Kenney wins Everstart Series Northern Division event On Lake Champlain

Plattsburgh’s Pecore wins co-angler title

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Straight Talk pro J.T. Kenney of Palm Bay, Fla., weighed a five-bass limit totaling 20 pounds, 6 ounces Saturday to win the EverStart Series Northern Division event on Lake Champlain with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 56 pounds, 12 ounces. For his victory, Kenney earned $32,189 and a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor.

“It feels pretty good to break that Florida bubble,” said Kenney, who surpassed the million dollar mark in career FLW earnings after his victory. “I’ve won a few of these, but never one out of Florida. I’d been close quite a bit, and I knew that I was going to eventually win one away from Florida.

“The bite was pretty steady all day long,” Kenney continued. “I actually caught my biggest fish today about 30 minutes before I had to make the trip back. I knew that the winning fish were down at (Ticonderoga) and I really just had to figure them out. Yesterday, in some of my best areas there was a north wind blowing on the grass. Today it turned around and was blowing out of the south. I noticed it at my first spot. I knew that there were a lot of fish there, but I didn’t get a bite yesterday. I caught a few right away this morning, so I started running around to places where I knew there were fish but I couldn’t get to because of the wind. I looked for any good grass beds that had the wind blowing off of it instead of into it. I didn’t catch big ones at every spot, but that was definitely the pattern today.”

Kenney caught most of his fish this week on three main baits – a ghost shad-colored Gambler Big EZ swimbait, a chatterbait and a Gambler Ugly Otter. He also weighed in a few fish Saturday on a frog.

“When I was fishing the frog and flipping I was in about 2 feet of water,” Kenney said. “When I was fishing the Big EZ swimbaits I was catching them in 5 feet. I caught around 25 keepers today.

“When I first started fishing, I never would have believed that I would win a million dollars with a fishing rod in my hand,” Kenney went on to say. “I was just some kid from Maryland who loved to go fishing. Somewhere along the way someone suggested that we fish a tournament. Fifteen years later, here I am.”

Rounding out the top 10 pros were:

1st: Straight Talk pro J.T. Kenney, Palm Bay, Fla., 15 bass, 56-12, $32,189 + Ranger Z518 w/200 HP outboard

2nd: Bryan Labelle, Hinesburg, Vt., 15 bass, 56-9, $11,036

3rd: Joseph Thompson, Landenburg, Pa., 15 bass, 55-15, $9,197

4th: Joe Lucarelli, Center Harbor, N.H., 15 bass, 55-3, $8,277

5th: Matt Greenblatt, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 15 bass, 55-0, $7,357

6th: Thomas Waltz, Fairfax, Vt., 15 bass, 53-6, $6,438

7th: Tom Belinda, Holidaysburg, Pa., 15 bass, 53-1, $5,518

8th: Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes pro Dave Lefebre, Erie, Pa., 15 bass, 52-7, $4,598

9th: George Lambeth, Thomasville, N.C., 15 bass, 49-9, $3,679

10th: Glenn Babineau, Mechanicville, N.Y., 12 bass, 41-8, $2,759

Complete results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.

Ron Wolfarth caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Thursday – a 6-pound, 1-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $264.

Edward Pecore of Plattsburgh, N.Y., won the Co-angler Division and a Ranger 177TR with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 43 pounds, 5 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers on Lake Champlain were:

1st: Edward Pecore, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 15 bass, 43-5, Ranger 177TR w/90 HP outboard +$5,000 Ranger Cup

2nd: Carl Alexander, Hampton, N.Y., 15 bass, 41-0, $4,214

3rd: Billy Carroll, Fayetteville, N.C., 15 bass, 40-7, $3,746

4th: Brian Alspaugh, Manchester, Vt., 12 bass, 40-2, $3,278

5th: Dan Tesch, Elkton, Md., 14 bass, 39-2, $2,809

6th: Derek Bigford, Cicero, N.Y., 13 bass, 38-3, $2,341

7th: Matt Randles, Gallipolis, Ohio, 15 bass, 37-0, $1,873

8th: Kenneth Roderick Jr., Putnam, Conn., 11 bass, 34-2, $1,405

9th: Cecil Wolfe, Cross, S.C., 11 bass, 34-1, $936

10th: Stephen Kocell, Waxhaw, N.C., 10 bass, 29-3, $749

Kocell caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – a 5-pound, 15-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s EverStart Series Big Bass award of $176.

The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Strike King Angler of the Year title along with $5,000 for the pro and $2,000 for the co-angler. The top 40 pros and co-anglers from each respective division will qualify for the EverStart Series Championship that will be held on the Ouachita River in Monroe, La., Nov. 1-4.

The next EverStart Series Northern Division tournament will be Aug. 16-18 at 1000 Islands in Clayton, N.Y.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow FLW on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWOutdoors.