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GREENVILLE, S.C. — After three magical days on Lake Hartwell, South Carolina, Jordan Lee now belongs to one of the most exclusive fraternities in professional bass fishing.

Lee, who began Sunday’s championship round in sixth place, caught five bass that weighed 16 pounds, 5 ounces and won the 2018 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods with a three-day total of 47-1.

Lee, who won last year’s Classic on Lake Conroe, Texas, joins fishing legends Rick Clunn and Kevin VanDam as the only anglers in history to win the Super Bowl of professional bass fishing two years in a row.

“That part of it hasn’t set in for me,” said Lee, who pushed his career earnings with B.A.S.S. past $1 million with the $300,000 Classic win. “I’m still just freaking out.

“It was just a perfect week for me. I caught fish on five different baits and a lot of different techniques.”

Unlike last year, when Lee struggled during the first round of the Classic before rebounding to win, he got off to a good start during this year’s first round with a catch of 18-10.

Since he didn’t have a good practice, he said he decided to stay within his comfort zone and fish boat docks — much like he does on Smith Lake in his home state of Alabama.

“I just wanted to cover as much water as I could to give myself the best chance of putting a bait in front of a fish,” he said. “On this lake, I knew boat docks were going to play because they always do — and that’s what I like to do.”

With no solid pattern identified, Lee alternated between a Strike King Rage Swimmer and two Strike King stickbaits — an Ocho and a Shimmy Stick. He stuck with green pumpkin and green pumpkin/blue as his primary colors.

He also caught fish throughout the week on an unspecified jerkbait and a homemade bladed jig.

“I really didn’t have a game plan,” he said. “I knew I could catch a lot of 2-pound spotted bass, and I knew those fish weren’t going to win me the tournament. But that’s what I wanted to do, and everything just kind of fell into place.”

Lee weighed in all spotted bass on Day 2 and saw his weight drop to 12-2. But he still easily made the Top 25 cut in sixth place to fish on Championship Sunday.

But being behind on the final day is nothing new for Lee, considering he started last year’s championship round in 15th place and came back to win.

Once again, he hit the jackpot on the final day.

“Today, I went in the back of this one little pocket and the water was 57 degrees,” he said. “I caught a fish — probably my biggest one of the day — and then it turned out there were bass under every dock in there.

“They were swimming around by my boat. It was just loaded.”

There was one tense moment for Lee in that pocket when he thought he might have let the historic victory slip through his fingers.

“I really thought I had lost the tournament on my last cast,” he said. “There was one bass about 4 or 5 pounds under a dock, and I pitched my worm right on it and it swirled and ate it. I set the hook and the worm popped off.

“If that one had cost me, it was going to be tough to sleep at night.”

As it turned out, though, Lee had just enough weight to edge California pro Brent Ehrler by 1 pound. Ehrler was second with 46-1, followed by Jason Christie, who led the first two days but caught only 8-11 on Sunday and fell to third place with 45-15.

“I didn’t go out all week thinking I was going to win this tournament,” Lee said. “I just decided I was going to fish the way I wanted to fish.

“You can’t plan on winning this tournament. Everything just has to fall into place.”

Alabama pro Mark Daniels Jr. won $2,500 for catching the Berkley Big Bass of the week, a 6-11 largemouth he caught on Day 1.

Toyota Bonus Bucks will pay $7,500 to the highest-placing eligible angler and $2,500 to the second-highest-placing angler.

2018 Bassmaster Classic Title Sponsor: GEICO

2018 Bassmaster Classic Presenting Sponsor: DICK’S Sporting Goods

2018 Bassmaster Classic Platinum Sponsor: Toyota

2018 Bassmaster Classic Premier Sponsors: Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, Abu Garcia, Berkley, Huk, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole

2018 Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo Presenting Sponsor: DICK’S Sporting Goods

2018 Bassmaster Classic Local Sponsor: Mountain Dew

About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan Outdoors, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

                                                        Photo by Laurie Tisdale/B.A.S.S.GREENVILLE, S.C.

Having found favorable clarity and appealing water temperatures during practice on Lake Keowee’s south end, Kansas State’s Zack Vielhauer and Will Andrie sacked a limit of 13 pounds, 2 ounces to win the Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic presented by Bass Pro Shops.

Committing their day to dock fishing, the winners focused on precise presentations that adjusted with fish movement.

“As the sun came out, the fish moved farther and farther under the docks, so we were skipping our baits father under there where nobody else was reaching,” Vielhauer said. “We had never fished this lake before. But in practice, we went all the way from the south end, all the way up to the north end; so we were able to eliminate the whole north end and concentrate on the south end.”

The K-State anglers fished unweighted Texas-rigged Senkos in watermelon and green pumpkin, and 3/16-ounce finesse jigs with green pumpkin/brown trailers. Light line — 8-pound fluorocarbon — proved essential to their effective presentations.

“With the clear water, we were able to get those baits under there and the fish weren’t able to see the line,” Vielhauer said. “But, we work well together as a team and if one of us was unable to make the pitch or the cast, the other one’s able to do that. So, we alternated.”

Andrie said he and his teammate started deeper, but they ended up spending most of their time fishing in 2 to 10 feet of water. Following a rotation that they had established in practice, they fished 25 to 30 docks.

Their action started early with four keepers in the first 20 minutes.

“Most of the fish we caught today were prespawners; they had big bellies and they were ready to go,” Andrie said. “They were staging to do their thing, but we intercepted them today.

