Steve Kennedy caught a 9.86-pound bag today at Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee to claim his second PAA Tournament Series victory in 2 years. The Alabamian, who also prevailed last year at Neely Henry, finished with a 3-day total of 44.27 to outdistance runner-up Gary Yamamoto by about 2 1/2 pounds.
Kennedy caught just five keepers today, including two that barely met keeper standards. Still, his bag was easily big enough to hold off all challengers after he began the day with a 7-pound advantage.
"Every day was a struggle," he said. "My weights have been good before today. I had the bites to catch 15 pounds, so the opportunities were there, but I had a lot of fish just bumping my bait.
"Today was one of the worst days I've had in a long time execution-wise, and I've had some bad ones lately. It's painful to have that kind of a day with a camera guy in the boat."
Yamamoto caught the biggest sack of the tournament (17.73) to move up six places. Day-1 leader Dean Rojas closed strong with a 16.57 stringer after weighing just 7.27 on day 2.
Full details of Kennedy's winning pattern will be published soon.
Here are the final totals for the 15 anglers who fished the final day:
1. Steve Kennedy: 44.27
2. Gary Yamamoto: 41.81
3. Dean Rojas: 41.27
4. Tim Messer: 38.67
5. Mark Menendez: 35.29
6. Keith Caka: 34.81
7. James Niggemeyer: 34.46
8. Jordan Lee: 34.19
9. Ish Monroe: 32.69
10. Greg Hackney: 32.63
11. Jeff Baker: 31.80
12. Casey Ashley: 31.74
13. Todd Auten: 31.44
14. Greg Ryan: 30.21
15. Stephen Scoggin: 28.11
