PROFILE:
JORDAN
LEE
CULLMAN, AL
There’s not a tournament bass angler
in the world who doesn’t want some of
whatever MLF pro Jordan Lee is cookin.’
The 28-year-old Alabamian has been a
tour-level pro for only five years, but his
accomplishments are already worthy of a
solid (borderline Hall of Fame) career:
back-to-back Bassmaster Classic titles,
the champion’s trophy in the first MLF
Bass Pro Tour event ever contested, tour-
nament winnings approaching $1.5 mil-
lion and one of the highest top-10 per-
centages in the history of the sport.
We caught up with Lee in between
practice days for a Bass Pro Tour event at
Lake Okeechobee to dig a little deeper
into some of the things that make this
easygoing wunderkind such a handful
once competition starts.
QA
By Joel Shangle
PHOTO BY JOSH GASSMANN
I hear you referred to as a “natural”
quite a bit: “Oh, that Jordan Lee, he’s
just a natural.” I’m sure you’ve heard
it plenty, too, but do you think that’s
accurate? Or even fair? Because
“natural” almost sounds like it’s easy
for you.
(laughing) If people ever got in my
boat with me during a tournament,
they’d see just how much of a natural
I’m not. I work hard at it, just like every-
body out here. Even if somebody has
some natural abilities, man, you have to
try hard all the time to compete against
these guys, or you’ll get beat bad nine
times out of 10.
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | APRIL-MAY 2020