Jordon Wins BASS Tour Finale on Santee Cooper

MANNING, S.C. - 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 event 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.
 

Day 4 Pro Standings

Rank	Name	Hometown	Bass	Weight	Pts.	Winnings
1	Kelly Jordon	Mineola, TX	20	93-13	305	$103,000.00
2	Mark Kile	Tonto Basin, AZ	20	90-07	300	$40,000.00
3	Terry Scroggins	Palatka, FL	20	83-03	290	$23,000.00
4	Cody Bird	Granbury, TX	20	74-09	285	$20,000.00
5	Matt Reed	Madisonville, TX	18	73-04	280	$15,000.00
6	Mike McClelland	Vella Vista, AR	20	72-11	281	$14,000.00

From BASS