Kenney Shifts Gears, Maintains 12-Pound Cushion

By BassFan Staff

A change of scenery for JT Kenney today led to more of the same on the leaderboard on day 3 of the Lake Toho FLW Tour.

After racking up 52-plus pounds over the first two days of the tournament at Lake Kissimmee, Kenney opted to sample another area on the fertile Kissimmee Chain that’s served as the backdrop for his sheer dominance of the season opener. With the conditions chilly, overcast and breezy again, he chose to stay in Lake Toho and not make the run south.

While he didn’t crack 29 pounds like he did on day 1 or come close to the 22 he caught yesterday, the 14-05 he wrangled out of the hydrilla with a spinnerbait was plenty to preserve his comfortable advantage over the dwindling crowd of challengers. He's tallied up 66-12 through 3 days and while everyone seems content to just hand him the trophy and big cardboard check now, he knows there’s still work to be done.

“I’m not nervous,” he said, “but at the same time, I’m not a guarantee even though everyone else seems to think I am.”

Make no mistake: This is Kenney’s tournament to lose. He has a 12 1/2-pound cushion over his closest competitor while the gap from 2nd-place Wesley Strader to Randy Blaukat in 10th is less than 8 pounds. Strader made the big move of the day, thanks to a day 3-best 21-05 that bumped him up eight spots on the leaderboard with 54-04.

Strader slipped ahead of Scott Canterbury, who maintained 3rd with a 14-13 bag that gave him 53-11. Stacey King caught just 10-03 and he dropped two slots to 4th with 50-00. Stetson Blaylock, on the strength of another 16-plus-pound effort, moved into 5th with 49-15.

Here's a look at the 10 pros who qualified for the final day of competition, with their deficit margin from Kenney indicated by red numbers in parentheses:

1. JT Kenney: 66-12
2. Wesley Strader: 54-04 (12-08)
3. Scott Canterbury: 53-11 (13-01)
4. Stacey King: 50-00 (16-12)
5. Stetson Blaylock: 49-14 (16-14)
6. Luke Clausen: 49-11 (17-01)
7. Mark Daniels, Jr.: 48-15 (17-13)
8. Troy Morrow: 48-12 (18-00)
9. Ramie Colson, Jr.: 47-02 (19-10)
10. Randy Blaukat: 46-07(20-05)

Mark Daniels, Jr. used a 17-00 stringer today to make his first Tour 10-cut in 7th with 48-15. Troy Morrow came from 18th to 8th with a 17-09 bag and Blaukat grabbed the final spot in the finals with a 14-07 catch that gave him 46-07.

Slipping out of the Top 10 today was Alex Davis, who had mechanical issues and weighed just 7-07 to fall from 4th to 15th. Shane Lehew had three for 5-08 and fell from 7th to 18th with 38-10. Brad Knight was one shy of a limit and dropped from 8th to 16th with 40-13.

The sun is expected to make a return on Sunday, so that might activate additional spawning areas, but the wind is expected to hum out of the east and north again at about 15 mph.

Kenney In Closer Mode

> Day 3: 5, 14-05 (15, 66-12)

Kenney is one of a small handful of FLW Tour pros to register a win in his first career Tour event. He did that back in 2002 at Lake Okeechobee. He’s won a trio of Rayovac Series events since and is aching to close out another Tour win, especially after all the prep work he put into this tournament.

If he’s able to close out the win Sunday, he’ll have a much different reaction to claiming the $100,000 winner’s share than he did 13 years ago.

“I was just a young kid and didn’t have a house and wasn’t taking care of people,” he said. “I was like, ‘Holy crap, I just won 100 grand, let’s party.’ Now, it’s like I need this. It makes things a lot easier rather than sweating all the time.

“(A win) would mean financial security for a little while, something I haven’t had for a little while. It’s a passion of mine, but it’s about the money, to be brutally honest. I love fishing and love everything about it, but this is all about the money right now.”

The first two days were all about the “big ones” for Kenney, but today’s conditions dictated he call an audible. He spent the entirety of his day in Lake Toho – “I went around the lake twice,” he said – as he tried to survive without giving up much ground to the field.

“I was just in defense mode,” he said. “I hit every place (in Toho) where I knew a fish had ever been caught.”

He flung a spinnerbait for most of the day and flipped some lily pads, but never tangled with a big fish like he had Thursday and Friday.

“It was the first time I’d thrown (the spinnerbait) and the first time I’d really spent any time in Toho,” he said. “It was just the conditions. We had overcast skies and it was spitting rain at takeoff and I knew of a couple hydrilla flats where there are usually fish around and it just felt like a spinnerbait day.”

He caught 10 keepers today and every fish he weighed came on the Nichols Lures spinnerbait. He made several culls in the final four to gain about 4 pounds, he added.

