Jordan Lee’s 2nd place Cayuga baits and patterns

Jordan Lee started the Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga dropshotting for bedding smallmouths, but ended up catching largemouths in the northern end of the lake. Here’s how he did it.

> “I weighed in 7 smallmouths out of 20 fish. I was dropshotting beds — that’s how I caught my limit of fish day 1, and I caught two the second day doing that. After that was done, I tried to look around for more smallmouth but couldn’t really find any.

> “The second day I was largemouth fishing in an area where we [including his brother Matt] got a couple bites in practice. Just 3-4 bites in one little area. We talked after the first day, and he actually caught a lot of fish in that area, just not any big ones.

> “I went to that area — but not that exact spot — on the flat and started pitching my dropshot. I was using a hand-poured worm, and was just flipping that worm in holes in the grass in about 8-10′.

> “As soon as I pulled in there I caught a 3-something and then one over 5, and one right at 5 in about 20 minutes. So I knew that was the right choice, and was something I could do for the next day at least.

> “That really got my confidence up right then that that was the deal, especially when I knew the fishing was going to be tougher because the bed fish were going to get caught.

> “Days 3 and 4 I pretty much did the same thing. I fished some different areas out there on that flat — it seemed like there wasn’t one spot I could sit on. I had to really cover a lot of water and find some new fish. That’s what I did the third day.

> “The fourth day got a lot tougher for me. I didn’t get near the number of bites, but it’s all I had to do. It’s what I had confidence in — I didn’t have any other areas where I thought I could catch 4-lbers fishing like that.

> “Toward the end of the day I could tell it wasn’t really happening — the wind was really blowing out there. I could tell the fish weren’t really setting up well. I made some changes and caught a lot of fish off boat docks on a wacky-rigged [Strike King] Ocho. But I never caught any big ones.”

Baits

> Bedding fish: Strike King Dream Shot (green pumpkin sapphire), 7″ leader, #1 dropshot hook, 1/4-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Drop Shot Weight.

> Pitching flats holes: hand-poured worm (bold bluegill, Margarita mutilator, “color didn’t really seem to matter”), 7″ leader, 2/0 rebarb hook, 1/4-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Drop Shot Weight.

> Docks: Strike King Ocho (honey candy), 1/0 rebarb hook, O-ring.

> Setup: Qauntum EXO Tour 725 spinning rod, Quantum EXO reel (30 size), 20-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid with a 12-lb Seaguar InvizX leader.