CLEWISTON, Fla. (Jan. 24, 2008) - J.T. Kenney of Port Charlotte, Fla., caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 2 ounces Thursday to capture the lead in the FLW Series Eastern Division tournament on Lake Okeechobee with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 40-5.
"There's four or five places on the lake where there's a major concentration of fish," said Kenney, who has won more than $482,000 in FLW Outdoors events. "I spent a day and a half on the trolling motor in the area I caught those fish today to find three waypoints.
"It doesn't have anything to do with technique or anything," Kenney added. "I have four or five areas on the lake that I know giant schools of fish live on within four or five miles of the areas. You just pick two of them and spend two days in each one. It's been like that ever since I started coming down here in 1997."
Kenney remained tight-lipped about the exact technique he used to land his solid stringer, but did say that both he and his co-angler, Carl Norris Jr. of Hodgenville, Ky., each caught about 50 keepers from one area. Together, Kenney and Norris pulled 46 pounds, 10 ounces from their area on the second day of competition.
"I don't know if we just found the sweet spot on the area, or what, but we caught a bass on every cast for 50 minutes," Kenney said.
Kenney now holds a 6-pound, 7-ounce lead over second place pro Russ Lane of Prattville, Ala., who managed to haul in a total of 10 bass weighing 33-14 during the first two days of competition.
"I had to catch them cranking today," said Lane, who caught his three biggest fish on the first day of competition on a spinnerbait. "I was looking for the big schools again today, and it sounds like J.T. found one of those schools. He's going to be hard to beat."
Rounding out the top five pros are Chad Grigsby of Maple Grove, Minn. (10 bass, 32-15); Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Mo. (10 bass, 32-10) and Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla. (10 bass, 31-5).
Chris Daves of Hopewell, Va., earned the day's $500 Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to an 8-pound, 8-ounce bass he caught.
Overall there were 845 bass weighing 1,820 pounds even caught by 196 pros Thursday. The catch included 137 five-bass limits.
Robert Wood of Jupiter, Fla., leads the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 25-14 followed by Norris, in second place with six bass weighing 25-13.
"I caught five keepers today, but that was enough," Wood said. "I caught my smaller fish on a shaky-head worm, but I switched to the Carolina rig and started catching some good ones."
Wood caught five bass weighing 13-15 while fishing with pro Mary Divincinti of Clinton, La., Wednesday and five bass weighing 11-15 while fishing with pro Steve Wilson of Lufkin, Texas, Thursday.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Jason Sherwood of Damascus, Md. (nine bass, 25-7); Mark Heatwole of Harrisonburg, Va. (10 bass, 25-0) and Derrick Snavely of Rogersville, Tenn. (10 bass, 24-7).
Chris Weber of Fort Myers, Fla., earned $300 for the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to an 8-pound, 15-ounce bass he caught while fishing with pro Gary Riffle of Bogata, Texas.
Overall there were 597 bass weighing 1,203 pounds, 7 ounces caught by 185 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 58 five-bass limits.