Good fishing crams leaderboard.
FLW PRESS RELEASE
JT Kenney’s first bass of the morning to start the Walmart
FLW Tour event presented by Jack Link’s on Beaver Lake was a 6-pound, 10-ounce
largemouth.
After landing it, he kneeled down in the boat and punched
the water with his fist in an act of “punching Beaver Lake back.”
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One big bass helps vault Kenney into lead. (Photo: BASS) |
For most of his FLW Tour career, Beaver Lake has been JT
Kenney’s nemesis. One year he zeroed in this event, failing to catch a single
keeper in two days of competition.
“Yeah, that’s what the punch in the water was for,” Kenney
laughs. “When I got that big one in the boat it was like years of misery
delivered back with one punch. I’m sure it didn’t hurt the lake too bad, but it
made me feel better.”
Kenney’s big bass claimed the big bass honors for the day
and helped put him the lead on day one with 18 pounds, 5 ounces.
“Because this place is so difficult for me, I always pick
Andy Morgan and Bryan Thrift’s brains about fishing here,” Kenney says. “And
one thing those two guys are masters at here is never fishing the same place
twice. If they catch a fish somewhere, that’s it. They don’t return.”
“I applied some of that today,” Kenney continues. “I never
fished a place where I caught a fish in practice – I purposely avoided them.
Now I fished some of the same kind of stuff that fit the pattern, but never a
place I caught one in practice. And when I caught one today, I picked up and
moved.”
Kenney revealed that he caught his fish cranking a 6th Sense
crankbait, but was not specific about the model just yet. He
added that the stained water throughout so much of the lake is giving him a
wide berth to run his pattern.
“I probably utilized 12 to 14 miles of the lake today,”
Kenney says. “Since that water is stained all the way down the lake, it added a
lot o potential water to work with.”
Kenney also said he is not committed to just the cranking
pattern.
“Tomorrow I might scratch this plan and go to the clear
water to fish for smallmouth,” he says. “From what I’ve learned from my
buddies, that’s the key to doing well here. You got to be willing to throw it
all out the window and start over tomorrow. And Beaver Lake might punch me back
and I might catch not catch a thing. But I think that’s the kind of gamble I’ve
got to make.”
Top 10 pros
1. JT Kenney – Palm Bay, Fla. – 18-5 (5)
2. Jimmy Houston – Cookson, Okla. – 17-13 (5)
3. Kurt Mitchell – Milford, Del. – 17-8 (5)
4. Buddy Gross – Ringgold, Ga. – 16-11 (5)
5. Rex Huff – Corbin, Ky. – 16-1 (5)
6. Darrell Davis – Dover, Fla. – 15-9 (5)
6. Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 15-9 (5)
8. Keystone Light pro Jeff Sprague – Point, Texas – 15-6
(5)
9. Larry Nixon – Bee Branch, Ark. – 15-2 (5)
10. Walmart pro David Dudley – Lynchburg, Va. – 15-1 (5)
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