Jordan Lee Wins The 2018 Bassmaster Classic

To win the latest edition of the Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell, the consensus among anglers was that largemouth would likely be the dominant species. With the water elevated and warming up in recent weeks - and with plenty of new shallow cover for them to operate in - it was a logical mindset. The lake is also known for its spotted bass population, but they tend to relate to the unpredictable offshore movements of the lake's blueback herring. As practice wore on, Jordan Lee grew more wary of the largemouth with the myriad of conditions thrown the anglers' way. He felt like the spots could be more reliable. "During practice, I realized with as many ways as I fished and things I covered, the largemouth bite wasn't great," Lee said. "I looked for spotted bass, but I didn't kill the spots. It was easier to get bit doing that. I didn't think spots would win, but knew it would be easier to catch a few."

As with any tournament, though, there's always an X-factor and for Lee, that was high skies and rising temperatures. The prolonged sunny periods during the tournament, especially on days 1 and 3, positioned fish around boat docks to where he could target them with a nail-weighted, wacky-rigged soft stickbait. As the event's final stages played out Sunday, Lee discovered docks in a down-lake pocket that were laden with fish underneath them. Three culls in the afternoon are what carried him to the win. After an 18-10 bag had him in 3rd after day 1 Friday, Lee stumbled slightly with a 12-02 bag of all spots on Saturday, but still found himself in 6th place entering day 3. He was 6 1/2 pounds back of leader Jason Christie and had nary a thought about winning. Too many things had to happen - namely, Christie had to struggle and others had to stumble as well - to clear a path for him. A 16-05 stringer anchored by a couple afternoon 3-pounders changed that. It was a tougher day lake-wide for the 25 competitors on the final day, especially for those targeting shallow largemouth, perhaps a result of an overnight storm system that moved through the area late Saturday evening. Lee just went about his dock-skipping business, though, as if he were back home at Smith Lake.

When Lee weighed in Sunday, he knocked Brent Ehrler out of the lead in an eerily similar scenario to the culmination of last year's Classic in Houston. Gerald Swindle was next to the stage and fell short of Lee's mark of 47-01. Same with James Elam, Micah Frazier and Edwin Evers. All that stood between Lee and a second straight Classic win was Jason Christie, the no-BS superstar with a mantle full FLW Tour and Elite Series trophies, but no Classic or AOY hardware. The leader after days 1 and 2, Christie had struggled on day 3 and failed to fill out his limit. The door to history was open for Lee. Christie's four fish weighed 8-11, just over a pound less than what he needed to overtake Lee. And that was it - the 26-year-old became the third angler to win consecutive Classics and the sixth man to win multiple Classics. Lee's winning weight was the lowest of the three Hartwell Classics, which came as a surprise to some who thought it would take more than 50 pounds to prevail last week. In two weeks, Lee will be at the Sabine River near Orange, Texas, for the resumption of the Elite Series season. In the meantime, he'll bask in his latest unexpected triumph. "As far as the way I fished this week, it's not typically the winning pattern," he said. "I had a lot of spotted bass. I probably had half spotted bass. That typically doesn't win tournaments here. It was my best stuff."

Practice:

The conditions at Hartwell less than a month ago were trending toward a shallow-water tournament with the potential for some sight-fishing. A prolonged cold front arrived prior to the start of practice to blunt that progression and bring a range of scenarios into play. "I really focused on the main lake from the launch to the dam," he said. "That's where I banked on for the tournament. I felt like the winning fish were there. I knew that rivers would get pressure and I know that it's hard to win in a creek or up the river with stained water. "I knew it was going to be tough to get bit. I had fished boat docks down the lake and mid lake and didn't get any good signs. I stuck with it. I got just enough bites - a couple here and there - to keep me doing it. I was just banking on it getting better." Lee said he didn't have a confidence-inducing practice, partly because he didn't uncover much in the way of a productive pattern and partly because practice took place an entire week ahead of the tournament. He adopted a junk-fishing mentality. "I'd heard that before about this lake," he said. "My practice was not good. I got a bite here or there. I tried to learn from those. There wasn't a lot to it." He eventually located a few spots that were reliable, but never did he tap into what he felt could be a winning pattern. "I fished new water every day and I had fun," he said. "That was my main goal coming here. A lot of people asked me if I was nervous or had any more pressure coming into the tournament. It was the opposite. I just wanted to have fun and fish the way I thought was my best chance of doing well. That's what I did."

