BASS PRO TOUR POINTS CHAMPION
begin his homestretch to the points
title. After putting in, Lee immediately
knew he had a problem. “Within minutes,
it just didn’t feel right at all,” he
says. “Things had com pletely changed.
The water looked dif ferent, the wind
was different. I knew the fish were still
there somewhere. I had to decide
between committing my day to finding
out how they reposi tioned or taking out
and trailering to the Green Bay side
and starting over.”
The cost of starting over was an
hour of no-fishing trailer time. Of
course, Lee took the gamble of relocat -
ing. After an hour and a half without a
bite on the first day, Lee finally found
the window he was looking for and
wrestled up 71 pounds, 12 ounces of
smallmouth to be on his way to claim -
ing the 2020 Bass Pro Tour points title.
Ironically, the one event that didn’t
involve taking big risks and fishing new
water was Lee’s win at Stage Four on
Lake Toho. He spent some of his prac -
tice idling around in the middle of Toho
marking brushpiles. He didn’t fish the
piles because most of them were in the
lake’s main thoroughfare traveled
heavily by his competition.
“That’s the only tournament this
year where I fished only the stuff I
found in practice,” Lee says. “I really
didn’t know how much potential the
piles had until I started fishing them on
my first tournament day. The more I
fished them, the more I learned which
ones to hit at what time of the day.
Each pile had it’s own sort of window.
Once I figured out the best order for
the rotation, it felt right.”
A STUDENT OF THE GAME
Being self-taught and a student of
the game are the most prominent cor -
nerstones of Lee’s success.
“I never had one certain person take
me out and show me all the ropes to
tournament fishing,” he says. “Instead, I
fished with a lot of different anglers,
trying to learn about different techniques.
From there, I fished as much as
I could on my own to develop my own
approach.”
Lee intentionally fished on rainy
days, hot days, freezing days, in high
water, in low water – you name a con -
dition and he wanted to fish in it. He
wore trails in the water on Alabama
lakes, devouring as much time on the
water as he could get. Locals from both
Guntersville and Smith Lake say his
truck and trailer became a permanent
landmark at ramps on those lakes.
When it came time to learn small -
mouth fishing, Lee made a month-long
pilgrimage to Lake Champlain and
fished every day for several weeks to
learn the idiosyncrasies of smallmouth.
To this day, Lee’s appetite for fish -
ing knowledge is still insatiable. He
admits that when he can’t fish, he con -
sumes large quantities of fishing con -
tent in the form of tournament results
and reports from all over the country,
as well as countless fishing shows and
YouTube videos.
“I might watch a random video of a
guy catching bass on a frog up north
and see just one thing that intrigued
me about the way a fish was caught on
a crazy color and I will remember it,” he
says. “Before going to Sturgeon Bay, I
watched videos on Great Lakes small -
mouth fishing to remind myself how
they set up and what kinds of things
they bite and how hard they fight – it
all helps me sort of visualize what I
want to find when I get there.”
In his early years, Lee tried the
route of getting firsthand fishing infor -
mation and locations for tournaments,
but it was a formula that didn’t work for
him.
“It wasn’t very rewarding because I
tried to stick to what I was told would
work, even when it didn’t feel right,” he
says.
Along those same lines, Lee
believes the MLF rules of not being
able to talk to your fellow competitors
about fishing has been a plus for him
on the Bass Pro Tour.
“It’s only natural to talk about fishing
at a tournament,” he explains. “And
even though I have my own ideas, hear -
ing another guy’s thoughts about
what’s going on clouds my head. So the
fact that we can’t talk with each about
what’s happening out on the water in
these events is actually a relief.”
“I like to do things my way,” he
adds. “The most gratifying thing for me
about fishing is taking the set of condi -
tions I am dealt on any given day,
going out and playing my ideas and
hunches on those variables to see if
they work. When something hits and it
works, it’s very fulfilling, which builds
SOMETHING SPECIAL
FLW Tour pro Alex Davis of Albertville,
Ala., was one of the many anglers Jordan Lee
fished with when learning the ropes during
his teenage years. Davis fished with Lee on
several occasions and distinctly remembers
that there was something spe cial about him.
“As a guide, I take a lot of people fishing
who want to learn advanced techniques,”
Davis says. “It usually takes most people a
day or so to get the gist of how to work cer -
tain lures. When I took Jordan fishing – I want
to say he was probably 16 or 17 – no matter
what lure I put in his hand, he just got it
immediately. Within minutes, he knew when
to reel, when to pause, when to jerk, when to
set the hook. It was all very natural for him. I
remember showing him how to crank a
squarebill through grass, which takes some
time to learn – not with him – it looked like he
had been threading a squarebill through
grass all his life.”
One of the days Davis took Lee fishing
was in July when daytime temperatures
soared past the 100-degree mark.
“It was dead slick, broiling hot and we
were inhaling hydrilla gnats by the thousands,”
Davis recalls. “We fished like 12 or 13
hours that day. I figured there was no way a
teenage kid would come back for another
dose. That night, just for kicks, I texted him
and asked him if he wanted to go again the
next day. You can only imagine my surprise
when he texted back, ‘Just tell me what time
to be there.’ We went again the next day and
he wore them out on nearly every lure I had
in the boat.”
Davis says Lee’s love of fishing is beyond
explanation.
“For a few years here at Guntersville, his
truck and trailer could be found at Seibold
Creek ramp seven days a week, no matter the
weather,” Davis adds. “Every day I saw it, I
remember thinking, ‘there is a guy that wants
it bad.’ He absolutely loves being on the water
learning about fish.”
self-confidence and that leads to
believing in yourself even more. This
year, it just so happened a lot of my
ideas worked and that process kept
building upon itself to put me on top at
the end of the season.”
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