By BassFan Staff

It was a dream scenario for JT Kenney really. He headed out today with a 12 1/2-pound lead on a string of lakes just 90 minutes from his home that he’d spent most of the winter studying and dissecting in preparation for the FLW Tour season opener.

He figured with all the areas he still hadn’t fished and knowing the sun would finally re-emerge on the final day, he could scare up 14 to 16 pounds and coast to victory at the Lake Toho FLW Tour.

There was no coasting and there certainly wasn’t any sort of dream scenario on Sunday.

When he got back to the dock with the rest of the finalists Sunday afternoon, Kenney started hearing the buzz that Wesley Strader, who was 2nd after day 3, may have caught 23 or 24 pounds, which would’ve been enough to topple Kenney, who was sure he had less than 10 pounds.

It turns out Strader may have big-eyed his catch and Kenney’s 9-04 was just enough to fend off final-day charges from Strader and Scott Canterbury. Kenney finished the week with 76-00 and notched an 11-ounce win over Canterbury, who bagged 21-10 today to close with 75-04.

After setting a 100-pound pace through the first 2 days of the event, Kenney caught just enough (23-09) on the weekend to squeeze out the second FLW Tour win of his career.

“I thought it was less than that,” Kenney said when told the final margin of victory. “I’d already written my concession speech. That’s why I was so excited when I won, because I didn’t think I was going to.

“The whole time people thought I ‘d walk away it, but I kept telling them, ‘Do not discount my ability to make a poor decision. I’ve been making them my whole life.’”

Strader wound up with 20-07, anchored by a 7-12 brute, and slipped to 3rd with 74-11. Stacey King notched a 4th-place finish in his return from skin cancer with 17-09 today, including a 10-pounder, that gave him 67-09 for the event. Luke Clausen slid into the Top 5 with a 15-11 stringer that pushed his aggregate to 65-06.

Here’s how the rest of the Top 10 shook out today:

6. Stetson Blaylock: 60-10
7. Randy Blaukat: 59-09
8. Troy Morrow: 56-08
9. Mark Daniels, Jr.: 53-12
10. Ramie Colson Jr: 50-09

The timing of Daylight Savings Time dictated that the 10 finalists blasted off at 7:45 EST this morning. With check-in at 3:30, they didn’t quite have a full 8-hour day on the water that they’re used to having. The time change also took the late afternoon bite out of play that had been crucial for some of the finalists, including Kenney.

The current that had been moving through the lakes most of the week and had been a key element to several of the finalists’ patterns came to a halt as well on Sunday.

While soft plastics certainly were the key component to a lot of the finalists’ game plans, it was the slow method of fishing them that seemed to be vital to triggering bites from fish still in their spawning mindset.

Kenney will carry the early lead in the Angler of the Year race to Lewis Smith Lake in Jasper, Ala., which will be the next stop for the FLW Tour on March 26-29.

Relief For Kenney

> Day 4: 5, 9-04 (20, 76-00)

Kenney had a frustrating final day on the water and thought he’d lost the tournament when he started hearing the dock talk and saw what Strader had in his bag.

“It was awful,” he said. “It was pretty much the worst day of my life until like 5 o’clock. It was bad. I was truly surprised because I didn’t think I had it. All the effort and work and preparation that I put into it and then to have a 12-pound lead going into the last day and blow it.”

But he didn’t.

He played the conditions again as he had on day 3 when he picked up a spinnerbait and caught 14 1/2 pounds in Lake Toho. Today, he started that way, but it wasn’t long before the sun broke through and the wind slacked off.



FLW
Photo: FLW

Scott Canterbury jumped up to 2nd, thanks to this 9-pounder.

“I felt like I had to go back to the pads (in Kissimmee),” he said. “I tried to not go out with a set plan, but once that cold front came through and with the reproduction process of some of these fish moving along, my plan was to just fish and hold on.

“When I went back to the pads, I didn’t think by any means I’d catch a 22-pound bag, but I didn’t think I could fish pads in Kissimmee for four hours and not catch 16, but I sure did.”

He did scratch out 9 pounds pitching a Gambler Fat Ace soft stick worm to isolated lily pads, but figured he might be able to make some late upgrades on his way back to the dock.

