By Jonathan Manteuffel
Special to BassFan

Jay Kendrick had hit the pause button on his professional fishing career for over 10 years, but you couldn’t tell from his 2016 season. “I’ve always been a consistent fisherman,” he said. “I’m not one to have a lot of highs and lows.”

The Grant, Ala. resident fished the Bassmaster Tour from 2003-05, finishing 17th in the 2003 Bassmaster Classic. Prior to that he had fished the old Bassmaster Invitationals and Opens since 1999.

He never really lost his desire to fish at the top level, but circumstances dictated he step down after his second child was born to focus on raising his family. He had gone to college to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist, knowing the money was good and he could set his own schedule to allow time for fishing competitively. He kept working that job throughout his time on the tour, and still does.

Now that his boys are ages 9 and 12, the time again seemed right to pursue his passion at the highest levels. He fished the Southeastern FLW Series events in 2015, winning on Lake Guntersville, and qualified for the FLW Tour. In 2016, he finished 34th in the Angler of the Year standings, including a season-high 17th on Pickwick Lake this past May. He qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup on Wheeler Lake in August and finished 41st in a field of 50. All in all, it was a very respectable showing.

“I never really wanted to stop tournament fishing,” Kendrick noted. “The timing was finally right to get back in. My boys are older now, and they were helping me clean out a closet and we found a box of trophies (from his Bassmaster Tour days) and some raw video footage that ESPN (former owner of B.A.S.S.) had sent me from the 2003 Classic. The boys wanted to go watch it.

“After a few minutes, they came running back upstairs hollering ‘Dad, did you know you were famous?’ I had to explain why I quit the tour, and they said, well you gave up the fishing thing for us, but now we want you to go back.”

Family Went All-In

Kendrick talked it over with his family, making sure everyone understood the sacrifices they’d all have to make, especially the time commitments and the periods he’d be away from home. They agreed to give it a shot.

“I fished the FLW Series in 2015 and ended up winning at Guntersville,” he said. “The boys were real enthused about that, since we were all in as a family by then. And the money gave me a little nest egg to roll into the FLW Tour in 2016.”

Asked if he thought his first season back at the top tier of competitive fishing in over 10 years had gone as expected, he responded that basically it had. “My goal was to try to make the (Forrest Wood Cup) championship,” he said. “I could have done better in some of the tournaments but I was fishing conservatively, especially during the last half of the season.

“For example, at Kentucky Lake I’d found some good fish, but they were a long run up the river. Long runs are risky, since so much can go wrong. I ended up fishing the whole tournament within sight of the ramp, knowing I was on money fish rather than winning fish. It preserved my Cup qualification.”

The championship was held on Wheeler Lake in Alabama, just minutes from his home.

“It meant a lot to me, particularly since it was in Huntsville. I have local sponsors, and it got me and them a lot of exposure. The 6,000 employees at Huntsville Hospital (where he works when not traveling to tournaments) were very aware of it, and now those people I work with understand what it’s all about a lot more.

“The extra exposure I got from being a local let me reach out to people and raise their awareness,” he added. “It would have been great to win it too, but it turned out really good for the long run. It helped get me more established.”

Looking Forward to G'ville

The friends, family, and sponsor support at the Cup as a local was a great experience for Kendrick, but there was something else at Wheeler that enthused him.

“They announced at the Cup that they were adding an event to the schedule for 2017, and it was at Guntersville,” he noted. “Before that I was 50-50 about the schedule, but that pushed me up to about 80-20 in favor. The 20 percent is just about the unknowns, like Lake Travis – just the uncertainty of it.

“Of course, Guntersville will be great, but I also have a lot of experience at the Harris Chain in Florida,” he added. “I have confidence there. Most of the lakes, except Cumberland, will be shallow-water deals. Even that one might be, if they’re spawning.

"I grew up on the Coosa River and we hardly ever had more than 10 feet of line out, flipping shallow cover more than anything. I’m real comfortable with short-line techniques, and I think we’ll be doing a lot of that with next year’s schedule.”

Notable

> Kendrick thinks his versatility as an angler is both his biggest strength and his greatest weakness. “I’m comfortable with most techniques, but that is also a vulnerability,” he said. “You can be too versatile and it ends up leading you to change techniques where you are, instead of finding a better area for the technique you were using.”

> He isn’t ruling out making a run at qualifying for the Bassmaster Elite Series at some point in the future, as several other FLW pros have done recently. “I’m not closing any doors, but the FLW schedule fits better with my anesthesia work and family at this point."