AFTER THE STAGE: Lee vs. Wheeler, Lucas Lays the Lumber, Sturgeon Bay Shows Out
STURGEON BAY, Wis. – As regular-season competitions go, the Covercraft Stage Five Presented by Abu Garcia had an unmistakable championship attitude about it.
Maybe it was the “Whoever gets the last punch in wins” competition between Jordan Lee and Jacob Wheeler for the Points Champion trophy. Maybe it was the “You can’t stop me” vibe that Justin Lucas projected all week.
Or maybe it was just the Green Bay smallmouth fishery, which ushered in a new definition of what an excellent day of tournament fishing can be.
Lee Outlasts Wheeler
In March of 1979, Michigan State and Indiana State battled it out for the NCAA men’s basketball National Championship. That was the first head-to-head matchup between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, a rivalry that eventually stretched over 12 seasons in the NBA.
You get a definite feeling that Lee vs. Wheeler will outlast Magic vs. Bird.
Lee and Wheeler were separated by 5 ½ points coming into Stage Five, and both were carrying momentum: Lee had banked $200,000 three weeks prior at Heavy Hitters in Kissimmee, Florida; Wheeler had won the FLW Pro Circuit Super Tournament on Lake Chickamauga two weeks prior. Both had fished three of the four Championship Rounds in 2020 Bass Pro Tour events on Lake Eufaula, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Fork and Kissimmee.
Lee eventually threw the final punch of the season, finishing fourth to Wheeler’s 15th to secure the points title by 18 points.
“Get used to seeing that,” MLF NOW! analyst Marty Stone said of the Lee versus Wheeler matchup. “You could already start whispering ‘Hall of Fame’ for both of these guys, and they’re going to do nothing but get better. Think about that for a minute: they’re going to get better. I’m not saying that there aren’t other incredibly talented young anglers out there – Michael Neal, MDJ, Dustin Connell, there are several – but Wheeler versus Lee is something I’m looking forward to watching for years to come.”
Lucas Lays the Lumber
Throughout the course of his 15-event MLF career (13 Bass Pro Tour, two MLF Cup), Lucas has spoken plainly about his discomfited relationship with the timing of the fisheries, and the every-scorable-bass competition format. But three events after declaring “I’m tired of sucking!” on the live stream (at Lake Eufaula), Lucas kick-started some momentum with a fourth-place finish at Heavy Hitters, and then had the best practice of his career for the Sturgeon Bay event.
Whether anybody even realized it, the Berkley pro was the man to beat the minute lines went in on Day 1.
Lucas caught the third fish of the event, piled 78-12 of smallmouth on SCORETRACKER® in the first period of his Qualifying Round, and finished the first day of Stage Five with a record 141-9 on 50 fish. He backed that up with 63-13 on Day 3 for a two-day qualifying total of 206-6.
After parrying with Josh Bertrand and Mark Daniels Jr. throughout the Championship Round – and surviving a 57-minute-long fishless spell in the day’s final hour as Daniels crept to within 5 pounds of Lucas’ lead – Lucas let the emotion and exhilaration fly when he was officially declared the winner, alternately celebrating and crying as he admitted to his official and cameraman “I’m not the best fisherman out here, but man, I want to win.”
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, no joke,” Lucas admitted after lines out. “I told my wife that I felt like I found the winning fish in practice, and I’ve never told her that before. I was extremely confident about catching fish here, but man, you just never know. It’s damn hard to win, period, but this format makes it even harder. I can’t tell you how good it feels.”
Smallies Show Out (Again and Again)
Taken in the context of tournament bass fishing, the performance of Sturgeon Bay/Green Bay’s smallmouth fishery is almost impossible to wrap your mind around: 2,986 scorable fish (2 pounds or more) were weighed for a total of 8,880 pounds (a 3-pound average).
That’s roughly a scorable fish per minute on SCORETRACKER® among the combined field, and an average of 42 pounds per angler, per competition day. Eight anglers (Lucas, Bertrand, Daniels, Scott Suggs, David Dudley, Jared Lintner, Keith Poche and Cliff Pace) broke the 100-pound mark in a single competition day – there were only two 100-pound days posted in the previous 13 Bass Pro Tour events combined.
“This is a phenomenal fishery, no doubt, but I don’t think we even know how phenomenal it can be,” admitted Lucas, whose longest stretch in between scorable fish on his record-breaking first qualifying day was 10 minutes. “I have a bunch of spots I didn’t even get to (in the event), for all I know there are more fish on those spots. Think about that for a minute. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”