Daily Limit: Totally be-Lee-vable

Jordan Lee completed the biggest comeback in Classic history once he got the Lake Conroe bass to cooperate.

Jordan Lee offered a strong headline for his victory Sunday in the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

In his shock of winning, Lee understandably rambled a bit, saying he was at a loss for words. Then he uttered “Unbelievable.” Emcee Dave Mercer ran with it, emphasizing his name when he summed up his finish on stage, hollering, “Un-be-Leeeeee-vable!”

It was certainly accurate. Lee, of Guntersville, Ala., came from nowhere to complete the largest comeback in Classic history, surprising himself in the process. He had been out of the conversation. He and everyone else in the country never considered he could recover from a poor Day 1, or make up his deficit after Day 2.

“I don’t even know what to say. I’m a little bit in shock,” Lee said. “I can’t believe it. I’m at a loss for words. Unbelievable (There it was). I thought there was no way, no way going out today I had a shot at winning this.”

Lee put a ding in the old adage that “you can’t win the Classic on the first day, but you sure can lose it.” He had weighed in only three fish from a rough Lake Conroe on Friday and was 37th with 8-6. There were seven anglers with more than 20 pounds and another 15 with twice his weight.

Talk all week was that Conroe was finicky – its giants were few and far between. An angler might be able to blast 25 to 27 pounds one day then zero the next day, or vice versa. That panned out.

Lee’s second day came together late. At noon, he had yet to catch a fish – he was still at 8-6 while others were near 40 pounds – but he would bring four fish to the scales for 21-0. On stage, Lee even dropped one of them, embarrassing himself immensely. He apologized profusely because he’s always been critical of anyone who allowed that to happen.

“I’ve never done that before, and I always make fun of people who do,” he said, “and I just did it in front of thousands and thousands of people.

“I guess I got it out of the way.”

Maybe it was a good omen, but don’t expect Lee to drop a fish again anytime soon, accidentally or purposefully.

Not many writers approached Lee in the media room, where the anglers conducted interviews and grabbed a bite before reuniting with their rigs. Lee left, not knowing who would lead going into Championship Sunday, or how far back he was. No point; he felt he wasn’t in the hunt. He was just glad to make the Top 25 cut.

No angler had ever climbed from as far back as 15th, and no Classic champ had ever faced his 13-14 deficit. A second 20-pound day kept Brent Ehrler in the lead with 43-4. Lee had 29-6.

But Lee was on the juice.

“It was a dream spot,” he said. “I thought in practice that I had found something, but it just didn’t pan out the first day. The last couple days, it did.”

Lee slowly plucked 27 pounds, 4 ounces from his spot on Championship Sunday.

Championship Sunday got off to a rocky start as Lee experienced lower unit issues that required him to set up a ride back in. Rules allow for that, as long as no fishing occurs on the other boat.

Lee was pretty much stuck fishing his point, but from Wednesday’s final practice and subsequent days he knew it held good-sized bass. A bunch of them. So it was probably a good thing he couldn’t run to another spot.

Dock talk was that Conroe likely wouldn’t be conquered on a single spot, while others held out hope of finding a winning school. Many lamented they had not. Lee had found one; now the trick was catching them.

Although his final day was slow, Lee climbed the BASSTrakk standings with 5-pounder after 5-pounder. Along with Steve Kennedy, Lee closed within ounces of Ehrler’s lead in the 47th Bassmaster Classic.

Surely he’d fall down the leaderboard once others filled their limits, but the fickle nature of Conroe struck: Ehrler, Dave Lefebre, Edwin Evers, James Elam, Bradley Roy, Mike Iaconelli and Kevin VanDam all started Sunday more than 6 pounds ahead of Lee, but none could manage a charge of their own. Elam had that group’s biggest bag at 12-7.

Lee’s bag was estimated at 25-0, although there’s always wiggle room on the unofficial standings entered by the angler’s cameraman or Marshal. On Day 2, Lee’s biggest fish weighed a 7-7, but it was entered as a 6-0. Could this have happened again? An underreporting of just 3 ounces on each of his fish and he’s leading. It was mentioned twice on Bassmaster LIVE as was Lee’s potential to pull off the greatest comeback in Classic history. 

Randy Howell had the previous record rally on a final day, coming from 11th place with 29-2 in the Lake Guntersville Classic in 2014. He was 9 pounds down, but Rick Clunn was 9-10 down in 10th place when he rallied on the final day for his fourth title in 1990. Lee’s climb from 37th on Day 1 blows away the previous mark – Don Butler in 1972 and Clunn in 1990 were both 14th after Day 1.

Lee’s 27-4, the biggest bag of the tournament, pushed his three-day total to 56-10. It was a couple pounds below the lowest winning weight guessed by the competitors four days earlier. Lee had predicted 66.5 would win it.

Steve Kennedy cringed when his 21-15 sack came up just 1-9 short, leaving him second to Lee. Ehrler managed only 11-10 in falling to third. Jordan Lee, who gained his first Classic berth through the Carhartt (his main sponsor) College Series, had won the world championship.

And he had no inkling he might win until he was well off the water.

Lee completed the greatest comeback in Classic history, both in weight and position from Day 1 and Day 2.

“I had no clue,” he said. “I really thought there was no shot of me winning. What a day. It didn’t happen quick for me. It was a slow day, but when I set the hook, [they] were obviously big.”

Unbelievably big.

And that leads us back to the headline question. Many in tournament fishing, from Jerry McKinnis to Kevin VanDam and Mark Zona, knew that, sooner or later, Lee would win. It was sooner.

So while Lee’s victory was surprising and out of the blue, a look at his competitive fishing resume shows that winning would come. He lost by one ounce to KVD last year at Cayuga. He qualified for the Classic through the college ranks in 2013, a year after losing to his brother, Matt, and seeing him fish a Classic.

At the 2014 Guntersville Classic, Lee made a similar charge at a title, with back-to-back 24-pound bags on the final two days. He finished sixth, 5-7 behind Howell, and just might have won if not for a four-fish, 13-7 start. “This was Guntersville all over again,” he said of Conroe. “I had a really tough start.”

People call him “Joe Lee,” sometimes “Jojo,” but they all refer to him as “Hammer.” He’s considered the top young angler on the Elites who has the natural gift of catching bass.

Many knew he would break through someday. So while the manner in which he did it was spectacular, stunning, remarkable and “un-be-Leeeeee-vable,” the fact that Jordan Lee added his name to the 37 other winners on the Classic trophy is “Totally be-Lee-vable.”