Lee Leads Bassmaster Elite Tournament At St. Clair

August 25, 2017
B.A.S.S. News - Archived

MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — The only certainty after three days of the Bassmaster Elite tournament at Lake St. Clair is that no lead is safe. Jordan Lee, the reigning champion of the Bassmaster Classic, caught five bass that weighed 25 pounds, 9 ounces, Saturday to push his three-day total to 69-13. That moved him from fifth to first place and made him the third leader in as many days.

 

“I’m not really figuring anything out,” said Lee, who qualified for his third Top 12 cut on the Bassmaster Elite Series this season. “I’ve really fished the same water every day. I don’t know when I’m getting my next bite.

 

“I don’t really understand it. You just have to keep fishing and be ready for them.”

 

Lee said there have been times when he’s gone more than three hours without a bite. But the good news is, when a bite comes, it’s usually a bass that will help his cause. On Friday, he caught two 5-pounders off one spot. Then Saturday, on the same spot, he caught a 6-13 that gave him the lead in the race for Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the week and another bass that topped the 6-pound mark. With so much downtime between strikes, the key, he said, is being focused enough to execute when they finally do bite.

 

“You’ve really got to fish and just be calm and say, ‘I don’t know how many bites I’m going to get, but it may not be many,’” he said. “You just have to know that going in and keep fishing.

 

“I missed one fish today. But besides that one, I’ve caught them all this week.”

 

Though the fishing has been slow in his area, Lee said he has no plans to change for Championship Sunday.

 

“Literally, if I only have one bite there tomorrow, I will have no shame,” he said. “I’ve caught two huge bags there. You have to fish there all day and wait on one to bite.”

 

Oklahoma angler Jason Christie, who has been hanging around the Top 10 all week, caught 23-11 — his biggest bag of the event — to jump from sixth into second with 66-8.

 

“I’m sight fishing in 20 feet of water, using Garmin Panoptix,” Christie said. “I caught a 5-10 today, and that’s the biggest fish I’ve seen all week. Most of the fish I’ve been seeing have been in the 4- to 4 1/2-pound range.”

 

Christie said boat traffic was heavy Saturday, and that makes him wonder if his fish will still be there when he returns to his best area Sunday.

 

“It worries me because I’ve just got one area,” he said. “You can be around them one day and then they’re just not there the next.

 

“I don’t know what the weather is supposed to be like (Sunday). But I hope we get just a little bit of wind to push the boat, so I don’t have to be on the trolling motor.”

 

Day 2 leader Brock Mosley of Collinsville, Miss., caught 20-8 Saturday and dropped two places into third with 66-5. But another big jump was made by Mark Daniels Jr.

 

Daniels, an Elite Series rookie from Tuskegee, Ala., caught 24-1 and made his first career Top 12 cut in fourth place with 66-1. Today, I didn’t have a lot of bites,” Daniels said. “I was fortunate to catch the ones I caught, and obviously they were the right ones — and that’s the biggest thing.”

 

Idaho angler Brandon Palaniuk caught 17-4 and finished 29th with 57-7, but he maintained his lead in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year race with 811 points. Christie, with his solid performance on Day 3, maintained possession of second place with 795. The Top 12 remaining anglers will leave Lake St. Clair Metropark at 6:30 a.m. ET Sunday, with a $100,000 first-place prize on the line. The final weigh-in will be held back at the park at 3:15 p.m.

When the tournament is done, the Top 50 anglers in the AOY standings will advance to the Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake next month.

2017 Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair 8/24-8/27

(PROFESSIONAL) Standings Day 3

   Angler                   Hometown              No./lbs-oz  Pts   Total $$$

1.  Jordan Lee             Grant, AL               15  69-13  110

  Day 1: 5   19-09     Day 2: 5   24-11     Day 3: 5   25-09   

2.  Jason Christie         Park Hill, OK           15  66-08  109

  Day 1: 5   21-12     Day 2: 5   21-01     Day 3: 5   23-11   

3.  Brock Mosley           Collinsville, MS        15  66-05  108     $500.00

  Day 1: 5   20-05     Day 2: 5   25-08     Day 3: 5   20-08   

4.  Mark Daniels Jr.       Tuskegee, AL            15  66-01  107

  Day 1: 5   21-11     Day 2: 5   20-05     Day 3: 5   24-01   

5.  Matt Lee               Guntersville, AL        15  63-08  106

  Day 1: 5   21-13     Day 2: 5   23-03     Day 3: 5   18-08   

6.  Takahiro Omori         Emory, TX               15  61-15  105

  Day 1: 5   19-06     Day 2: 5   22-12     Day 3: 5   19-13   

7.  Gerald Spohrer         Gonzales, LA            15  61-06  104

  Day 1: 5   15-13     Day 2: 5   22-15     Day 3: 5   22-10   

8.  Paul Mueller           Naugatuck, CT           15  61-03  103

  Day 1: 5   15-01     Day 2: 5   23-11     Day 3: 5   22-07   

9.  Jamie Hartman          Newport, NY             15  61-02  102

  Day 1: 5   19-11     Day 2: 5   22-09     Day 3: 5   18-14   

10. Micah Frazier          Newnan, GA              15  60-14  101

  Day 1: 5   20-06     Day 2: 5   21-04     Day 3: 5   19-04   

11. Bobby Lane Jr.         Lakeland, FL            15  60-09  100

  Day 1: 5   19-00     Day 2: 5   20-12     Day 3: 5   20-13   

12. Bradley Roy            Lancaster, KY           15  60-05   99

  Day 1: 5   23-03     Day 2: 5   21-09     Day 3: 5   15-09   

13. Jonathon VanDam        Kalamazoo, MI           15  60-05   98  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-15     Day 2: 5   20-11     Day 3: 5   19-11   

