Lee’s huge last day nets tournament win
25-year-old surges from 15th place with haul of 27 pounds, 4 ounces
Jordan Lee, a 25-year-old Alabamian who never has won a professional tournament in his brief career on the BASS tour, came from 15 places back to win the 2017 Geico Bassmaster Classic held on Lake Conroe with a last-day catch of five largemouths weighing 27 pounds, 4 ounces.
The five-fish stringer, the heaviest weighed by the 52 anglers who competed in the March 24-26 world championship of professional bass fishing, gave Lee a total weight of 56 pounds, 10 ounces — 1 pound, 9 ounces more than the 55-pound, 1-ounce total boated by fellow Alabamian Steve Kennedy.
The win, which includes a $300,000 first prize and can generate many times that in sponsorships and endorsements from angling-related businesses, was announced on a stage at Minute Main Park, where daily weigh-ins were held.
Caught by surprise
Lee’s last-day surge from nowhere surprised him as much as it did the crowd of several thousand gathered at the stadium Sunday evening.
When Lee headed his boat across Lake Conroe on Sunday morning for the final day of competition, he figured that he would finish the contest like he had the previous 37 BASS series professional tournaments he had fished during his brief career.
Lee had come close in a few contests, but he never had won. And he was sure he would not win this time.
“That thought wasn’t in my mind all day,” Lee said. “I didn’t think I had a chance.”
Lee was 15th in the standings going into the final day of competition and more than 13 pounds behind California angler Brent Ehrler, who had led the first two days and was more than 2 pounds ahead of his closest competitor going into the final round.
Lee, on the other hand, had finished the first day in 37th place with a two-bass catch weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces.
By noon Saturday, Lee had not caught another fish.
But he found a productive area of water off a point in 5 to 6 feet of water and landed four bass weighing 21 pounds, pushing him to 15th place after two days and making the cut for the final day when only the top 25 anglers hit the water.
Lee said he used crankbaits and jig/craw lures to take five fish that proved to be the heaviest stringer landed by any angler during the three days of competition.
“It was just Jordan’s time,” said Michael Iaconelli, who won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic and finished sixth this year, of Lee’s tournament-winning, last-day catch of five bass averaging more than 5 pounds.
Ehrler had a final-day catch of five bass that weighed 11 pounds, 10 ounces, giving him a total of 54 pounds, 14 ounces.
Kennedy began the final day in eighth place and had strong showings each day of the tournament.
His five-bass stringer Sunday weighed 21 pounds, 15 ounces — one of the five heaviest stringers taken during the three-day tournament. Ott DeFoe landed Sunday’s heaviest bass — a 9-pound, 9-ounce largemouth that Defoe said hit a topwater plug.
Faircloth top Texan
Heaviest bass of the contest was a 9-pound, 12-ounce fish landed by Ehrler.
Five Texas anglers competed in this year’s competition. Todd Faircloth of Jasper had the best showing of the Texas contingent, finishing 25th with 29 pounds, 7 ounces.
Lee will defend his title at the 2018 Bassmaster Classic to be held March 16-18 on Lake Hartwell near Greenville, S.C.