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 Bassmaster Tour 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 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 Bassmaster Classic has 25 competitors after Sunday. The top 25 anglers in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year points have earned berths in the Classic with another 10 competitors to come from the Elite 50.
2004 South Carolina Bassmaster Tour Pro 03/25-03/28 Santee Cooper Lake, Manning, S.C. (PRO Division) Standings Day 4 Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$ 1. Kelly Jordon Mineola, Texas 20 93-13 305 $103,000.00 Day 1: 5 17-12 Day 2: 5 15-06 Day 3: 5 28-09 Day 4: 5 32-02 2. Mark Kile Tonto Basin, Ariz. 20 90-07 300 $40,000.00 Day 1: 5 16-03 Day 2: 5 20-04 Day 3: 5 32-03 Day 4: 5 21-13 3. Terry Scroggins Palatka, Fla. 20 83-03 290 $23,000.00 Day 1: 5 16-13 Day 2: 5 20-02 Day 3: 5 19-12 Day 4: 5 26-08 4. Cody Bird Granbury, Texas 20 74-09 285 $20,000.00 Day 1: 5 19-11 Day 2: 5 16-13 Day 3: 5 20-14 Day 4: 5 17-03 5. Matt Reed Madisonville, Texas 18 73-04 280 $15,000.00 Day 1: 5 18-02 Day 2: 4 16-12 Day 3: 5 22-01 Day 4: 4 16-05 6. Mike McClelland Vella Vista, Ark. 20 72-11 281 $14,000.00 Day 1: 5 22-04 Day 2: 5 18-07 Day 3: 5 17-14 Day 4: 5 14-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Purolator Big Bass Day 1 Gerald Swindle Hayden, Ala. 8-03 $500.00 1 Paul Elias Pachuta, Miss. 8-03 $500.00 2 Denny Brauer Camdenton, Mo. 9-07 $1,000.00 3 Mark Kile Tonto Basin, Ariz. 9-10 $1,000.00 4 Kelly Jordon Mineola, Texas 7-13 $1,000.00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Day 1 Brett Hite Phoeniz, Ariz. 23-2 $1,000.00 2 Greg Hackney Gonzales, La. 21-4 $1,000.00 3 Kelly Jordon Mineola, Texas 28-9 $1,000.00 4 Kelly Jordon Mineola, Texas 32-2 $1,000.00 Totals Day #Limits #Fish Weight 1 59 511 1396-01 2 53 489 1323-01 3 12 60 245-10 4 5 29 128-01 ---------------------------------- 129 1089 3092-13BUSCH SHOOTOUT CONTENDERS NAME BODY OF WATER WEIGHT Kelly Jordon Santee Cooper Lake, SC 32-2 Mark Rogers Lake Eufaula, AL 31-3 George Cochran Lake Guntersville, AL 29-15 Stacey King Lake Guntersville, AL 28-2 David Wharton Harris Chain of Lakes, FL 26-7 Kevin VanDam Lake Guntersville, AL 26-3 Jason Quinn Harris Chain of Lakes, FL 24-14 Bink Desaro Lake Eufaula, AL 24-5 Denny Brauer Lake Eufaula, AL 23-12 Ben Matsubu Lake Eufaula, AL 23-102004 Horizon Award After Manning, SC ending 03-28-2004 --------------------------------------------------------- Place Name 2003 Finish Current Standings --------------------------------------------------------- 1 Davy Hite 163 12 2 Aaron Martens 147 6 3 Mark Tucker 138 36 4 Lee Bailey 122 22 5 Michael Iaconelli 102 3 6 Bernie Schultz 94 8 7 Chad Brauer 92 11 7 Art Ferguson III 165 84 9 Tommy Martin 117 42 10 Rick Clunn 119 45 10 Scott Rook 129 55 12 Jason Quinn 103 37 13 Marty Stone 78 14 14 