Steve Kennedy's bid for a third straight PAA Tournament Series victory suffered a severe blow today when he inadvertently brought six fish (one more than the limit) to the weigh-in on day 1 at Neely Henry. That resulted in his largest fish being culled, and that was a 5 1/2-pounder he'd caught in the final hour.
If he'd been allowed to weigh his five biggest, he'd have had nearly 17 pounds, which would've given him an advantage of more than 2 pounds over the field. Instead, he's in 24th place with 11.32 – a little more than 2 1/4 pounds off the pace set by Kenny Pannell.
"I'm an engineer – a numbers guy – so this hurts," he said. "I was so tickled coming in after I'd caught that big one, and now I'm just sick."
He used an aluminum boat to access the back portion of a small creek. He caught his two biggest specimens – his bag also included a 5-pounder – on his way out.
"I honestly don't think there's enough fish there to win the tournament," he said. "It's just so hard to get a decent bite."
He said he's never made such a mistake before.
"I had a partner who did it in one of the old Red Man tournaments, but I'm quite certain I never have."
He won at Neely Henry last August in the final PAA event of 2011 and also topped this year's opener at Old Hickory in May.
