Bass Fishing Aug - Sept 2020 | Page 35

BASS PRO TOUR POINTS CHAMPION Jordan Lee doesn’t ever like to play it safe. Some of his best decisions on the water fly in the face of conventional wisdom and separate him from what the rest of the field is doing. ways to create feeding opportunities for bass. That’s what I want to find – not so much a place, but a situation that’s occurring at a certain time.” With that, Lee says he would rather string together three or four different windows during a tournament day than to have one or two permanent loca tions to grind. It’s an approach that requires a lot of running and gunning. In a day’s time, he may fish riprap dur ing the morning clouds, several isolat ed laydowns in mid-morning, floating docks when the wind dies and the sun gets high and then shaded pockets in the afternoon. Instead of a single pat tern, it’s more like sewing together sev eral different “positioning windows” based on timing. How long he dedi cates to each segment is totally defined by success and feel. “If I’m not getting bit or I’m not feel - ing it, I’m gone,” he says. “Even if I caught a bunch right there the day before, I won’t become attached to it, but if it still looks right and I’m seeing the right conditions, I’m going to stay with it longer.” Lee admits that being a touch more patient this year and not bailing out so soon is something that may have helped in his points title quest. “I’ve been burned by leaving too soon several times,” he says. “I would later find out guys lit them up on places where I initially stopped, after I left. I’ve tried to be mindful of that and give places a few more minutes to feel right.” THE GAMBLER Given Lee’s penchant for wanting to find windows during tournament hours, it’s no surprise big gambles are a part of his game. “I’m not really a play-it-safe kind of guy during the event,” Lee admits. “If there is a high-risk, high-reward option available to keep from me from running the same ruts, I’m probably going to take it.” Indeed, Lee took some big gambles that paid off handsomely en route to his points title this season. At the season opener on Lake Eufaula, Lee found himself lingering in 19th place after two days of competi - tion. Once in the Knockout Round, he knew he needed to do something dras - tic to make big moves on the SCORE - TRACKER®. “I was done with the main lake; I wanted to get away from it,” Lee says. “I knew if I went back, I would just be beating my head against the same walls, which is not a good feeling for me. At that point, the unknown is a better option.” With that, Lee recalled a backwater pond way up the Chattahoochee River that he fished as a co-angler several years before. He couldn’t remember AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 33