He had two other spots in Toho where he was sure he’d be able to pick off a 2 1/2- or 3-pounder. One of those would’ve sealed the deal in his mind. When that plan fizzled and he pulled up his trolling motor for the final time, he was flabbergasted.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that went to hell,’” he said. “Down to my last flip, I had full and extreme confidence that I was doing what I needed to be doing.”

Vindication finally came when he discovered what he’d been doing was enough to win.

“It’s really sweet just for the amount of prep work I put into it and the really bad financial time in my life right now,” he said. “It’s not nearly as bad anymore.”

2nd: 9-Pounder Pivotal For Canterbury

> Day 4: 5, 21-10 (20, 75-05)

Canterbury had nothing to complain about with finishing 2nd to Kenney, who helped him out earlier in the tournament by loaning him a spare prop.

“I caught the biggest bag I’d caught all week and caught them a ton of different ways,” he said. “I’m pleased with the outcome. JT got out to that big lead and I would’ve been stranded on Friday if it weren’t for him. I would’ve loved to have won, but I’m tickled with how it wound up.”

He said he thought had a realistic shot at the win once he started eyeballing what Kenney and Strader caught.

“Everybody thought Wesley had it won, myself included,” he said.

The difference, ultimately, was Canterbury’s kicker was a 9-pounder and Strader’s weighed 7-12. On three of the four days, Canterbury caught at least one 7-pounder or bigger.

“One or two big ones a day is what got me to where I finished in this tournament,” he said.

His 9-pounder today came off a boat dock on Tiger Lake, a small lake connected to the west side of Lake Kissimmee.

“I’d caught a 4-pounder there in practice, but I hadn’t fished there since,” he said. “I wanted to go there Saturday, but the conditions weren’t right to fish docks. When the clouds broke today and with the east wind, I knew the docks I wanted to fish were on the east shore so they’d be protected. I was going to spend two hours there, but on my first flip I caught that fish.”

Two hours turned into the rest of the day and he wound up weighing three fish out of Tiger today.

“It was well worth it,” he added. “I thought I’d get more than just that one big one.”

FLW
Photo: FLW

This 7-12 kicker was the key to Wesley Strader's big final day at Toho.

3rd: Strader Thought He Had It

> Day 4: 5, 20-07 (20, 74-11)

Strader was so dumbfounded that his limit weighed what it did on stage that he requested his fish be re-weighed. When they were, the weight came up the same as the first time: 20-07.

“It was deceiving,” he said. “ I thought I had more than what I did. Everybody else thought I had more. I had friends telling me I had 23 or better. I was really surprised. I normally don’t overguess them like that and that’s why I had them weigh it again.”

He was a little bummed out that he slipped to 3rd, but overall was pleased with a strong start to the season.

“My worst day of the tournament was better than my best day of practice so I’m ecstatic,” he said. “It feels good to get out of Florida with a good finish and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

For a second straight day, he combed a shell bed with a lipless crankbait and experienced a dizzying flurry, albeit a shorter one than Saturday’s.

“I was going to where I was going no matter the conditions,” he said. “There wasn’t much wind this morning and it was mostly sunny so I don’t know what’s going on on that spot. I think they’re feeding in the early morning and then swimming back into the cover.

“For 30 minutes, it was the same as yesterday. I caught them as fast as you can throw out there and catch them. It was just a shell bed out in the open with a little current going across it, too. You had to make the same exact cast over it. It was like fishing a ledge. It was about a 50-foot wide spot and if you got outside of that you wouldn’t get a bite.”

4th: King Caps Week With 10-Pounder

> Day 4: 5, 17-09 (20, 67-09)

King was just happy to be able to make the drive from Missouri to compete this week, let alone nail down his fifth career FLW Tour Top-10 and best Tour finish since placing 4th at Lake Hartwell in 2011.

“I’m just elated,” he said. “I never expected this when I came here. I’m just super excited and elated about my finish. I didn’t used to do very well down here, but the last four or five tournaments I’ve fished, I’ve done well. They’ve mostly been around spawning time so I’ve learned how to target those fish. You don’t have to sight-fish for them. You can make blind casts for them if you know what to look for.”

While he targeted mostly scattered lily pads all week, he caught a 10-pounder (10-01 to be exact) off a shell bed in Toho late in the day today that anchored his bag. He believes it’s the biggest bass he’s caught in a tournament in his career.

