By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
The Bassmaster College Series Championship began last week with 110 anglers from 57 colleges and universities vying for a chance to fish against some of the top pro anglers in the world while earning some notoriety for themselves and respective schools.
Spread out over 5 days, it had everything you’d want in a fishing tournament – irresistible stakes, merciless conditions, a little mystery and plenty of raw emotion.
It ended with two brothers from Auburn University going head to head in a gut-wrenching, 4-hour Sunday morning duel on a small lake in central Arkansas. For all the marbles.
Have the fishing gods no mercy?
The result was Matt Lee, a 23-year-old marketing major, edging his younger brother Jordan by a little more than 3 pounds in the final segment of a grueling tournament that would’ve worn down even the most seasoned and conditioned pros.
When it was over, there was no confetti shower or loud rock music to get the crowd going – just two brothers embracing and agonizing over the outcome, one conflicted that he’d just beaten his blood for a berth in the Bassmaster Classic; the other left to choke down another runner-up finish. Talk about an impossible situation.
“It’s really indescribable,” said Matt Lee. “I don’t know what to say. Surreal is a word I keep using. Overnight, I went from someone who fishes for Auburn and fishes some FLW and B.A.S.S. stuff to someone who’s going to die being able to say he fished the Bassmaster Classic.”
For Jordan, it meant a third 2nd-place finish at the Bassmaster College Championships in the last 3 years – he also finished 2nd in the team competition in 2010 and again this year (with Matt). Understandably, this one is the hardest to take.
“This one’s going to hurt me for a while,” he said. “It’s tough. I’m not going to lie. If I weren’t going to win, I’d want him to win, but if I were going to lose, I’d rather have gotten put out in the first round. All these second places are catching up with me.”
The unique format of the event kept the anglers on their toes. Once the team portion concluded last Friday and Oklahoma State’s Zack Birge and Blake Furry captured the national championship, the anglers from the top four teams (OSU, Auburn, University of Alabama and Murray State) were arranged in a bracketed tournament for a single-elimination weekend shootout to determine which angler would be heading to Grand Lake next February to fish the Classic.
Quarterfinals
> Matt Lee, 6-12 (2) def. Vincent Campisano, 1-03 (1)
After the team competition wrapped up, the eight remaining anglers were told Beaverfork Lake, a 960-acre lake in Conway, Ark., would be the site of the individual portion of the event.
They were given their pick of boats provided by B.A.S.S., 2 hours to scout the lake and a key to a room at a nearby hotel. Use of Power-Poles was prohibited and use of on-board electronics was limited to simple sonar and GPS as not all of the boats were outfitted identically.
In an effort to avoid teammates fishing against each other before the finals, each team had one angler in the top and bottom of the draw. Matt Lee, the No. 2 seed in the lower bracket, was matched up against Murray State’s Vincent Campisano in the quarterfinals last Saturday morning.
As the morning wore on and the temperature pushed toward triple digits – it eventually reached 108 in nearby Little Rock – Lee discovered a hump that fell off gradually to 15 feet on three sides and to 23 feet on the other side. He found some fish congregating around a sunken tree on the deepest side.
“How I found it was I hooked a fish and got hung up,” he said. “I thought it might’ve been a catfish, but it was hung up for a minute and a half. I started pulling on it with my hand thinking I could break the limb off. I didn’t know what to do. Finally, it just swam out and the line was free and a minute later, I caught it. It turned out to be 4-14.”
It was the big fish of the morning matches and he added another fish to close with 6-12, more than enough to eliminate Campisano, who managed one bass for 1-03.
Semifinals
> Matt Lee, 8-11 (2) def. Dustin Connell, 0-00 (0)
Next up for Lee was Dustin Connell from the University of Alabama. Lee worked the same area with a 4” spoon and landed a foul-hooked 5-07 brute that anchored his two-fish, 8-11 bag that pushed him to the finals as Connell zeroed during the afternoon session.
“When I hooked that fish, I chased him 100 yards off my waypoint,” Lee said. “After catching that 4-14 in the morning, I never would’ve thought I’d beat that out there with as few fish as were biting.
“What I was trying to do was find any contour change. There were a couple of little points where I was lucky to get a 2-pounder. You just hope you drive over something.”
Brothers Jordan Lee, left, and Matt Lee squared off in a gut-wrenching finale to the Bassmaster College Series championship.
