Jordan Lee Wins Lake Conroe Bassmaster Classic
Jordan Lee's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Consider this when trying to process just how Lee pulled this off: VanDam was in 7th place entering the final day, but after weighing in Saturday he fumed in the media room about not believing he had a chance to mount a final-day rally. Lee said Sunday the gravity of what he'd accomplished had yet to set in. The 25-year-old is the first former college angler to win the Classic. "It does everything for you," Lee said. "I watched these guys for as long as I can remember on TV. I went to an Elite Series event and met them when I was 16 or 17. I've watched all the shows hundreds of times. I'm a fan of the sport. I can name all of the baits and how the guys caught them. I don't know how I compete with them day in and day out." Lee said this Classic felt eerily like his first - the 2014 event at Lake Guntersville, where he followed up a four-fish, 13 1/2-pound day 1 with consecutive 24-pound stringers to finish 6th. "It felt like Guntersville all over again," he said. "I never thought after the first day here that I'd be right there. The first day at Guntersville, I never thought I'd be right there. You don't ever really know what can happen in a tournament and how things change. Some fish in some areas start biting better and some fish don't."
Lee stayed with Elite Series rookie and Classic first-timer Jesse Wiggins during the initial three days of practice and Lee said Conroe was a bit confounding. "It was really tough all week for me," he said. "Usually, I have bad practices for whatever reason. It was tough. I couldn't get dialed in." Before the tournament started, Lee was asked why he thought he'd win this week. He responded with a grin, "because I'm lucky." Maybe so, but it also helped that he idled over and across many of Conroe's underwater points during practice. Initially, he was looking for brush, but when he found it he couldn't get bites. He also ruled out shallow fish because they weren't dependable. At one point during the three-day practice, he idled across the point where he ultimately caught the winning fish and was intrigued by what he saw.
"I saw what looked to be harder bottom," he said. "It just looked different. I was like, 'That looks good.'" He stopped and made a couple casts and caught a bass that didn't meet the 16-inch length requirement. Still, he filed it away to possibly revisit later. "I was running around Wednesday hitting points because the shallow fish weren't going to win," Lee said. "I didn't see the brush fish being a big deal either. I ran points the last day of practice. I was running up the lake and went back there. I made two throws and caught a 7 and 6 back to back. When that happened, it was like, 'Woah, this may be something right here.'" He tried to unlock a cranking pattern with a Strike King Series 5 plug on similar points, but it didn't materialize. "I fished a ton of points and never got bit. I couldn't run a pattern. It's not a pattern deal because I would've gotten bit somewhere else cranking, but I didn't get another bite. There must be something unique on that spot to catch two big ones back to back."
Lee started this Classic the same way he began the other two Classics he's competed in - by not catching a limit. He admitted that when the bites are few and far between, he tends to speed up rather than fish slow. Day 1 was no different. "The last two Classics have been tough places to catch limits," he said after catching 8-06 on day 1. "Grand (Lake) was tough and here, half the field won't catch a limit. I'm not the only one. It's tough to get bit and in the Classic, the hardest thing to do is slow down when the fishing's tough. I haven't figured that out yet. Maybe one day I will." He fished his best spot on three separate occasions on Friday, but he feels the wind kept him from fishing it effectively. "I couldn't fish it," he said. "It was cloudy and I don't think it was right for it." He started Saturday there, too, but couldn't coax a bite. He began to sense his tournament was going to flame out and he'd be working the Classic Expo on Sunday. He had no fish in his boat at noon, but came back to the point and grinded a Strike King 5XD crankbait across it and caught a 7 1/2-pounder. "There was a whole school of 5s and 6s swimming with it," he said. "The water turned black when they were coming in. I knew they were there and I just had to catch them." Still, he had he'd just found the winning fish.
"I never find that spot," he said. "I find spots everybody else finds. I never find spots that have 27 pounds on it." He tried a big swimbait and also mixed in a 10-inch Strike King Bullworm on a 1/2-oz. shaky-head jig. He caught two of the four fish he weighed in Saturday on the Bullworm. He started to understand that a slow presentation was required to trigger bites along the point. At one point Saturday, he made a cast with the Bullworm and then stopped to take his rain jacket off. When he picked his rod back up, there was a fish on the other end. That theme carried over to the final day, when Lee left the dock in 15th place. Still resistant to slowing down completely, Lee's hand was forced when his outboard acted up and basically stranded him at his best spot in the morning. He had no choice but to fish slow. "I wasn't really stranded, but I got to the place and wasn't able to run around," he said. "When I shut off at the (highway 1097) bridge, I was only able to idle. It was probably 30 minutes before I got my first bite."