Competition:

Each morning, Lee started on a flat just south of Knucklehead Island and was able to break the ice with some keeper spots with a jerkbait or a small swimbait. "It was a little feeding spot with a little flat on it," he said. "I found it on Google Earth before practice. "I was calling those fish out of deep water. I was sitting in 35 to 40 (feet) casting into 10. There was some bait on my graph. It was just a key spot where I could pull up and start out the morning and get bit. I didn't know that going into the tournament, but that was a key spot for me." From there, he keyed on an old roadbed where spots would school up. "It was a road bed with a little depression in it," he said. "There was a school of spots there, no giants, but all 2 1/2-pounders." With the sun high in the sky Friday, Lee's three best bites came off docks, but they were random and not something he could go back to. "They came off three random docks and I had to fish 30 or 40 docks to catch those three," he said. "They were 2 1/2, 3 1/2 and a 6. That first big bite gave me the confidence to stay with it." He tallied 18-10 and had himself in 3rd.

The clouds moved in on day 2 and the dock bite was non-existent so he relied on the roadbed spot to account for his 12-02. He started the final day with a couple keepers on a jerkbait. By 9:30, he'd caught seven keepers and had a modest limit, including two largemouth caught of shallow grass in the back of a pocket. Then came a 3-plus hour lull during which he tried to get the dock bite fired up. "I fished a lot of docks that weren't productive," he said. "I don't know how many I fished without getting bit, but it was a lot. I thought that was my best chance in this tournament. On this lake, I knew boat docks would be a player because they usually are." Last year, motor trouble on the final day of the Classic prevented him for rotating through secondary areas. It turned out to be a blessing as he throttled a massive stringer with a jig to corral the winning fish. At Hartwell, he didn't have any mechanical mishaps and he was able to run freely navigate the innumerable pockets around the lake in search of docks with

Eventually, he pulled into a pocket on the lower end and noticed right away the water was the warmest he'd seen all week. "They were just there," he said. "It's like they'd just shown up." He caught a 3 1/2-pounder, then a 3-pounder and a solid 2 1/2 to account for three key upgrades. "I knew what I wanted to do coming in," he said. "In my mind, I had a game plan with how I wanted to catch them and the weather played out perfect. "It was a tougher bite than what was expected. Looking back, it played right into how I was catching them. It wasn't a big fish bite as far as spots go."

Winning Gear:

Neko rig gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Quantum Vapor PT spinning rod, Quantum Smoke S3 spinning reel, Quantum Smoke Inshore spinning reel, 30-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line (leader), #2 VMC Neko rig hook, Strike King Ocho, other soft-plastic stickbaits (green-pumpkin or green-pumpkin blue), 3/32-oz. unnamed nail weight.

"Light line around docks is scary, but I didn't break off at all," Lee said.

Swimbait gear: Same rod as Neko rig, same reel, 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. Owner ballhead jig, 2.75" Strike King Rage Swimmer (pearl flash).

Vibrating jig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum Vapor casting rod, Quantum Smoke S3 casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar AbrazX fluorocarbon line, homemade vibrating jig (white/chartreuse), 4.5" Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Blade Minnow blade minnow (white)

Jerkbait gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Quantum Vapor casting rod, Quantum Tour S3 casting reel (6.1:1 ratio), 10-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, unnamed jerkbait (bone).

Main factor: "Nobody thought the spotted bass were going to play (a factor). I went into not with the mindset to swing for big largemouth. I wanted to chip away and be comfortable with my fishing. I fished with moment. Those early spot places were key because I could start the day with 2 1/2-pound bites. When the dock deal wasn't producing I stuck with it. The way the weather played out is the reason I won. If it was a cloudy, rainy day, I wouldn't have won. It was sunny and hot and perfect for the docks. I didn't know where it was going to go down, but I knew it was going to happen somewhere."

Performance edge: "I have a (Lowrance) HDS 16 Carbon on dash and two Carbon 12s on bow. That set up is just confidence for me. I can clearly see what I'm looking at. That spot had a lot of bait. I was seeing fish coming up and streaking on the graph. When I saw that I backed out a little bit. The key with the spots was I'd catch one and my graph would light up and they'd follow me in. When that happened, I typically backed off a bit and it seemed like the fish stayed in that area. I was able to capitalize and catch a couple like that, too. The StructureScan, to me, is the clearest. I found several offshore places like roadbeds. It's a definitely a key to me. I ran different colored trails every day, in practice and in the tournament just to see how many pockets I went int. I ran all over the lake, just searching."

BassMaster Classic 2018 Winning Pattern BassFan 3/20/18 (Todd Ceisner)

Brent Ehrler, who's been a top-3 finisher in both Classics that Lee has won, did more work in deep water than any other top finisher. He believes he would've claimed the trophy and the $300,000 winner's check had he stayed offshore and fished for spots for the entirety of day 3 instead of spending a couple hours near the bank pursuing big largemouth bites. "Watching what Christie was doing and with how warm it was getting, I thought they were going that direction," he said. "I thought I needed to catch 20 pounds to win. "I should've stayed (out deep). There were plenty of them out there."

