PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – If you ask Matt Lee about his favorite lake, he’ll tell you that it’s Lake Champlain. On Thursday, we learned why that is. He appears to be incredibly comfortable on Champlain, and during the first day of the Toyota Stage Six Presented by Googan Baits he pivoted to figure out the largemouth bite, even though he started the day thinking he’d target smallmouth.
At the end of Group A’s Qualifying Day 1, Lee put 103 pounds, 5 ounces on SCORETRACKER®, which is a 55-6 lead over second-place John Cox. That’s important to note because anglers’ weights from Qualifying Day 1 carry over to Qualifying Day 2, which is Saturday for the pros fishing in Group A. If Lee is able to win the Qualifying Round, he will skip the Knockout Round and advance straight to the Championship Round, where the Top 10 will compete for the Stage Six trophy.