That fish turned out to be a short one. Knowing his outboard issues were going to prevent him from running to other spots, he put his head down and tried to make the best of the situation. "I would've been spun out if I wouldn't have made it, but I got to the bridge and when I got there, my motor would just go real slow," he said. "I just crept over to the spot and I was so thankful I got there because I knew the potential. It was just a slow hour and a half and I'd finally get a bite. "I wouldn't have fished that slow if I was in second place. That was the slowest I've ever fished." And the fish started to cooperate. Making repeated casts cross the point, which had roughly six feet of water on it, the big bites started to come. "For whatever reason, I found out (Sunday) the fish wanted it slow," he said. "A few of the bites today, the bait was sitting still. It wasn't a drag it and get bit things. It was a real slow process. "That jig, I was crawling it. I was barely moving it. That's so hard to do for me." Around 2:20, he jumped in the boat of a friend from Alabama, who'd been a marshal and had brought his boat to Conroe to watch Lee on the final day. Lee got back to the ramp at Lakeview Marina about 30 minutes before the rest of the field. About five hours later, in downtown Houston, his life changed forever.
Winning Pattern:
Lee said the point he fished was a non-descript point that resembled many other points at Conroe. For some reason, the fish hung around this particular one. "It was a hard bottom on a point," he said. "There are tons of points on this lake. In practice, I didn't think I'd catch 'em good shallow. Some guys did, but I never found it good. There was a subtle depth change where it might've come up a foot. I side scanned it once in practice. It was just a point in mouth of a cove. I could feel it with a crankbait. My jig would get hung up a little bit. "I'm sure someone fished it in practice. There wasn't a ton of fish there. I didn't just wreck them when I got there."
He said it was tough to tell what phase the fish were in, but every fish he caught had some girth to it. "I think they were mostly post-spawn," he added. "I caught a couple that I couldn't tell. The cove looked like every cove on the lake with seawalls and docks. It didn't look like anything. Nothing stood out about the area."
Winning Gear Notes:
Jig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum Tour KVD casting rod, Quantum Smoke HD 200 casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar AbrazX fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. homemade round head jig (brown), Strike King Rage Craw (summer craw) or Space Monkey trailer (green-pumpkin).
He dipped the claws of the Rage Craw in chartreuse dye.
The jig he used was a round-head jig that he says is a "confidence thing from home. It's just a bait I always throw out deep."
Also caught some on Strike King 5XD (using 12-pound InvizX) and Series 5 crankbaits (citrus shad) and on a 10" Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Bullworm rigged on a 1/2-oz. shaky-head jig.
Main factor in his success - "Being forced to fish slow. I learned it the second day. I caught a fish when it was just sitting there. The fish weren't grouped up. Going into the final day and feeling like I was out of it, it made me slow down."
Performance edge - "My rod, reel and line combination. I didn't lose any fish. I felt like my set ups were perfect. That 17-pound AbrazX was great because when you're catching those fish like that on hard bottom you worry about breaking off and losing fish. I could hit them hard and not worry. There was never a worry one was coming off."
Bassmaster Classic Winning Pattern BassFan 3/28/17 (Todd Ceisner)
Steve Kennedy's Pattern, Baits & Gear
To say Kennedy liked his chances coming into this event would be an understatement. The Alabama pro described the conditions as "tailor-made" for his style of fishing. "I read an article where (the pundits) had me at 75-to-1 odds to win this deal," he said. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' This is what I do. This was a shad-spawn, post-spawn, extremely tough kind of event. I feel like I'm good at that. "If there's one thing I have over (the rest of the field), it's the ability to catch individual big fish in tough conditions," he added. "That's what this tournament was about in a nutshell." He fished in close proximity to Brent Ehrler and Mike Iaconelli in an area referred to as the "Jungle" - a shallow, timber-riddled flat on the upper end of the lake. To give an indication of how tight the quarters were, at one point during the final day Iaconelli actually idled between Kennedy and his camera boat. Kennedy wasn't bothered. "Right after he went through there, I made a pitch and caught a 5-pounder," he said. "I really believe his boat going through there triggered that fish to bite." His demeanor after the final weigh-in told the tale - he felt like this was an event he let slip through his hands. In retrospect, he acknowledged his lack of execution on day 1 proved to be his undoing.
"That's when I blew it," he said. "I should've had 25 pounds that first day. What I was doing was pretty simple. I was getting bites swimming a jig around some shallow trees, but that wind we had made it really hard. I lost three big ones - two 5-pounders and a 4." When asked if he could have done anything differently to put those bites in the boat, he said: "I really don't think so. They don't call that place the jungle for no reason. It's a tough place to land a fish unless they just follow it out and eat it at the boat. The fish just won. That's it." Two jigs, one to imitate shad and one to mimic bluegill, accounted for the bulk of his bites. While other high finishers opted for smaller, slower presentations to entice the finicky fish, he said his shallow power presentation was geared purely toward evoking reaction strikes, although, he lamented not putting the jigs away and reaching for a finesse bait when conditions got tough on day 2. "I had four fish before 9 o'clock (on day 2), and I never caught another keeper the rest of the day," he said. "I feel like could've picked up a little beaver bait and finished my limit, but I was so focused on a big bite. I felt like that's what I needed to win. "The opportunities (to win) were definitely there," he added. "The next few tournaments are probably going to be the same kind of deal, and I'll probably be fishing the same exact way, but those aren't the Classic. I can only hope to get another opportunity like this one."
