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 and is ranked No. 2 world-wide on BassFan.com.
On the final day of the tournament, I caught 12 bass over 3 pounds, and I kept the five biggest bass. My best bass weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces. About lunchtime on that final day of the tournament, I had about a 20-pound lead with 43 pounds. My closest competitor had about 20 pounds of bass. However, in our sport of bass fishing, you really don’t know if you’ll win or not until that final weigh-in happens. So, I continued to fish hard all day long, to catch as many big bass as I could. I fished all the way until the last second of the tournament. I never let up because the big bass for the last day paid $100,000; that was very important.
My 9-pound, 4-ounce bass was in the lead all day long. But I remembered that on day 3 I’d had that bass that weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces that was the biggest bass until another angler caught a bass that weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces in the last 20 minutes, which made him take home the $50,000 check that I thought I’d receive. So, even though I had a 9-pound 4-ounce bass in my live well, I realized someone could catch one bigger than that. I fought and fished hard to try and catch another big bass. I also thought, “There’s only eight guys on the water, and maybe my 9-pound, 4-ounce bass will hold up as big fish of the day. It did. I made $100,000 for that bass, and I won the tournament, which brought in another $100,000. So, I took home $200,000 for the June 2020 MLF Kissimmee Lakes tournament. I certainly didn’t have a bad week at all.
Every win is special, but this win was especially special. I won this same tournament last year on this same lake. I think there’s something special down in those Florida waters for me. Too, this tournament was the first we’d fished after everything was shut down because of the coronavirus. I caught the big fish on the last day and took home an extra $100,000. I found some places to fish that no one else fished. I never had a competitor’s boat near me, and the spectators were just as nice as they could be. I think that all the stars lined-up for me to have one of the most exceptional tournaments I’ve ever fished.
