By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Winning high-level bass tournaments used to be a pretty routine thing for Kelly Jordon. He compiled five tour-level victories from 2001 to '06 and was one of the top competitors in the game during the first decade of the 21st century.
Except for a triumph in a small-field Major League Fishing Cup event in 2013, however, the affable Texan hadn't collected a trophy since prevailing in a Bassmaster Elite Series event at the Potomac River 17 years ago. He ended his drought last week by ralling from 4th place on the final day to take top honors in the MLF Invitational at Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma.
"It just felt great," the 52-year-old veteran said. "I just showed up and went fishing."
He didn't find out that he'd even be in the tournament until a couple of weeks ago when he was competing in the Bass Pro Tour derby at Lake Murray in South Carolina.
"I was on the waiting list and I got the call on my off day (during the Qualifying Round), and that was the day after I'd caught a whopping two fish for 4 pounds. "I was mad at that point and I was ready to go catch some dadgummed fish.
"I just felt good the whole time I was there. That lake has got 'em – it's a total fishing lake and nobody really has an advantage. Whoever puts their head down and figures it out the best is gonna win."
Flat, Rocky Points Were Loaded
Jordan racked up 57-03 – including a tournament-best 22-09 on the final day – to collect the $83,500 winner's check. His total was almost 3 pounds clear of runner-up Drew Gill.
He had a good practice and focused on flat points that featured a substantial amount of rock, which the bass were using as staging areas coming in or out of the spawning ritual. His best point didn't look like much from the surface and he said many anglers bypassed it in favor of an adjacent one that was considerably more attractive.
"There was lots of bait and lots of timber," he said. "The rocks were big and the fish were sitting in the rocks (where they couldn't be identified on forward-facing sonar). Almost all of my bites came in 2 1/2 to 4 feet of water, but I caught a couple out to about 7 feet where it dropped off."
His primary weapon was a homemade half-ounce bladed jig with a Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad trailer (white). He caught two weigh-in fish on a Lucky Craft BDS 2 square-bill and one on a big YUM Mighty Worm attached to a 5/8-ounce Epic Baits swinghead jig.
He threw the bladed jig on his signature Duckett Fishing Pro Series rod (7-foot, medium-heavy) with a Duckett Paradigm casting reel (7.5:1 gear ratio). His line was 17- and 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon.
Got Some Momentum Now
Jordon hopes that his victory can be a catalyst to better showings through the remainder of the BPT season. He currently 79th out of 80 anglers in the points standings with finishes of 73rd, 71st and 69th.
"I've had a lot of stuff going on in recent years with kids and other things pulling me in all kinds of directions, but that's true of just about every pro," he said. "A lame excuse is really all that is.
"The kids are a little older now and that gives me a little more free time to fish and try to get back in a groove. This one was kind of a Hail Mary – I'd been kicked to the ground at Murray and I was mad, so I just said let's go give it all we've got and put our head down and fish, and that was the perfect lake to do it on, with muddy water and having to read the conditions."
Notable
> His final-day bag was topped by a 4-14 that he caught on his final cast, replacing a 3-09 that he'd just used to get rid of a 2 1/2. He'd gotten back to within 7 miles of the launch quicker than he'd expected and had time to hit a spot that he hadn't visited yet during the tournament. His trolling motor was dead at that point after battling the fierce wind all day. "I fired out there and got bit and when it jumped I could see it was close to a 5-pounder. I really didn't think I had a chance to win until I got that one in."