Jig gear: 7'6" extra-heavy Kistler rod, Shimano Curado casting reel, unnamed 65-pound braided line (no leader), 5/8-ounce D&L Advantage jig (white), Zoom Super Chunk (white).
His "back-up" jig, which he used to catch his two largest fish, was a 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs swim jig (green-pumpkin), with a Zoom Super Craw trailer (green-pumpkin).
Performance edge: "This was the first time I ever used Power-Poles. I know I caught some fish that I would have blown right over if I hadn't had them. These guys better watch out. I didn't know what I was missing out on."
Brent Ehrler's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Brent Ehrler didn't count on the fishing at Conroe to be as tough as it was. He also didn't count on the fish he wound up catching being as shallow as they were. It was just another example of reality not lining up at all with expectations at this year's Classic. "I thought the fishing was tougher than what it would be," Ehrler said. "Being Conroe in the spring, I thought we'd catch them easily. Two of the days in practice, I didn't have a limit." He tried to sight-fish in practice, but clarity and the transient nature of the fish hindered that enterprise. He caught a few around docks, but not enough to rely on for up to three days of competition. Ultimately, he settled on targeting wood across the upper part of the lake. "A lot of fish were shallow," Ehrler added. "I didn't think they'd be as shallow as they were. I thought they'd be in that 2- to 5-foot range, but they were in 1 foot."
After sampling various parts of the lake during practice, he opted to head north for the majority of the tournament. In the area known as the jungle, he flipped and pitched hard lines of brush and stick-ups with a weightless Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits D Shad. "The D Shad falls faster than a Senko and when it falls, it falls head-first and has a flutter to it," Ehrler said. "I can fish behind guys and catch fish. It was a really good bait." He led after days 1 and 2 behind 20-pound stringers each day. His day-1 bag was anchored by a tournament-best 9-12 lunker, the biggest bass in Classic history not caught at the Kissimmee Chain in Florida. It tied Mark Tucker's 9-12 brute from 2006 for the third-biggest fish ever in the Classic. "I was around 17 pounds other than the big fish," he said. He had a productive morning on day 2 to keep the momentum going, but ultimately thinks the accumulation of fishing pressure in the general area may have caught up to him. "I think the pressure may have gotten to them," he said, adding that he maybe would've hit a couple areas a little harder on day 1 if given the chance. "I think the amount of traffic and me being there eventually caught up to them."
Flipping/pitching gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula Elite Series casting rod, Daiwa Tatula SV casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 18-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG worm hook, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits D Shad (watermelon or green-pumpkin).
The new Tatula SV reel was key in helping Ehrler skip the D Shad under limbs, which made it easier to pull fish out of the thick cover. "I was able to catch fish farther back in there where as normally you're pitching over branches and limbs and it's harder to get them over that stuff," he said.
When it got windy and the D Shad wouldn't fall like he wanted it to near specific targets, he pitched a Texas-rigged creature bait on 20- and 22-pound Shooter beneath a 1/4-ounce weight.
James Elam's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Oklahoma pro James Elam said he diligently watched the southeast Texas weather all winter long. His observations told him to be prepared to target fish that were pretty far along, if not completely done, with the yearly spawning ritual. "Post-spawn and the offshore bite are what I was thinking about heading in," he said. "I figured I'd check around shallow a little bit, but mostly I was ready to fish deep." He visited what turned out to be his most productive tournament area during the first day of practice, but he didn't think much of it at the time. "I junked around (on the north end of the lake) and got five keeper bites, but it wasn't enough to make me really slow down and try to pick it apart," he said. "I spent the rest of my practice time running around and checking on other stuff - deep areas, spots south of the bridge - and I just never found anything that was better. "I wasn't feeling very confident at all heading into the tournament," he addded. Like several other high finishers, his primary approach consisted of throwing soft-plastics near spawning flats. He also mixed in a minor shad-spawn bite around bulkheads and docks early in the morning. For the flats fish, the key to his presentation was targeting what he called the "halfway zone," about a cast-length or two deeper than many of his competitors.