Beating Connell set up the showdown with Jordan, who ousted Murray State’s Justin Graben by a mere 2 ounces in his semifinal match.
Finals
> Matt Lee, 5-06 (2), def. Jordan Lee, 2-04 (1)
It had been less than 12 hours since the semifinal weigh-ins concluded Saturday evening and the Lee brothers knew they’d be fishing against each other for the chance to go the Classic. Any amount of time wouldn’t have made it any easier.
“We went into the day knowing one of us was going to win and the other was going to lose,” Matt said. “We both wanted it really bad. We said before the day started, ‘It’s okay. We’ll both go out there and if one of us catches one and one of us catches zero, who cares? It’s either me or you that’s going to the Bassmaster Classic. That’s awesome.’
“Then you come in for the weigh-in and it’s like, ‘Oh, gosh. This is real now. No more talking about it. It’s about to happen.’”
Matt started on the hump he’d found the day before and knowing the fish were likely feeding during the cooler overnight hours, he figured the best chance of getting bit was around first light.
He picked up a 1/2-ounce football jig and got two bites, one of which came while he was reeling the bait back to the boat.
“It got mushy and I set the hook and he had it good enough and I boat-flipped him,” he said. “That probably saved me right there. Why in the world would I get a bite reeling back to the boat? It’s just strange.”
Meanwhile, Jordan worked over a roadbed that ran the length of the lake with deep-diving crankbaits after the fish wouldn’t warm up to the jig he used to catch three weigh fish the previous day. He managed one on a Bomber Switchback Shad and broke off a fish he estimated to be close to 5 pounds while fishing a jig around a dock in the final hour.
Matt was the first to weigh in and posted a 5-06 weight, which he knew was enough to eclipse his brother, who had just one fish.
“My first reaction when I saw what he had, I just hurt for him,” Matt said. “It was weird. I just got to go to the Bassmaster Classic and my first reaction was how bad it hurts for him. It was really tough to see my brother like that. To take something that means so much to somebody away from them, it really hurts.
“My brother’s an extremely good angler. If I had to face 109 of the 110 (anglers), I’d face them all before I faced him. To beat him, that’s whom I want to face. If I’m going to win, I want to face the best. At the same time, it’s not cool facing your brother and taking a Classic berth from him.”
Winning Gear Notes
> Spoon gear: 7’6” medium-heavy Powell Endurance 764 casting rod, Shimano Curado 200-G7 casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), unnamed 25-pound fluorocarbon line, 4” Strike King Sexy Spoon (sexy shad chrome).
> He swapped out the stock hook on the spoon for a 1/0 Owner Stinger treble to improve his hookups.
> Jig gear: Same rod, same reel, unnamed 15-pound fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Jewell mop jig, NetBait Paca Craw trailer (hardy craw).
> He also caught keepers on a Spro Little John DD (cell mate) and a Strike King Series 6 XD (chartreuse shad).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – “Drive and determination and practice. I was fortunate to find that place. I fished it for an hour and a half the first morning and didn’t get a bite. I had no fish with 30 minutes left in the first 5-hour period (on Saturday). The guy I was up against weighed one for 1-03 so I had to catch something. I didn’t know it then, but I knew I probably did. I picked up a crankbait and fired and fired and caught one. Then I picked up the spoon and caught that 4-14.”
> Performance edge – “I’ve always had Lowrance products on my boat and when you have them set up well, you can see things even when you’re driving 30 or 40 miles per hour. That really helped me.”
Final Results
Quarterfinals
At Beaverfork Lake
> Logan Johnson, University of Alabama, 5-0 (2) def. Zack Birge, Oklahoma State University, 1-03 (1)
> Jordan Lee, Auburn University, 7-09 (3) def. Justin Graben, Murray State University, 7-07 (4)
> Dustin Connell, University of Alabama, 3-14 (3) def. Blake Furry, Oklahoma State University, 0-0 (0)
> Matt Lee, Auburn University, 6-12 (2) def. Vincent Campisano, Murray State University, 1-03 (1)
Semifinals
At Beaverfork Lake
> Jordan Lee, 8-02 (3) def. Logan Johnson, 1-11 (1)
> Matt Lee, 8-11 (2) def. Dustin Connell, 0-00 (0)
Championship
At Beaverfork Lake
> Matt Lee, 5-06 (2), def. Jordan Lee, 2-04 (1)
