2/12/05
Tom-Tom, He's Our Mann! Veteran
Tournament Pro Gets First FLW Tour Win. His partner caught
19 pounds behind him yesterday, which told him that big fish were
still in his area, however when had no bites in the first two hours
on that water this morning, it was time to go to plan B. Plan
B, involved using the same technique, pitching a watermelon with red
flake senko to grass edges and fishing it s-l-o-w.
The frontal system that set in a couple of days ago dropped water temperatures ten degrees which slowed the bite more each day. Today, there were no limits caught, in fact, the most any pro could manage today was three keepers. Art Berry's 9-02 left him a mere 10 ounces short of Mann, who had three fish for 8-00 but, since he had a two pound advantage going into today's final round, Mann was able to hold on for the win.
Yesterday's leader Bobby Lane only managed two fish for just over 2 pounds and he fell to third place. The rest of the standings look like this:
- 1. Tom Mann 16-02
- 2. Art Berry 15-07
- 3. Bobby Lane 13-03
- 4. J.T.Kenney 11-11
- 5. Toby Hartsell 10-06
- 6. Rickey Shumpert 9-03
- 7. Dan Morehead 8-15
- 8. Greg Pugh 6-05
- 9. Dion Hibdon 5-12
- 10. Warren Wyman 2-05
2/12/05
FLW Tour Rookie, Bobby Lane Takes Over
FLW AOY Lead. He is off to a blistering pace, Lakeland,
Florida tour rookie, Bobby Lane has made the best of his "home
lake advantage," by seizing the lead in the FLW Tour Angler Of
the Year race after the two Florida events. Lane leads with a
7th at Okeechobee and a 3rd at Toho, over 2nd place angler, Kelly
Jordon who won at Okeechobee and placed just out of the cut (13th)
at Toho. The FLW Tour is off now until March 9th when the tour
finds it's way to Louisiana's Ouachita River. Jordon, a
two-tour pro is doing far better on the FLW Tour (2nd,) then he is
on the BASS Tour where he currently is in 48th place
2/12/05
Bobby Lane Knows Which Way The Wind
Blows, Leads With Only 10-14. Yesterday J.T.Kenney said
that the only thing that could hurt his grass matt pattern on Lake
Kissimmee would be a drastic warming trend that might send his pre
spawn bass into a spawning mode. He couldn't have predicted
the strong winds that swept through the central Flordia region,
wrecking just about every pros water from Toho to Kissimmee.
Dirty, cold, water spelled doom for the pros in the final round of
the FLW Toho Lake Tour Stop. How bad was it? Figure that
the top ten cut weight was right around 27-00, so to make the top
ten the pros averaged 13-08 per day. Today Lane's 10-14 gives him a
wide, but not safe in Florida, margin.
There was one big sack of fish brought to the scales today, however it was second place pro, Tom Mann Jr's (8-02) co-angler, Kenneth Chapman, who brought 19-03 to the weigh in. Mann can rest well tonight at least knowing there are still big fish to be caught in his area.
The field struggled today without a doubt. Lane and Mann were the only two pros to bring five fish limits to the weigh in. Yesterday's leader, J.T.Kenney had three fish and finds himself in a three way tie for third with Greg Pugh and Art Berry.
Going into the last day, the top ten looks like this:
- 1. Bobby Lane 5 10-14
- 2. Tom Mann 5 8-02
- 3. J.T. Kenney 3 6-05
- 4. Greg Pugh 3 6-05
- 5. Art Berry 3 6-05
- 6. Dan Morehead 2 5-15
- 7. Toby Hartsell 3 5-13
- 8. Rickey Shumpert 3 5-05
- 9. Warren Wyman 1 2-05
- 10. Dion Hibdon 1 1-06
2/11/05
Hurricane Kenney Continues Through Florida
Maryland Pro, J.T. Kenney likes to fish in Florida. Today he
once again showed why the rest take a bow as he brought 17-05 to
give him 40-15 for two days and the lead after the first
round. Did he need to catch that much to make the cut?
Clearly not as the cut weight was 27-01, (Dan Morehead,) however
what is a guy suppose to do when they keep biting?While many pros may be looking for spawning bass, one angler who is not is J.T.Kenney who is catching his fish flipping grass matts. Kenney noted on FLWoutdoors.com "the only thing that could hurt me is a warming trend that might cause my fish to move up and spawn. As long as we continue to have cold weather and cold water, the fish under my grass matts will not move. They are not real active, but they will still be there."
