NATURAL-LEE
DEFINING THE “FEEL”
When Lee talks about how he dis -
cerns productive water from unproduc -
tive water, he often uses the word “feel.”
When asked to define that feel, he spec -
ulates that it has something to do with
an inherent ability to assess water and
weather conditions immediately, and to
make a very definitive decision about
what’s good and what’s bad. It’s some -
thing he discovered in 2009 while fish -
ing his first tournament season as a
boater. At the age of 18, Lee fished the
Bassmaster Weekend Series, won the
last event of the season and won the
points race in the North Alabama
Division, which featured some of the
best tournament sticks in Southeast.
“When I first started fishing tourna -
ments, I just felt like I had a knack for
it,” Lee says. “I somehow recognize
productive water quickly. Even when I
went to lakes I had never been to
before, I knew what kind of water I
wanted to find based on that day’s
conditions. On tournament days, I kept
looking until I found something that
had the right look or the right feel.
“I wish I could explain it better. I can
make two dozen stops to try places
and they just don’t look or feel right to
me. Then, on the 25th stop, it’s like, this
is it, this is exactly what I’m looking for.
For some reason it just feels perfect.”
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
As he traveled around fishing vari -
ous circuits early in his career, Lee
knew his approach to tournament fish -
ing was a little different from the norm.
He often heard other anglers talk about
finding fish in practice and hop ing their
fish would stay put for the tournament.
He heard them discuss staying in one
area all day to “dial in the pattern,” and
to “find where the fish moved to.” For
Lee, the talk was a bit foreign because
his approach to the game was somewhat
different, espe cially in multi-day
tournaments.
“So many of my best events have
come from finding fish on the fly in the
tournament,” Lee says. “I’ve never really
found a productive place in practice
and said to myself ‘Man, I hope these
fish are still here in the tournament.’ In
my mind, it’s a given that those fish
won’t still be there in the tournament.
There’s too much changing day to day.”
“so many of my best events have come from finding fish
on the fly in the tournament.”
If he stops to fish a spot and the
bass don’t cooperate, Lee moves on
and doesn’t get caught up in trying to
“reconnect” with the fish.
“I try not to get married to any one
place or technique,” Lee explains. “If it
doesn’t feel right in the first 15 or 20
minutes, I keep moving; I don’t want to
get bogged down trying to figure out
what happened. Some guys are really
good at figuring out where fish moved
to. Their fish change and they keep
sniffing around for hours until they find
out how they have repositioned. I’ve
been beaten by that approach plenty,
but it’s not me.”
Lee uses practice solely to cover
water and assess the paying field. He
fishes only briefly to judge the water
clarity, bottom composition or fishing
pressure in an area.
“I want to see and sample as much
of a lake as possible,” he explains.
“When the tournament starts, I don’t
care about having a starting spot. I just
want plenty of options to match the
variables for that day.”
WINDOW SHOPPING
Lee prefers finding windows, which
are more timing-based, as opposed to
patterns, which are based more on
location. Windows are more illusive
and everchanging, which makes them
more pressure-proof.
“Conditions are always changing,”
Lee says. “Clouds, wind, water color,
fishing pressure, forage spawns. They
are variables that intermingle constant -
ly. One of my favorite things is finding
when these variables line up in certain
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020