He’s going to fish around Toho some in the morning Sunday, but he has one area in Kissimmee he wants to check at some point.

“I have to fish it,” he said. “It might be protected just enough where it might not be messed up from all the wind.”

After investing a lot of time and effort into preparing for the event, he’s actually anxious to see how it winds up.

“I just want to get it over with,” he said. “I put so much time and effort into that whether I win or not, I just want it to be done. Obviously, I want to win.”

2nd: Big Flurry Helped Strader

> Day 3: 5, 21-05 (15, 54-04)

Strader’s big stringer could be boiled down to a 60-minute segment of the day when he caught so many fish, he lost track.

“The good Lord shined a light down on me today,” he said. “I caught them for an hour and never had a bite before or after.”

Acting on a tip from fellow competitor Tim Malone, whom Strader had driven past each of the first two days, Strader turned to a lipless crankbait to catch his weight. His bag was anchored by a 7-13 kicker.

“I’d been catching them on a Trick Worm, but that didn’t pan out,” he said.

Once he switched to a Yo-Zuri Rattl’n Vibe hard bait, the fish turned on in a big way. He said it reminded him of past events at Lake Okeechobee where a lipless crankbait was a useful tool in similar, post-front conditions.

“It was a pretty amazing hour,” he said. “It felt like being on a ledge on Kentucky Lake.”

He’ll be sure to revisit the same area tomorrow, but he’s not sure what to expect.

“I really don’t know,” he said. “I’m going to catch all I can catch. It’s just up to whatever bites me. The sun might make them bite better. I know I’m excited to go back there.”

3rd: Canterbury Called Audible

> Day 3: 5, 14-13 (15, 53-11)

The grass and pads bite that had carried Canterbury through the first two days just weren't productive today so he opted to target areas where moving water had fish grouped up.

“I had to abandon where I’d caught them,” he said. “I only had eight bites today and who knows, I may bomb tomorrow, but I had to grind it out today.”

He threw a crankbait and a worm mostly to target fish holding around the current which has been more of a factor this week due to the amount of rain central Florida received before the tournament.

“I caught one in the current early and then went to fish my grass, but the wind had beat it up,” he said. “It was cloudy and it was just not happening. At about 12:30, I decide to go fish the current to get a limit because I felt like a limit would get me in the cut. I know that’s not fishing to win, but every ounce and point counts. I was really pleased at the end of the day.”

As for Sunday, he intends on making a pass through an area he found in practice, but hasn’t fished during the tournament.

“Now that I’ve made the Top 10, maybe there’s a chance to get a couple big bites there,” he said. “I may try to get a limit before I go there since that will allow me to fish a little calmer and slower.

“That big bite is what got me through the first 2 days and I’m not sure I’m going to get one of those in the current. I’d love to make a Top 5 and go to the next one.”

5th: Blaylock Keeps Climbing

> Day 3: 5, 16-14 (15, 49-15)

So far, Blaylock has split his weight between cranking areas with current and dragging a Carolina rig around on shell beds. Not exactly how you’d draw up a tournament game plan for Florida in early March, but it’s carried him further up the standings each day.

“I like that style of fishing just because it’s something different,” he said. “Now that the cut’s been made, we’re hearing about it more often. This just hasn’t been your typical Florida tournament. You can fish a million acres of grass this week and not get a bite. There are beds everywhere. It’s just a weird time.”

He notched eight keepers today, but the shell bed that produced consistently Thursday and Friday was vacant this morning.

“I caught a lot of good ones there yesterday so it was weird that today there was none,” he said. “The timing on that has been first thing in the morning so with Daylight Savings tonight, they’re moving takeoff 15 minutes later so it should be a little darker when we leave. Hopefully, they’re there when I get there.”

If they’re not, he’ll probably go back to the areas he’s caught them on a Livingston square-bill crankbait in the current.

“There’s so much current right now and even in the lake there’s stuff that’s current related,” he said. "I’ve never seen a lake or this many of bodies of water drop so fast. That’s what making those fish eat and it’s making the current fishing decent.

“I know there’s bigger onesthere, but your weights each day reflect what you’re around and it seems the best I can do is about 16 1/2 pounds.”

18th: Wind Wreacked Havoc on Lehew

> Day 3: 3, 5-08 (13, 38-10)

It didn’t take long today for Lehew to figure out that his best spot from the first two days probably wasn’t going to produce.

“I had a feeling it was coming when I showed up at the ramp and saw the wind blowing,” he said. “Florida fish don’t deal well with that sort of wind.”

Lehew at least checked the area that had carried him into the Top 10 after 2 days, but he didn’t stay long. When he dropped his swimjig in the water, it vanished 8 inches down. The previous 2 days, he could see it in 18 to 22 inches of water.