Making the top ten cut today, (all weights zeroed tomorrow:)
- 1. J.T. Kenney 10 40-15
- 2. Tom Mann 10 37.05
- 3. Dion Hibdon 10 34-12
- 4. Toby Hartsell 10 33-13
- 5. Greg Pugh 10 30-01
- 6. Bobby Lane 10 29-01
- 7. Warren Wyman 8 28-00
- 8. Rickey Shumpert 10 27-06
- 9. Art Berry 10 27-05
- 10. Dan Morehead 10 27-01
2/10/05
What Is It With This Guy? How does a guy from
Frostburg, Maryland do so well in Florida? J.T. Kenney has
done it again. Today, Kenney brought the day's biggest bag to
the scales and he leads the FLW tour stop at Toho Lake in Flordia
after the day one weigh in. Weighing 23-10, Kenney as a .01
lead over Warren Wyman of Alabama, who brought in 23-09. The
giant weights that Toho is known for were still a little off today,
however there were five limits of over 20 pounds.
Several pros are fresh off of strong performances at the last FLW event at Okeechobee. Chad Grigsby and Bobby Lane each made the cut at Okeechobee, as did Greg Pugh. J.T. Kenney had a big first day but ultimately finished 14th at the Big O.
Rounding out the top 10 are:
- 1. J.T. Kenney 5 23-10
- 2. Warren Wyman 5 23-09
- 3. Chad Grigsby 5 22-06
- 4. Bobby Lane 5 21-14
- 5. Dion Hibdon 5 20-01
- 6. Toby Hartsell 5 19-09
- 7. Tomm Mann 5 18-02
- 8. Dale Teaney 5 16-13
- 9. Marcus Clouse 5 15-15
- 10. Greg Pugh 5 15-08
2/08/05
Toho Is On This Time. Make no
mistake, tour pros fishing the FLW stop at Lake Toho this week are
going to find a different lake then the one encountered by the BASS
tour a couple of weeks ago. A moon phase conducive to fish
moving up to spawn, and some stable weather as already produced
conditions during pre fish that have many tour pros anticipating a
big week. "I am not saying it will be like when Dean
Rojas did his thing, but it is going to be a good week," noted
tour veteran, Terry Baksay.
Weather of course will be a factor, as a large front is expected to blast the area on Friday and fog has been a problem through out much of the the pre fish period so far. ProBassAnglers might remember that Takahiro Omori won the Bassmaster event here in late January on a technique that he didn't want to talk about very much, although it did involve a lipless crank bait. 39 tour pros are fishing their fourth straight event this week, spending as many as 28 out 30 days floating in a boat. Among those 39, Art Ferguson notes that he is finding it difficult to get enough sleep, because, "bills have to be paid, e-mails have to be replied to and all of the other angler stuff needs to be finished." It should be interesting to see how they hold out physically and mentally. It also kind of makes us think about the saying, "be careful what you wish for."
2/08/05
Andre Moore, 1st Ever Leader Of
ProBassAnglers.com-Angler Of The Year Race-After years of trying
to figure out which pro is the best of the best, ProBassAnglers.com
has announced it's Angler Of The Year Award. The award is
based on a formula of points earned for an angler's placing in a
tour event, the actual weight of the fish caught in that event and
the number of fish caught by the angler in that event. Moore
leads this competition based on his performance at the FLW
Okeechobee tour stop, the BASS Toho tour stop and the BASS Harris
Chain tour stop.
At the present time, there are 39 pros fishing both tours. A grueling schedule that has seen them on the water 28 out of 30 days, and then another stretch coming up that will feature another four straight events. Other formulas have been designed to evaluate angler performance based on the angler's performance in all of the events he fishes in. ProBassAnglers.com has felt that these evaluations often hurt the pro who wants to compete in all of the events. The PBA-AOY will finally put an end to the question of who the true world champion really is at the end of the tour season.
2/07/05
Angler Of The Year Leader Board Shake Up-After
the second tour stop of the 2005 season, Tennessee's David Walker
has taken a ten point lead in the Angler of The Year points
race. Walker, finishing 2nd at Toho and 20th at last week's
Harris Chain event is fishing better than ever, also posting a 50th
place finish at the first FLW Event. Takahiro Omori, after
winning at Toho, finished 35th at the Harris Chain and is in 2nd
place over all.
Be sure to look for the new ProBassAnglers.com Angler Of The Year standings to be published soon. The PBA-AOY looks only at two-tour pros (BASS and FLW) and will crown a true tour champion at the end of the season.
BASS Tour
FLW Tour