Kelly Jordon overcame a 6-pound, 2-ounce deficit and then some to take home the trophy at Sunday’s finale of the CITGO Bassmaster Tour presented by Busch Beer on Santee Cooper Reservoir. Standing-room-only crowds watched the Texas pro unload massive bass after massive bass to take the win from Arizona’s Mark Kile.
Jordon’s day four catch of 32 pounds and 2 ounces brought his total weight up to a whopping 93-13 and earned him the $100,000 grand prize as well $1,000 from Busch for the Busch Heavyweight on day four. If that weight – currently the largest caught this season – stays in the top 10 through the Bassmaster Elite 50 series, Jordon will qualify to fish the $160,000 Busch Shootout tournament on a mystery lake in September.
“I had the most incredible day on the water,” Jordon said. “I was so at ease because I didn’t think I could win. I knew I was catching them, so I was sure Mark was just blasting them, too. I was just in the right place and they were biting. I haven’t hit the ground yet.”
Jordon, who has won two previous BASS events, spent the tournament sight fishing with a Baby Fork Craw soft plastic bait by Lake Fork Tackle. Jordon has become an adept sight fisherman, using his skills during a final round in which pros agreed that conditions were against the technique.
“I love doing it. It’s very fun, but I believe it’s the hardest way to catch fish in a tournament,” Jordon said. “It’s so much work and you have to concentrate so hard. Everything has to go right: the sun can’t go behind a cloud at a critical moment, somebody can’t move in the boat, you can’t drop something and spook them, you have to catch them right at the critical moment.
“It’s so intricate and delicate, it’s really a mentally draining way to fish. But I really enjoy doing it and I’ve graduated from the Lake Fork school of sight fishing, so I’ve done really well sight fishing in many tournaments.”
Jordon also raked in another $1,000 from Purolator for Sunday’s Purolator Big Bass of the Day. His 7-13 lunker couldn’t beat out second place Mark Kile’s day three fish that tipped the scales at 9-10, earning Kile another $1,000 from Purolator for the Big Bass of the Tournament.
Kile brought in 90-7 over four days and had been flipping a weighted Wave Worms tube. The Arizona pro was content with second place and felt that he did the best he could.
“Heck, I brought in 22 pounds,” he said. “I mean, what are you going to do? I guess I’ll just keep getting hungry. It seems like it’s something out there that I just can’t grab. Last time I had a 5-pound lead and I got second and this time it was 7 pounds. I’ll keep swinging, but heck, it’s hard to complain when you get 40 grand.”
From here, 50 of the top pros will go to the Bassmaster Elite 50 series, for which the field was finalized Sunday. The top 50 professional bass anglers in the world will prepare to compete in the ground breaking four-event, no-entry-fee series starting April 14 on Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle.
The field for the CITGO Bassmaster Classic has 25 competitors after Sunday. The top 25 anglers in the CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Year points have earned berths in the Classic with another 10 competitors to come from the Elite 50.
BASS is the world’s largest fishing organization, sanctioning more than 20,000 tournaments worldwide through its Federation. This April, BASS introduces the all-new Bassmaster Elite 50 Series, a four-event, no-entry-fee circuit featuring a $1.6 million prize purse for the world’s best anglers. The CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail presented by Busch Beer is the oldest and most prestigious pro bass-fishing tournament circuit and continues to set the standard for credibility, professionalism and sportsmanship as it has since 1968.
Sponsors of the CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail presented by Busch Beer include CITGO Petroleum Corp., Busch Beer, Purolator, Triton Boats, Skeeter Boats, Mercury Marine, Yamaha Outboards, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Lowrance Electronics, Flowmaster Exhaust Systems, MotorGuide, Bass Pro Shops, and BankOne.
Associate Sponsors include G3 Boats and Bryant Heating and Air Conditioning.By: BASS Communications / BASS