The winner of a 2012 FLW Tour event at Hartwell, Ehrler said the lake contained too much water this time to make his program from 6 years ago effective. He caught a lot of offshore fish in that tournament, too, but supplemented them with some from around docks. Those particular boat-mooring structures were too deep for that pattern last week. He fished secondary points and drains in the 20- to 30-foot depth range with a small swimbait on an underspin, a nail-weighted Senko and a jig. "The first day I caught so many on the (underspin/swimbait rig) it was ridiculous. Then the second day they wouldn't bite it, and they wouldn't bite it (on day 3), either, so I had to go with the jig and the Senko." His technique with the underspin was to let it sink to the bottom and slow-roll it in. With the jig, he either gave it short hops or just crept it through rocks or brush.

Gear:

Under-spin gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula rod, Daiwa Tatula SV casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 12-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Super Fish Pro Underspin, unnamed 3 1/2" swimbait or 4" Yamamoto Senko (white) trailer.

Senko gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula Brent Ehrler Signature Series dropshot rod, Daiwa Exist spinning reel, 12- and 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon (main line and leader), size 1 Gamakatsu B10s Stinger hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin) with 3/32-ounce Eagle Claw nail weight inserted.

He skipped the Senko on the same set-up under docks for shallow-water largemouths, but without the nail weight.

Jig gear: 7'4" Daiwa Tatula Ish Monroe Signature Series frog rod, Daiwa Steez A casting reel (6.3:1), 16-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce Boss jig (brown), 5" Yamamoto Twin Tail Grub trailer (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "The first morning of practice I fished shallow and caught them decent, but not great. They were random bites and I didn't see fish swimming around. I concentrated on deep water for the rest of practice."

Performance edge: "The Lakemaster mapping, for sure. When I got on a pattern, I could use it to run right to where the fish were at."

Bassmaster Classic 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/21/18 (John Johnson)

Fishing for Hartwell's deeper spotted bass never entered Jason Christie's mind - not before, during or after the tournament. "I was committed to fishing shallow the whole time, even before I got there," he said. "The Classic that Casey (Ashley) won, even though the water was really cold leading up to it, I was really confident fishing shallow way before the fish even thought about spawning. "I knew a guy could win shallow and I thought with the conditions we were going to have, (that bite) would've been even better."

He employed some skinny-water, power-fishing staples (a spinnerbait, two different bladed jigs and a flipping jig) to pull away from the field over the first 2 days. He then suffered heartbreak on day 3 for the second time in the last three Classics when his action dissipated, likely due to several factors - including a lack of wind and fish transitioning further toward the spawn, when eating is no longer their top priority. "One thing from practice that was a negative for me was I never found one area that had a ton of fish - I had to cover a lot of water. I felt like (on day 3) if I'd had a really good area, I could've really slowed down and figured out how to catch them. I didn't have that kind of confidence in any area and I felt like I needed to keep moving. "I never thought I wasn't going to catch at least 15 pounds until it was time to check in - even on my last few casts, I thought I was going to catch a 5-pounder. Grand (the 2016 Classic) doesn't bother me like this one because this time I was doing the right thing to win and I had the bites to win. I lost a couple the second day and a couple (on day 3). It was one of those deals where I had a little bit of bad luck, but I wouldn't do anything different."

Most of his stuff was in the Tugaloo River, but he also spent significant time fishing the mouth of the Seneca. His primary target was dogfennel (a type of grass), which he'd usually cast to from about 30 feet away. The fish were 4 or 5 feet deep, on the outside edge of the grass when the tournament started and continued moving up as it progressed. He had high praise for the fans who followed him on the water. "I've never seen any that were more respectful of where I was fishing than that group - they were awesome. I wish there was a way somebody could've taped it and we could make kind of a how-to video out of it."

Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 6'10" heavy-action Falcon Cara Head Turner rod, Team Lew's Pro Magnesium casting reel (6.8:1 ratio), 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce prototype Booyah spinnerbait (chartreuse/white with single No. 4 1/2 Colorado blade), YUM Pulse swimbait (white) or unnamed trailer (white).

Bladed jig gear: Same rod, reel and line, 1/2-ounce prototype Booyah Melee bladed jig (river killer) or unnamed 1/2-ounce bladed jig, YUM Pulse swimbait trailer (shad).

Flipping gear: 7'3" heavy-action Falcon Cara swimbait/pitching rod, Lew's Super Duty casting reel (8.3:1 ratio), 1/2-ounce Booyah Bankroll flipping jig (wildcard), YUM Craw Chunk trailer (green-pumpkin/purple).