Larry Nixon 120 62 15 Brett Hite 71 15 16 Paul Elias 89 35 16 Todd Auten 95 41 18 John Crews 157 107 19 Dean Rojas 70 21 19 Brooks Rogers 96 47 21 Randy Dearman 144 96 21 Steve Sennikoff 173 125 23 Chuck Economou 159 112 24 Denny Brauer 66 24 25 Tom Biffle 93 52 26 Charlie Hartley 106 66 27 George Cochran 87 48 28 Gerald Swindle 39 1 29 Danny White 171 137 30 Chris Daves 134 101 31 Takahiro Omori 40 9 32 Coby Carden 153 123 33 Randy Yarnall 126 97 34 Brian Snowden 57 30 35 Danny Correia 107 83 36 Stacey King 51 29 37 Morizo Shimizu 114 93 37 Chris Price 116 95 39 Ben Matsubu 56 38 40 Robert Lee 78 61 40 Gerald Gostenik 111 94 42 Homer Humphreys, Jr 158 142 43 Randall Romig 101 87 44 David Fritts 104 91 44 Tim Carroll 153 140 46 Jim Bitter 31 19 46 Cody Bird 109 97 46 Tim Horton 32 20 49 Ray Sedgwick 80 69 50 O T Fears III 64 54 51 Yusuke Miyazaki 85 78 52 Brent Chapman 16 10 53 Skeet Reese 10 5 54 Kelly Jordon 8 4 54 Doug Garrett 136 132 54 Jeff Magee 162 158 57 Peter Thliveros 26 23 57 Terry Scroggins 47 44 59 David Wharton 48 46 59 Mark Rogers 67 65 61 Kevin Wirth 34 33 61 Mark Rizk 90 89ROOKIE OF THE YEAR 2004 Tournament Year After Manning, SC ending 03-28-2004 Place Angler Name City State Total Points 1 Greg Hackney Gonzales La. 1323 2 Scott Suggs Alexander Ark. 1212 3 Marcel Veenstra Brighton Mich. 859 4 Bink Desaro Boise Idaho 733 5 Kevin Short Mayflower Ark. 717 6 Jordan Paullo Coventry Conn. 702 7 Mark Shepard Labelle Fla. 696 8 Jason Reyes Humble Texas 664 9 R J Bennett Grass Valley Calif. 656 10 Jimmy Mason Rogersville Ala. 626 11 Scott Nielsen Salt Lake City Utah 345 12 Thomas O'Bryant Drummonds Tenn. 330 BASSMASTER ELITE 50 Top 20 All Time Money Place Angler Name Winnings 1 Denny Brauer $1,826,239.21 2 Rick Clunn $1,540,044.53 3 Larry Nixon $1,532,533.58 4 Jay Yelas $1,255,557.00 5 Shaw E Grigsby, Jr $1,229,380.23 6 Kevin VanDam $1,207,683.33 7 Gary Klein $1,172,218.97 8 Roland Martin $1,007,142.16 9 Ron Shuffield $991,521.00 10 George Cochran $977,501.45 11 Mark Davis $957,071.30 12 Davy Hite $855,850.00 13 David Fritts $836,905.00 14 Zell Rowland $789,140.90 15 Tom Biffle $746,278.80 16 Jim Bitter $743,943.60 17 David Wharton $716,305.80 18 Alton Jones $691,441.67 19 Peter Thliveros $688,554.00 20 Randy Blaukat $685,317.70BASSMASTER ELITE 50 Top 27 From 2002, 2003, 2004 Angler of the Year Combined StandingsPlace Angler Name Total 1 Kelly Jordon 32 2 Brent Chapman 39 3 Tim Horton 55 4 Bud Pruitt 68 5 Edwin Evers 72 6 Dustin Wilks 80 7 Skeet Reese 81 8 Kevin Wirth 88 9 John Murray 106 10 Randy Howell 113 11 Mike Wurm 131 12 Brian Snowden 135 13 Dean Rojas 150 14 O T Fears III 151 15 Bernie Schultz 154 16 Kenyon Hill 154 16 Mark Menendez 161 18 Chad Brauer 163 19 Ishama Monroe 164 20 Robert Lee 165 21 Paul Elias 168 22 Ben Matsubu 170 23 Brett Hite 173 24 Todd Faircloth 175 25 Todd Auten 176 26 Stacey King 177 26 Jack Gadlage 177