Royal flush

King Kenney tops pros at Toho; Bourgeois heads up co-anglers

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Move over, Roland Martin, the hottest pro basser fishing in Florida these days is quite possibly J.T. Kenney. The pro from Frostburg, Md., snagged the lead on opening day of Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition at Lake Toho with a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 10 ounces.

While no record-size limits crossed the scale Wednesday, a sunny Lake Toho did cough up a few of its head-turning, enormous Florida largemouths. The heaviest of the day went to Sam Newby of Pocola, Okla., who caught a 10-pound, 4-ounce kicker largemouth and won the Snickers Big Bass Award. Kenney’s kicker fish wasn’t quite that big, but it was big enough, at an estimated 9 pounds, to push his total weight 1 ounce past Warren Wyman’s catch and gave him the lead.

Not that he planned it that way. “It’s about what I expected,” Kenney said about his catch weight. “But I’d almost rather be in 10th place than in first. It doesn’t matter, though, as long as I’m at least 10th tomorrow.”

At this point, it’s understandable that Kenney expects to catch leading sacks of bass when he fishes in Florida. His first pro win came at the 2002 FLW tournament at Lake Okeechobee, and he claimed another win there in BASS competition in 2003. This year he finished a solid 14th at the FLW opener, but two weeks earlier in EverStart Series competition at the Big O he broke the tour’s single-day and opening-round weight records, led the first two days and ultimately finished the event in second place. It was enough for people to start calling him the “Okeechobee King.” But if he continues to fish the rest of this week like he did on day one, that moniker might have to be expanded to the “Florida King.”

How he carried momentum into Toho Wednesday all had to do with the grass. Kenney said that he only caught six keeper fish, but that most of them came from the same type of cover. Focusing on the heaviest grass he could find, he flipped a blue-and-black Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver creature bait to the edge of the thick mats and pulled in his limit. All of the fish he caught were staging bass getting ready to move up and spawn.

“I basically have four spots that I’m fishing, and I only went to two of them today,” said Kenney, who fished in both Kissimmee and Toho lakes. “That 9-pound kicker was the last one that I caught. Once I caught that big one, I came back through the lock (from Kissimmee to Toho) and fooled around up here.”

Wyman a close second While Kenney had a decisive kicker, second-place Wyman landed a trio of hefty 6- and 7-pounders to anchor his five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 9 ounces. Fishing on the Kissimmee River, Wyman threw a worm in the shallows and landed his limit by 10 a.m. He ultimately caught around seven keepers. “I did catch them all day,” said Wyman, who hails from Calera, Ala. “I’d catch two here and two there. It was kind of weird, but the fishing’s a lot better than it has been in the last week.”

Grigsby, Lane round out Florida power trio in third, fourth Anyone not paying close attention could easily confuse today’s results at Toho with last month’s FLW effort at Okeechobee. That’s because Chad Grigsby of Colon, Mich., and Bobby Lane of Lakeland, Fla., respectively grabbed the third- and fourth-place spots on the pro side, both with sacks over 20 pounds. Fresh off a ninth-place finish last month, Grigsby charged out of the gate this week with a limit weighing 22 pounds, 6 ounces. “I love Florida,” he said. He should. Today he and Kenney fished the same water – and it wasn’t by accident. The two are roommates on the road and they practice together for tournaments. Before this event, they hooked up with Lane and practiced with him before the event, as well. So it’s no surprise that all three of them caught their money fish in relatively the same way: near thick grass down on Kissimmee, flipping dark-colored creature baits. Grigsby caught his on a blue-and-black Venom Craw. Lane, an upstart FLW rookie with a seventh-place finish at Okeechobee, caught five bass weighing 21 pounds, 14 ounces on a 7-inch Gambler worm. “I caught my first five fish in my first 15 casts,” he said. Both Kenney and Grigsby had similar tales, saying they caught their fish early and left their honey holes in hopes of saving them for another day. “The three of us are obviously on the same page as far as what’s going on,” Grigsby said. “You’ve got to find the really thick, heavy stuff. Hopefully, I didn’t beat them up too badly.”

Hibdon fifth Past FLW winner Dion Hibdon of Stover, Mo., claimed the fifth spot for the pros with a limit weighing 20 pounds, 1 ounce.

Rest of the best Rounding out the top 10 pros on day one at Lake Toho:

6th: Toby Hartsell of Livingston, Texas, five bass, 19-9

7th: Tom Mann Jr. of Buford, Ga., five bass, 18-2

8th: Dale Teaney of Williamsburg, Ohio, five bass, 16-13

9th: Marcus Clouse of Las Vegas, five bass, 15-15

10th: Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., five bass, 15-8

Bourgeois leads co-anglers; Newell finds new life Three former FLW champions led the Co-angler Division, perhaps proving that there’s more to it than the luck of the draw when fishing from the back of the boat. In first place, Quint Bourgeois of Knoxville, Tenn., caught a limit weighing 15 pounds, 2 ounces. He caught his fish, including a 7-pound kicker largemouth, on a Senko and a top-water. Bourgeois, a perennial FLW co-angler finalist, won the 1997 event at Kentucky Lake from the back of the boat.

Second place went to Rob Newell of Tallahassee, Fla., for a limit weighing 14 pounds, 13 ounces. Known more these days for his peerless skill with a pen – he’s a valued contributing writer for FLW Outdoors Magazine and this Web site – than with his rod, Newell, in fact, won the FLW Okeechobee event in 1999 and has no fewer than five top-10 finishes to his name. Wednesday, he caught the fish of his career. Fishing with pro Dwayne Horton, he landed a 9-pound, 6-ounce largemouth that almost took the day’s big-bass award.

“When a fish jumps way out away from the boat, it seems a lot bigger than it really is. I thought it was 15 pounds,” Newell said. “It took about 35 seconds to get it into the boat and, when we did, I just attacked Dwayne. It felt like I ran a marathon in those 35 seconds. I’ve never caught one that big. All day, I was opening up the livewell to look at it and admire it, rub its nose and chin, that kind of thing. “Tell you what, those 35 seconds made up for me not catching (very many fish) over the last two years. It made me remember why I do this.”

Third place for the co-anglers went to Judy Israel of Clewiston, Fla., for five bass weighing 13 pounds, 4 ounces. Israel, also a perennial finalist on the EverStart Series and FLW Tour, became the first woman to win a pro-level tournament when she won the FLW event at the Atchafalaya Basin last year as a co-angler.

Fourth place went to co-angler Merle Wells Jr. of Hammond, N.Y., for three bass weighing 12 pounds, 3 ounces.

Fifth place went to EverStart Northern standout co-angler Trevor Jancasz of White Pigeon, Mich., who caught three bass weighing 11 pounds, 14 ounces. Jancasz was also the one who stole Newell’s big-bass thunder. He weighed in a 9-pound, 7-ounce kicker largemouth for the Snickers Big Bass Award on the co-angler side.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers on day one at Lake Toho:

6th: Kenneth Chapman of Woodlawn, Tenn., five bass, 10-10

7th: Todd Lowe of Greensboro, Ga., three bass, 9-7

8th: Dennis Kirby of Lakeland, Tenn., three bass, 9-3

9th: Bill Tervin of Ft. Smith, Ark., three bass, 9-1

10th: Roger Hester II of Walnut Cove, N.C., five bass, 9-0

Day two of FLW Tour competition at Lake Toho begins as the full field of 200 boats takes off from Kissimmee Lakefront Park at 7 a.m. Eastern time Thursday for the second half of the opening round. Following tomorrow’s action, both fields will be cut to the top 10 anglers apiece based on two-day total weight.