14. Brandon Coulter        Knoxville, TN           15  60-04   97  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-09     Day 2: 5   22-01     Day 3: 5   19-10   

15. Aaron Martens          Leeds, AL               15  59-12   96  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-12     Day 2: 5   21-11     Day 3: 5   17-05   

16. Luke Clausen           Otis Orchards, WA       15  59-06   95  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-05     Day 2: 5   24-15     Day 3: 5   15-02   

17. Mark Menendez          Paducah, KY             15  59-05   94  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   21-00     Day 2: 5   18-12     Day 3: 5   19-09   

18. Brett Preuett          Monroe, LA              15  59-03   93  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-04     Day 2: 5   21-09     Day 3: 5   17-06   

19. John Murray            Spring City, TN         15  58-08   92  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   16-00     Day 2: 5   22-02     Day 3: 5   20-06   

20. Skeet Reese            Auburn, CA              15  58-08   91  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-14     Day 2: 5   20-08     Day 3: 5   17-02   

21. Ott DeFoe              Blaine, TN              15  58-08   90  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-00     Day 2: 5   20-00     Day 3: 5   20-08   

22. Jacob Wheeler          Harrison, TN            15  58-03   89  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   21-09     Day 2: 5   19-10     Day 3: 5   17-00   

23. John Hunter Jr         Shelbyville, KY         15  58-01   88  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-01     Day 2: 5   17-01     Day 3: 5   21-15   

24. Brandon Lester         Fayetteville, TN        15  58-01   87  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-02     Day 2: 5   19-09     Day 3: 5   18-06   

25. Clifford Pirch         Payson, AZ              15  58-00   86  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   17-14     Day 2: 5   20-09     Day 3: 5   19-09   

26. Seth Feider            Isle, MN                15  57-11   85  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-08     Day 2: 5   21-15     Day 3: 5   17-04   

27. Brent Ehrler           Redlands, CA            15  57-10   84  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-15     Day 2: 5   17-08     Day 3: 5   21-03   

28. Steve Kennedy          Auburn, AL              15  57-09   83  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-11     Day 2: 5   21-10     Day 3: 5   15-04   

29. Brandon Palaniuk       Hayden, ID              15  57-07   82  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   17-13     Day 2: 5   22-06     Day 3: 5   17-04   

30. Bernie Schultz         Gainesville, FL         15  56-12   81  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-05     Day 2: 5   18-15     Day 3: 5   18-08   

31. Michael Iaconelli      Pitts Grove, NJ         15  56-11   80  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-07     Day 2: 5   18-00     Day 3: 5   19-04   

32. Edwin Evers            Talala, OK              15  56-03   79  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-06     Day 2: 5   17-06     Day 3: 5   19-07   

33. Brent Chapman          Lake Quivira, KS        15  56-01   78  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   16-03     Day 2: 5   19-02     Day 3: 5   20-12   

34. Chris Zaldain          Laughlin, NV            15  55-15   77  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   15-07     Day 2: 5   22-03     Day 3: 5   18-05   

35. John Crews Jr          Salem, VA               15  55-11   76  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   20-12     Day 2: 5   17-05     Day 3: 5   17-10   

36. Shane Lineberger       Lincolnton, NC          15  55-08   75  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-13     Day 2: 5   18-03     Day 3: 5   18-08   

37. Josh Bertrand          San Tan Valley, AZ      15  55-03   74  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   17-12     Day 2: 5   19-02     Day 3: 5   18-05   

38. Stetson Blaylock       Benton, AR              15  55-01   73  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   12-15     Day 2: 5   22-15     Day 3: 5   19-03   

39. Paul Elias             Laurel, MS              15  54-07   72  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-11     Day 2: 5   17-07     Day 3: 5   18-05   

40. Keith Combs            Huntington, TX          15  53-14   71  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-06     Day 2: 5   17-07     Day 3: 5   17-01   

41. Jacob Powroznik        North Prince George, VA 15  53-12   70  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   16-06     Day 2: 5   19-09     Day 3: 5   17-13   

42. Chad Pipkens           Lansing, MI             15  53-01   69  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-02     Day 2: 5   17-07     Day 3: 5   17-08   

43. Fred Roumbanis         London, AR              15  52-12   68  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-12     Day 2: 5   16-07     Day 3: 5   17-09   

44. Koby Kreiger           Bokeelia, FL            15  52-11   67  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-08     Day 2: 5   15-13     Day 3: 5   17-06   

45. Kelley Jaye            Dadeville, AL           15  51-13   66  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   16-11     Day 2: 5   20-04     Day 3: 5   14-14   

46. Greg Hackney           Gonzales, LA            15  51-02   65  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-10     Day 2: 5   16-12     Day 3: 5   15-12   

47. Randy Howell           Guntersville, AL        13  50-15   64  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   19-06     Day 2: 5   20-14     Day 3: 3   10-11   

48. Marty Robinson         Lyman, SC               14  50-10   63  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-13     Day 2: 5   18-08     Day 3: 4   13-05   

49. Dustin Connell         Clanton, AL             14  49-08   62  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   18-05     Day 2: 5   17-11     Day 3: 4   13-08   

50. Chad Morgenthaler      Reeds Spring, MO        13  44-02   61  $10,000.00

  Day 1: 5   22-03     Day 2: 5   16-05     Day 3: 3   05-10   

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Totals

Day   #Limits    #Fish      Weight

 1        97       518      1781-12

 2        95       506      1865-03

 3        46       244       915-07

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         238      1268      4562-06