Championship Sunday with Lee

Jordan Lee led Days 2 and 3 of the Busch Beer Bassmaster Elite Series event on Cayuga Lake and looked to fend off anglers like Kevin VanDam and Brett Hite on the final day. Take a ride with the 24-year old rising star to see how Championship Sunday went for the Carhartt pro.

He started Championship Sunday with a topwater bait in his hand as he looked for a couple bonus bites with the morning breeze.

Lee busted onto the scene after he took the Day 2 lead with over 20 pounds on Friday. He backed it up with over 17 pounds on Day 3 to hold the top spot heading into today.

He didn’t like what he saw at his first stop so he make a small jump over to another spot on his grass flat.

It didn’t take long for J. Lee to switch up to his dropshot setup, which was a big part of his week.

Lee set the hook soon after…

But he missed the bite and brought back some grass.

Lee pitched a dropshot around to the holes in the Cayuga grass flat looking for hungry bass.

After an hour and 45 minutes into Day 4, Lee finally hooked up with a keeper bass.

He reeled it in quickly and began to swing it what looked to be a smaller largemouth.

Indeed it was small, but it was an ice breaker nonetheless.

He measured the fish in the bottom of the boat.

It measured at least 12 inches so Lee slid it in the livewell.

Kevin VanDam made a quick stop a few hundred yards away on another portion of the grass flat.

Almost on cue, Lee hooked up and was looking to add another keeper to the box.

Just like the first fish it was small, but it was keeper number two.

Lee would get a better bite a few minutes later.

This was the beginning of a small flurry where Lee put the pieces to the puzzle and caught a couple quick keepers.

He added the 2 1/2 pounder to the livewell.

And then talked to the Bassmaster LIVE viewers that were watching his final day.

In the box and back to fishing for Lee.

He kept the momentum going as he looked to add number four to his final day total.

He battled the fish to the side of the boat with his spinning rod setup.

The fish emerges as Lee swings it in.

That was one of his biggest of the morning by far.

Jordan Lee knows he will need to upgrade some of those fish, but the next task ahead of him is to add a fifth fish.

Kevin VanDam heads out of the area as J. Lee continues to fish.

Minutes later Lee hooked up with number five.

I can tell it’s his best fish of the morning because he headed to the passenger seat to land his limit-filling bass.

Oh yea, that’ll get his day going in the right direction. A solid three pounder finishes his limit and is currently his biggest.

Back to work for the focused angler.

Toyota Angler of the Year leader Gerald Swindle was in it to win it on the final day, but he took a moment to stop and chat with Jordan before heading out.

It seems like Swindle is a mentor to the Lee brothers as they are good friends and often travel partners.

Most converstations with Swindle leave the other angler with a smile on their face. Nothing is different here as he gave Lee a vote of confidence to keep it up.

A few minutes after Swindle left, Lee hooked up.

He swings aboard a small upgrade.

He heads to the back to deposit the keeper in the livewell.

Then he makes a cull.

After a small drought he headed to another region of the grass flat.

Lee hooked up soon after the move.

This fish seemed to have some heft to it as Lee kept his rod bowed up throughout the fight.

He swings in a solid fish and another cull.

At this point in the day Kevin VanDam had taken the lead from Lee and now J. Lee was in pursuit. Of course he didn’t know this, but BASSTrakk kept us busy keeping up with the standings.

Jordan Lee was one of the five anglers featured on Bassmaster LIVE on the final day.

He experienced another flurry…

But it wasn’t the good kind as he was hooking up with chain pickerel more frequently than the whole morning.

He must have caught 6 or 7 in an hour or two timespan, meanwhile the bass were few and far between.

So Lee left that area in search of some better size and some active fish.

Lee caught another one…

The wind was blowing steadily from the south all day. Enough to make the sail boats catch some breeze out on Cayuga.

Meanwhile the warm temperatures in upstate New York brought out pleasure boaters, which also churned up the water at times.

Lee began working a bigger worm in the same areas and also switched to a bait caster.

He would proceed to catch a small fish.

It didn’t take long before Lee was back to the setup that helped him take the lead in this event…a dropshot.

Gerald Swindle was fishing this part of the grass flat as well.

He flipped and pitched some, but he was keeping his distance as the youngest Lee brother was trying to take home the title.

So Swindle headed out soon after. He finished this event in 10th and has a solid lead in the AOY standings with two events left.

Lee kept working around the area and adjusting as best as he could.

But the waves became bigger and bigger so Lee had to make a better adjustment.

So he took off in search of new water.

He picked up a vibrating jig as he looked to mix it up.

He immediately got a bite.

But it was a pickerel.

Then he completely scrapped his main pattern and headed to some docks to finish out the last two hours of the day.

For docks, Lee relied on a wacky rigged Strike King Ocho.

He broke the dry spell and began getting more and more bites.

This was a solid fish for Lee.

This could possibly help him and give him some weight with a cull…

Lee went to the livewell to check.

But after putting them on the cull beam he found out it didn’t help so he threw it back and kept casting.

He was skipping it way under docks on the west side of Cayuga.

And was pulling out fish after fish.

He swung in another keeper, but another fish that didn’t help him.

He floats by an American Flag blowing in the breeze.

After 10 docks, Lee had already hauled in four fish and was hooked up again.

This one was on the smaller side.

Lee was showing his advanced fishing ability as he was pulling fish out of numerous places.

This fish had me thinking he could upgrade some, which was important because every ounce counts on the final day.

He brings another in the boat…

And takes it to the back of the boat.

But once again it wouldn’t help. Lee caught five or six 2+ pounders in a short time that couldn’t help him cull.

Time was running out, but in the last 15 minutes of the day he hooked up.

This one was way back under a dock.

It was also wrapped around one of the metal posts to the boat lift.

Lee ducked down as this could be an important fish.

He couldn’t get a good look at the fish because it was on the opposite side of the dock, but we had a perfect view of the bass.

You can never really know how big a lost fish is at times, but this one looked to be at least a 3 pounder.

Lee kept it pinned to the dock as he got closer…

But one last pull by the fish and Lee’s line broke. The long battle left him fishless and wondering how big that one was. It would’ve definitely helped him with a cull.

He stayed poised though as he sat down and retied.

He got back to work…

And swung aboard another solid fish that he would check with the rest of his fish.

It indeed was a good one.

It didn’t cull for Lee and it was time to head to the ramp. He put his fish on the scales and he came up with 12 pounds, 10 ounces. Just 1-1 behind the eventual winner Kevin VanDam.