“I ran there first thing just to check it out and I knew within the first 15 minutes I wasn’t going to get a bite,” he said. “I’d really hammered that one area. There’s one specific spot where I’d get most of my bites and then I’d fish around there and pick up a few others.”

He went to his backup plan of cranking the mouths of the canals where several day-3 qualifiers had caught consistent weights the first two days.

“When I made that call, I realized a lot of other guys in the top 20 had already done that so they were pretty well picked over,” he said. “I think a lot of these fish are post-spawn. I think we have overestimated the amount of fish that were going to come up to beds. The spot I caught them on had a lot of shiners on it.

“The wind did me in today, but I had a good time.”

Notable

> Day 3 stats – 20 anglers, 15 limits, 2 fours, 3 threes.

Weather Forecast

> Sun., March 8 – Mostly Sunny - 78°/64°
- Wind: From the ENE at 10 to 15 mph

Day 3 Standings

1. JT Kenney -- Palm Bay, Fl -- 29-14 (5) -- 22-9 (5) -- 52-7 (10) -- 14-05 (5) -- 66-12 (15)

2. Wesley Strader -- Spring City, Tn -- 18-8 (5) -- 14-7 (5) -- 32-15 (10) -- 21-05 (5) -- 54-04 (15)

3. Scott Canterbury -- Springville, Al -- 19-1 (5) -- 19-13 (5) -- 38-14 (10) -- 14-13 (5) -- 53-11 (15)

4. Stacey King -- Reeds Spring, Mo -- 28-1 (5) -- 11-12 (5) -- 39-13 (10) -- 10-03 (5) -- 50-00 (15)

5. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, Ar -- 16-3 (5) -- 16-14 (5) -- 33-1 (10) -- 16-14 (5) -- 49-15 (15)

6. Luke Clausen -- Spokane, Wa -- 20-0 (5) -- 14-7 (5) -- 34-7 (10) -- 15-04 (5) -- 49-11 (15)

7. Mark Daniels Jr. -- Tuskegee, Al -- 13-15 (5) -- 18-0 (5) -- 31-15 (10) -- 17-00 (5) -- 48-15 (15)

8. Troy Morrow -- Eastanollee, Ga -- 11-15 (5) -- 19-4 (5) -- 31-3 (10) -- 17-09 (5) -- 48-12 (15)

9. Ramie Colson Jr. -- Cadiz, Ky -- 17-6 (5) -- 16-11 (5) -- 34-1 (10) -- 13-01 (5) -- 47-02 (15)

10. Randy Blaukat -- Joplin, Mo -- 13-9 (5) -- 18-7 (5) -- 32-0 (10) -- 14-07 (5) -- 46-07 (15)

The following anglers did not make the cut and will not fish on day 3.

11. James Biggs -- Euless, Tx -- 19-0 (5) -- 13-0 (5) -- 32-0 (10) -- 14-05 (5) -- 46-05 (15) -- $12,000

12. Jeff Sprague -- Point, Tx -- 14-9 (5) -- 18-1 (5) -- 32-10 (10) -- 12-03 (5) -- 44-13 (15) -- $12,000

13. Zack Birge -- Blanchard, Ok -- 13-1 (5) -- 18-12 (5) -- 31-13 (10) -- 12-07 (5) -- 44-04 (15) -- $12,000

14. Lionel Botha -- Fort Pierce, Fl -- 20-10 (5) -- 12-2 (5) -- 32-12 (10) -- 9-10 (5) -- 42-06 (15) -- $12,000

15. Alex Davis -- Albertville, Al -- 20-9 (5) -- 14-5 (5) -- 34-14 (10) -- 7-07 (4) -- 42-05 (14) -- $12,000

16. Brad Knight -- Lancing, Tn -- 19-0 (5) -- 13-15 (5) -- 32-15 (10) -- 7-14 (4) -- 40-13 (14) -- $12,000

17. Travis Fox -- Rogers, Ar -- 18-7 (5) -- 12-6 (5) -- 30-13 (10) -- 8-02 (5) -- 38-15 (15) -- $12,000

18. Shane Lehew -- Mooresville, NC -- 19-15 (5) -- 13-3 (5) -- 33-2 (10) -- 5-08 (3) -- 38-10 (13) -- $12,500

19. Marshall Deakins -- Dunlap, Tn -- 11-6 (5) -- 20-3 (5) -- 31-9 (10) -- 6-07 (3) -- 38-00 (13) -- $12,000

20. Matthew Stefan -- Junction City, Wi -- 12-7 (5) -- 18-5 (5) -- 30-12 (10) -- 5-06 (3) -- 36-02 (13) -- $12,000