provided by John Phillips
Twenty-nine-year-old Jordan Lee, from Cullman, Alabama, has been fishing professionally for only 6 years and has had quite a remarkable career so far. In addition to his career earnings of roughly $1.5 million, during this first tournament since COVID-19, Jordan Lee won over $200,000 on the Kissimmee chain of lakes from Major League Fishing, the week of June 10th, 2020. Jordan Lee also won two Bassmaster Classics, back to back (2017-2018), the MLF Tour in 2019 on BassFan.com.
On the final day, all eight anglers, started out with zero weight. Therefore it was anybody’s tournament to win. All eight anglers had an equal chance to win $100,000. Throughout the entire tournament, I was trying to conserve the bass that I had on those eight brush piles. I always wanted to have enough poundage to make the next cut. My fishing held up all the way to the final round. The entire week I felt like I found some really special places, and that I might have a good chance to pull off the win. Rarely do you have a tournament where you don’t have any other competitors at least fishing close to you, but I was so far out in left field where I was fishing that no one else tried to fish around me. I thought I would need to catch five bass that would weigh a total of 30-35 pounds to win. And every bass I caught on the last day was a good one.
During the last day, I only had five to seven spectators at one time following me, and they would come and go. I knew if I was going to win, I had to manage my spectator pressure. When I saw a spectator boat getting close to one of my brush piles, I’d go over to that brush pile and fish it, so the spectators would back off. The spectators were very good all week long, except for one fella. I was on my very best place during the second day of the tournament, and he watched me catch some good bass. Once I left that site, the spectator moved up there and started fishing for bass where I’d just been fishing. When I saw what happened, I circled back around and got as close to the spectator’s boat and told him, “Friend, I’m only here for two days. If I could fish this place just a couple more days that would really be helpful.” He seemed okay with that and backed off my spot.
If you treat spectators with respect, don’t try to bully them and be as honest and sincere as you can, then hopefully they don’t mind honoring your spot – just like they won’t want you pulling in and fishing their spots.