"I wasn't in the jungle, but I was fishing that upper end of the lake with a lot of other guys," he said. "I think I was catching fish they were going over. A lot of (the other anglers) were right up in the bushes, and I was fishing more out in front of those same bushes. I wasn't all the way offshore, but I was targeting fish in about 5 to 6 feet of water." A Texas-rigged Senko was his primary bait. If he saw a fish follow the Senko or if he missed a bite, he had a Jackall Chunk Craw at the ready for clean-up duty. "It was a really slow bite," he noted. "There were a few times where they'd eat it on the fall, but I was mostly just dragging it through there. I couldn't see any beds, but I think those fish were either guarding fry or just hadn't left after the spawn." He fished a clean tournament and didn't lose a single fish that would've helped his standing. His only regret was not spending more practice time learning the subtleties of his primary area. "Looking back, I really didn't know what I had when I went there in practice," he said. "I was basically learning my area during the tournament - figuring out how the fish were relating to things, what they wanted. Every day I was figuring it out a little more."
Senko gear: 7'3" extra-heavy McCain Hi-Performance rod, Shimano Metanium MG casting reel (8:1 ratio), 16-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/8-ounce unnamed tungsten weight (pegged), 3/0 Owner offset shank wide-gap worm hook, 6-inch Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin).
Chunk Craw gear: Same rod, reel, line and hook as Senko, 3/8-ounce unnamed tungsten weight (pegged), Jackall Chunk Craw (green-pumpkin).
Vibrating jig gear (shad spawn): Same rod as Senko, Shimano Metanium Mg (6:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Jackall Break Blade vibrating jig (white) Jackall Rhythm Wave 3.8 trailer (white).
Main factor: "It was definitely how slow I was fishing and fishing just a little further off the cover than the other guys. Those fish were pressured and didn't really want to bite. I also really only had one pattern to focus on, so I couldn't second-guess myself."
Performance edge: "We had some big weather swings and I was happy to have my Simms gear - from the headwear to the shoes. When you're dealing with wind, rain and heat, you really can't beat good-quality clothing. The Lowrance Genesis mapping played a big role, too. At Conroe, the smallest little depth changes make a huge difference and I was able to find that kind of stuff."
Ott DeFoe's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Ott Defoe cruised into the Classic on a hot streak, riding consecutive top-10 finishes and the Angler of the Year (AOY) points lead in the young Elite Series season. He knew he wanted to fish the upper portion of the lake and said he didn't waste much time anywhere else during the practice period. Practice wasn't particularly eventful for him. It wasn't until the final Wednesday scouting session that his bite started to materialize. "You could tell a good wave of fish had moved up and were getting ready to spawn," he said. "I started getting some good bites Ð definitely more action than what I saw (earlier). I felt okay about the quality I'd found, but I still wasn't getting a lot of bites. I really wasn't sure if I could put together a good limit with what I had or not." His method for each day of the tournament was pretty straightforward: work the shad spawn bite until it fizzled, then head to nearby spawning coves and target fish cruising the bank and hanging around beds. Both approaches yielded valuable fish throughout the event.
A new topwater bait from Storm, the Cover Pop, was his most productive lure and he used it to catch fish on the riprap banks and in the shallow coves. He also used a wacky-rigged worm for the spawners and occasionally tossed a swimbait, but noted the swimbait wasn't a vital part of his arsenal. The shad spawn was happening "up and down the entire lake," so he looked for areas that were conducive to drawing in shad, but also had cover close by that bass could relate to. "My best spot (for the shad-spawn bite) was a riprap bank that had some old willow sprigs around it," he said. "That shad bite would last until about 9 a.m., which is longer than it usually goes in a lot of other lakes. I think that has a lot to do with the color of the water Ð we only had about a foot of visibility in most places." About his spawn pattern, he said: "The fish I was targeting were pretty shallow Ð maybe 8 to 18 inches of water. All you could see of the beds was a light-colored ring. It wasn't true sight-fishing. You couldn't make out the fish at all, just a little bit of the bed. I threw that wacky rig in there and just let it sit, then my line would start swimming off."
Topwater gear: 6'6" medium-action CarbonLite rod, casting reel (6.8:1 ratio), 17-pound monofilament line, Storm Cover Pop (ghost pearl shad)
Wacky worm gear: 7'2" medium-action CarbonLite spinning rod, CarbonLite spinning reel (size 30), 20-pound Braid line, 14-pound fluorocarbon leader, VMC Neko weedless hook (#1), Worm (green-pumpkin)
The Storm Cover Pop and the weedless version of the VMC Neko hook are both set to be released at ICAST this summer.
More on the Cover Pop: "It looks like a popping bait, but we designed it to walk in place. Basically the idea is you get a lot of action Ð walking, spitting, popping Ð without moving the bait very far. It worked out really well targeting those beds."
Main factor: "Without a doubt it was committing to the north end of the lake. In my entire practice I maybe spent only 4 hours in the south half of the lake. I knew I wanted to be on the north end and that's where I spent all my time."
Performance edge: "Definitely my (Minn Kota) Talons."