What does a famous pro bass fisherman do when an injury puts him on the sidelines for months?
For Kelly Jordon, wait to heal, and especially, wait to get back on the water.
On a Thursday afternoon in July, Jordon was working in the yard and dragging a downed tree top across his driveway.
“My driveway has a weird slope, it’s downhill away from the garage, then it comes back up a little,” he said. “When I was dragging the tree top, a limb popped off. I ran down the slope thinking, ““this is going to hurt,”” and I did a three-point landing on my tailbone and both wrists.”
Jordan, thinking his left wrist was sprained, wrapped it and went swimming with his two kids, ages 4 ½ and 2.
The wrist didn’t improve over the weekend, though, so Jordon went to the doctor the following Monday.
“He said it was broken — shattered actually — and I needed surgery,” Jordon said.
The surgery took place two days later on July 15, and a plate and screws were used to hold everything together.
“There were incisions on the front and the back,” Jordon said. “Several of the metacarpal bones were pushed back and they had to slide them forward to be flat and back in place, then screw it all together.”
The waiting began.
“I had to keep my hand elevated,” Jordon said. “I couldn’t lift my kids. I couldn’t do much of anything.”
After a few months, the wrist began improving and Jordon started thinking about fishing.
“I had to decide if I could fish or not and whether I could compete in the next Major League Fishing tournament,” he said.
On September 14, he made his first fishing trip in months to Lake Athens, with a friend from Tyler.
“What a fun lake,” Jordon said. “I had only been there once before. I was limited a little, but I can fish. I caught 50 or so.”
The day was so encouraging, he returned to Lake Athens the next day, this time with Lone Star Outdoor News founder David J. Sams.
“We caught fish all day,” Jordon said. “They were schooling and we caught most of them on Lucky Craft Gunfish top-water lures. It was a beautiful day on the water. We quit counting at 69 fish, and I caught the biggest one, a 6 ½-pounder.”
After two days of fishing, the pro’s repaired wrist was very sore.
“It’s getting stronger every day,” Jordon said. “It’s very encouraging — I’m not 100 percent, but I can be competitive. If they bite, I’ll catch them. The strength isn’t there, so it might be tough to flip a jig all day or set the hook on a bass in heavy grass.”
After a long summer of waiting, the pro is happy to be back on the water, and he’s ready to compete again.
“It was quite the undertaking just for a fall in my driveway,” Jordon said.