Main factor: "Just being all-in on the shallow water - I spent no time out deep. I feel like a guy has to be fishing his strengths to win the Classic because you're going to come across some adversity and if you don't have 100-percent confidence in what you're doing, it's easy to get off track and start second-guessing yourself."

Performance edge: Everything I have is critical for what I do, but one thing I figured out the first day was the fish were set up on the outside edge of the dogfennel and I could run around with my (Garmin) Panoptix and fish those places like an outside hydrilla line. I'd put the grass edge 30 feet from me and fish that edge. That's where the big ones were at in practice and on the first day."

Bassmaster Classic 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/21/18 (John Johnson)

Matt Lee went with the same game plan on each of the three days of the event - he fished for spotted bass for the first 3 hours, then pursued largemouths around docks or grass for the next 5 hours. He caught a solid stringer on the first day, then faltered a bit on day 2 when he didn't catch any kicker largemouths. He rebounded big-time on day 3, however, and made a 14-place jump in the final standings. "I started every day deep, fishing for spots in 20 to 30 feet," he said. "Most of them were on isolated brush and I had about 12 of those places.

"After I went shallow, the first day I caught them off docks, then the second day I ran up the Tugaloo and fished with a swimjig and a vibating jig and didn't catch any good ones. I had some bites doing that in practice, but I never got it dialed in." He went back to dock-fishing on day 3 and it resulted in the heaviest bag of the final round. He had a chance to improve it considerably in the last hour, but a 6-pounder he'd gotten a look at wasn't interested in his bait and another big one he'd seen emerge from a dock along with one he caught was being pursued by Aaron Martens when he returned after giving it a rest.

Martens informed Lee in the media room afterward that he'd caught that fish - it weighed 4-11. Martens had seen it during practice. "Of all the thousands of docks on the lake, what are the chances that Aaron would be fishing the exact one that I wanted to go back to? That's when I was reminded of how good these guys are." He caught his spots with a small swimbait and his biggest largemouths with a wacky-rigged Strike King Ocho. "It took me awhile to figure out that (swimbait) bite. I had to stay off them and cast and not just drop down to them. I couldn't be where they could see me."

Gear:

Worm gear: 7'4" medium-heavy Quantum Team KVD rod, Quantum Smoke S3 size 30 casting reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line (main line), 12-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon leader, No. 1 Owner Straight Shank hook, 4" wacky-rigged Strike King Ocho (green-pumkin/candy) with 3/32-ounce nail weight inserted.

Swimbait gear: 7' medium-action Quantum Smoke S3 rod, Quantum Smoke S3 casting reel (6.1:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce Owner round-head light-wire jighead, 3.75" Strike King Rage Swimmer (ayu).

Main factor: "Staying open-minded and having good enough spotted bass to start on and catch a decent limit."

Performance edge: "My Garmin Panoptix. I never wasted a cast, even 50 feet from the brush. I could spin the trolling motor (which held the transducer) and hit a limb with a cast. It was legit."

Bassmaster Classic 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/21/18 (John Johnson)

Jacob Powroznik fished with a wacky-rig throughout the week and it produced all of his weigh-in fish except for two that were enticed by a topwater on the final day. He'd originally planned to go with a deep/shallow combo pattern, but that changed on day 1. "On the first day it took me 3 hours to catch a limit that weighed 7 or 8 pounds and I knew they were going to the bank," he said. "I caught every one I weighed that day up shallow. "On day 2 I fished docks most of the day and even though it was cloudy, I still caught them. I just never got a 5-pound bite."

He used the topwater to catch a couple of schooling fish early on the final day, then refocused his attention on the docks. He also sight-fished a bit and that produced a 3 1/4-pounder. "I fished out deep a lot in practice, just looking for that one glory hole. I knew enough docks I could run and with the weather we had, it was time to go and skip them."

Gear:

Worm gear: 7'4" medium-action Quantum Prism rod, Quantum Smoke S3 casting reel (6.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Hi-Seas braided line (main line), 10-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon leader, size 1 Mustad TitanX Wacky/Neko Rig hook, V&M Baits Chopstick (green-pumpkin).

Topwater gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Quantum Team KVD rod, same reel, 20-pound Hi-Seas copolymer line, Livingston Lures Walking Boss II (sexy shad).

Main factor: "Getting off that deep stuff and going shallow."

Performance edge: "My Ranger boat and Mercury outboard. I ran about every pocket on that lake before it was over."

Bassmaster Classic 2-5 Patterns BassFan 3/21/18 (John Johnson)