“Today, we predominantly had spotted bass — the biggest spotted bass we had all week, but we did find a couple of those key largemouth that really did it for us.”

2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Title Sponsor: Carhartt

2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Presenting Sponsor: Bass Pro Shops

2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Platinum Sponsor: Toyota

2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Premier Sponsors: Berkley, Huk, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Power-Pole, Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha, ABU Garcia

2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Supporting Sponsors: Lowrance, Mossy Oak Fishing, Phoenix Boats, Livingston Lures

About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport, providing cutting edge content on bass fishing whenever, wherever and however bass fishing fans want to use it. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), radio show (Bassmaster Radio), social media programs and events. For 50 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation presented by Magellan Outdoors, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.

Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic presented by Bass Pro Shops

3/18/2018 

Lake Keowee – South Cove – Greenville, SC

STANDINGS BOATER DAY 1

Today’s Activity

Name # Fish # Live Lbs – Oz # Fsh # Live Lbs-Oz PTS

1 Zach Vielhauer – Will Andrie Kansas State 5 5 13- 2 5 5 13- 2 0.00

2 Ben Stone – Greyson Williams Lander University 5 5 12- 3 5 5 12- 3 0.00

3 Justin Grigg – Brett Blackwood Winthrop University 5 4 9-15 5 4 9-15 0.00

4 Colby Bryant – Dillon Harrell Sam Houston State University 5 5 9- 9 5 5 9- 9 0.00

5 Jonathan Kelley – John Duarte Coastal Carolina University 5 5 8-14 5 5 8-14 0.00

6 Trevor Topken – Zachary Catoe University of South Carolina 5 5 8- 9 5 5 8- 9 0.00

7 Jake Lee – Cole Sands Bryan College 5 5 8- 8 5 5 8- 8 0.00

8 Derek Freeman – Robert White Clemson University 5 5 7-11 5 5 7-11 0.00

9 Remington Wagner – Garret Beck Hutchinson Blue Dragons 3 3 3- 6 3 3 3- 6 0.00

BIG BASS

Day Name City,State Lbs-Oz

1 Justin Grigg – Brett Blackwood Clover, SC 3- 7

TOTALS

Day # Fish # Live Lbs-Oz # Limits

1 43 42 81-13 8

Download the Bass 365 Live app now to get the behind the scenes stories. Don’t miss a second of the 2018 Bassmaster Classic on Bassmaster.com!

Check out all of the post weigh in videos from the media room…..now on the BASS 365 Live app. Jason Christie is leading the 2018 Bassmaster Classic after day one.

A song from county music star, Josh Turner might be among the last things you’d expect Quantum angler Matt Lee to be thinking about minutes from backing down the boat ramp during his first Bassmaster Classic as an Elite Series pro.

But a hit single Turner had in 2008 was fittingly top-of-mind for the 29-year-old pro from Lake Guntersville, Alabama.

“I finally thought of the Josh Turner song I was trying to remember to tell you when we talked about his music during Wednesday’s final practice day … it’s called, ‘Everything Is Fine,’” Lee told me with a big grin in Day 1’s predawn darkness as his Tundra pulled closer to the Classic launch ramp.

Turner penned the lyrics to “Everything Is Fine” himself, and much like his biggest hit of all time “Long Black Train” neither song’s lyrics shy from Turner’s spirituality.

Nor does Matt Lee.

“It’s Day 1 of the Bassmaster Classic and I feel so blessed to be surrounded with the best family, the best fiancé, the best friends. I’m telling you, man, I couldn’t pick a better group of people to surround me,” Lee said, seconds after both his mom and dad hurried across the wet boat ramp to give him a kiss as he sat behind the console of his Ranger.

“Heck, I’ve even got a great dog,” says Lee with a laugh in reference to his German Shepherd “Miles” as I jokingly pluck a number of apparent dog hairs hanging from his Carhartt beanie while he fires up his outboard.

The oldest of the Lee Brothers is certainly in a great place on the heels of five very impressive Top 12 finishes last season. But after a stellar Carhartt Bassmaster College Series career, that included qualifying for the 2013 Classic as a college champ, his freshman and sophomore years as a full time pro were checkered with highs and lows.

“My first couple years on the Elites were a struggle, but the thing is, I never doubted that I was exactly where God wanted me to be, and that He wanted me to fish for a living and touch people with my faith through bass fishing,” says Lee. “And now that things are better, I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be too.”

“Like I told Jesse Wiggins yesterday, if you’re going to have one bad tournament a year – the Classic is probably the best one, because there’s no Toyota Angler of the Year points on the line, and winning is really all that matters here. So if you’re only going to have one great tournament each year – obviously, this is also the one!” reasons Lee. “And there’s no greater example of ‘when it’s meant to be it’ll be’ than me, and the good fortunes of my career.”

But why a Josh Turner song on Day 1 of bass fishing’s biggest event?

“Country music is kind of like bass fishing – so many people relate to it, and Josh Turner just has a real calming voice,” says Lee. “That song talks a lot about being grateful, and if you’re living in my shoes and you’re still acting sour for some reason, then something is bad wrong.”

At age 29, Lee’s faith-based perspective is perfect. Nothing is bad wrong at all.

In fact, everything is fine. Including a few stray dog hairs, good luck kisses from loved ones, and the lyrics that play in his head.

“Everything is fine, fine, fine. Through the sunshine and the rain. I got a peace of mind. You know I can’t complain. I make it a point to thank the Lord, when I got Him on the line. I’m feeling good, and everything is fine.” – Josh Turner