JT Kenney decided to “play defense” today. He only caught 14 pounds, 5 ounces of Lake Toho bass. It was enough to maintain a 12-and-a-half-pound lead over the rest of the field on the 3^rd of 4 competition days at the FLW Tour season-opener on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes out of the revitalized Big Toho Marina.

With a total weight of 66-12, Kenney is 12-8 in front of Wesley Strader who brought the crowd to life with a solid sack of bass that ran his total to 54-4.

Wesley Strader fired-up the crowd with a big catch. photo by Vance McCullough

Scott Canterbury made a move to 3^rd. He has 53-11 heading into the final round.

Stacey King slipped to 4^th but he’s happy to be here considering his recent bout with cancer. King has an even 50 pounds.

Stetson Blaylock is one ounce and one spot behind King.

Kenney says he will do tomorrow as he did today – that is, he will play the conditions. Today he scrapped the long run to his big fish in Lake Kissimmee and stayed in Toho. He threw a Nichols Lures Pulsator spinnerbait on the breezy lake under cloudy skies.

“I went into defensive mode today,” said Kenney. “I’m trying not to mess this up. I had a sizeable lead so instead of swinging for the big bag and, possibly, coming in here with a zero, I changed lakes and fished where I haven’t all week.”

Kenney said the other day that he had a pattern to catch non-spawning fish. Apparently, today’s tactic is what he spoke of. He also says he has a big area saved so tomorrow could be another 20-something-pound day. Then again, given a 12-pound lead and a complete absence of 30-pound bags this weeks (Kenney came the closest to that mark with his 29-14 on Day 1) he could punt again tomorrow and win this tourney. As the man said, “we’ll have to wait and see what the weather does.”

Watch Kenney talk about his decision in this short clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RCicwW7MRFg