“That was kind of a fluke,” he said. “I’d been catching fish there all week and my wife caught a 6 there in practice, but that was the biggest one I’d seen there.”

He spent most of his day in Kissimmee and had a small limit highlighted by a 4-pounder that he caught in the same area that produced 28 pounds for him on Thursday.

“It was slow as Christmas coming after that,” he said. “I came back north with an hour to go and stopped at that shell bed where I’d caught 10 or 12 fish yesterday. On my second cast, I caught that 10. It took a while to land it. That sucker was mean. I thought I was going to break her off on my Power-Poles, but I worked her free and got her in.”

5th: Clausen Overcame Dry Spell

> Day 4: 5, 15-11 (20, 65-06)

Clausen had a three-hour stretch this morning without a bite, but he never lost confidence or got frazzled and still managed to bring in 15-11 to secure his first Top-5 finish since posting a runner-up showing at Wheeler Lake in 2012.

“I just feel so comfortable fishing there,” he said. “It’s just the confidence I have there because of my history there. Even today after three hours, I was still optimistic I’d catch a good bag. It’s always fun to go back to a place like that. My confidence there is just different from other places.”

He wound up catching eight keepers today, mostly off places he’d never fished before in his life.

“I ran to a place where I’d stopped Saturday and caught a couple little ones and then just expanded on that area,” he said. “That’s where I got all of my bites.”

He said three of the fish he weighed today were pre-spawn fish.

“I was doing the right things, I just didn’t have a great area,” he said. “I just stuck with a Z-Man ZinkerZ and spent all of my time flipping it around areas where I think they were spawning, whether it was a hole in some grass or around some isolated pads or a steep edge of Kissimmee grass. That was my mindset the whole time.”

Notable

> Day 4 stats – 10 anglers, 8 limits, 2 threes.

> Four of the finalists, including Kenney, had competed in the Bassmaster Southern Open at Toho in January. Kenney finished 54th, Canterbury was 13th, Clausen was 46th and Stetson Blaylock finished 170th.

Final Standings

1. JT Kenney -- Palm Bay, Fl -- 29-14 (5) -- 22-9 (5) -- 52-7 (10) -- 14-05 (5) -- 9-04 (5) -- 76-00 (20) -- $125,000

2. Scott Canterbury -- Springville, Al -- 19-01 (5) -- 19-13 (5) -- 38-14 (10) -- 14-13 (5) -- 21-10 (5) -- 75-05 (20) -- $30,000

3. Wesley Strader -- Spring City, Tn -- 18-08 (5) -- 14-07 (5) -- 32-15 (10) -- 21-05 (5) -- 20-07 (5) -- 74-11 (20) -- $25,000

4. Stacey King -- Reeds Spring, Mo -- 28-01 (5) -- 11-12 (5) -- 39-13 (10) -- 10-03 (5) -- 17-09 (5) -- 67-09 (20) -- $20,000

5. Luke Clausen -- Spokane, Wa -- 20-0 (5) -- 14-7 (5) -- 34-07 (10) -- 15-04 (5) -- 15-11 (5) -- 65-06 (20) -- $19,000

6. Stetson Blaylock -- Benton, Ar -- 16-03 (5) -- 16-14 (5) -- 33-01 (10) -- 16-14 (5) -- 10-11 (5) -- 60-10 (20) -- $18,000

7. Randy Blaukat -- Joplin, Mo -- 13-09 (5) -- 18-07 (5) -- 32-00 (10) -- 14-07 (5) -- 13-02 (5) -- 59-09 (20) -- $17,000

8. Troy Morrow -- Eastanollee, Ga -- 11-15 (5) -- 19-04 (5) -- 31-03 (10) -- 17-09 (5) -- 7-12 (5) -- 56-08 (20) -- $16,000

9. Mark Daniels Jr. -- Tuskegee, Al -- 13-15 (5) -- 18-00 (5) -- 31-15 (10) -- 17-00 (5) -- 4-13 (3) -- 53-12 (18) -- $15,000

10. Ramie Colson Jr. -- Cadiz, Ky -- 17-06 (5) -- 16-11 (5) -- 34-01 (10) -- 13-01 (5) -- 3-07 (3) -- 50-09 (18) -- $14,500