger profile seemed to attract the magnum smallmouth. "St. Clair is full of short grass and that area had spots where it got thicker," he said. "You could barely see it on the unit. The key to that area was a lot of bait on the screen. You didn't see that anywhere else." He spent his whole practice in St. Clair based on historical tournament outcomes and He didn't catch many on a vertical presentation of the dropshot. He often had to hop the rig pretty aggressively to get a reaction strike. "They seemed to hit it in the first couple hops," he noted. "The last few days I really worked it. I'd pitch it out and shake it a couple times and they'd have it. As the week wore on, it got slower."

Winning Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7' medium-heavy and 7'4" medium-action Quantum Prism spinning rods, Quantum Smoke Inshore 30 spinning reel, 10-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 5" Strike King 3X ElazTech Z Too (ice), 3/8-oz. Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten dropshot weight.

He also caught several key fish early in the tournament on a Strike King Dreamshot.

He used a longer than normal dropper to keep his bait up above the grass.

Main factor: "The biggest key on St. Clair is being patient and not running around a lot. I've stunk here before and ran around. This week, I ran around on day 1 and decided to stop and fish. That was the biggest key for me Ð just get in an area where you think there are fish and fish it out."

Performance edge: "My Lowrance Carbon 16. Just being able to see the details of the bait and seeing the fish in the grass, you can decipher a lot with that, even the subtle stuff."

BASS Lake St Clair 2-5 Patterns BassFan 8/30/17 (Todd Ceisner)