Kenney eyes FLW AOY title going into Potomac

FLW Tour points leader talks ducks, beavers and why it’s all the fish’s fault

Leading the 2005 FLW Tour Angler of the Year race by a scant two points, Maryland’s J.T. Kenney enters the Potomac River finale on his home waterway with an Angler of the Year title on the line.

Just days before a tournament that could determine whether Kenney’s ubiquitous smile ends up on a Kellogg’s Cereal box, with a permanent place in the annals of FLW fishing history, he provides no indication of extra fishing practice, special mental preparations, strict workout regimens or Zen-like meditation for additional focus.

Instead, he is at home among friends watching a BASS E-50 weigh-in on his computer.

“Dude, hold on, Luke [Clausen] is weighing in – come on Luke!” Kenney bursts out as if he is watching a football game. Then, in a Darth Vader-like voice, Kenney growls, “Lu-uke… May the fawrce be without you.”

It’s quintessential Kenney. Even though he is about to embark on the biggest tournament of his career, he is having fun cheering for his fellow pros.

“I thought I’d be nervous by now, but I’m not,” he said, cutting away from the computer weigh-in and back to his own reality. “I’m approaching this one just like I have every one this year: relaxed, ready and with a flipping stick in hand.

“I’m sure by Wednesday morning, I’ll be feeling it a little more. But right now I’m more concerned about the $200,000 for first place. The way I figure it, the Angler of the Year race is so tight, I’m just about going to have to win the tournament to win the title – so that’s the direction I’m going.”

And why should Kenney change anything; he has fished the whole season on essentially one lure.

“My strengths are flipping and sight-fishing, and I was able to do one or the other at every tournament this year,” he explained. “In fact, I’ve caught almost every fish I weighed this season on one lure: a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver.”

Flipping the Smallie Beaver delivered Kenney a 14th-place finish at Okeechobee, a fourth-place finish at Toho and a 52nd at the Ouachita River. For Beaver Lake and Wheeler, Kenney simply changed colors of his favorite lure from various hues of dark blue to white for sight-fishing.

“If I had to guess, probably 85 percent of my fish this season came on the Smallie Beaver, and the other 15 percent came on Reaction Innovations Boom Boom tube,” he said. “That’s it. That’s all I’ve fished.”

In addition to his impressive Wal-Mart FLW Tour season, Kenney also turned in three top-10 finishes in the EverStart Series Southeastern Division, including two second-place finishes, resulting in a runner-up finish in the Southeastern Division points race. The Smallie Beaver was responsible for those finishes, too.

“I haven’t worried too much about tackle selection this year,” joked the gregarious pro. “I didn’t have to tie on much before each tournament, that’s for sure. I’ve developed so much confidence in the Smallie Beaver that no matter where I went this year, I spent my practice trying to find water where I could use it.”

No-fault fishing

Kenney’s high-spirited nature gives him an unconventional attitude toward the high-pressure aspects of professional bass fishing. He seldom gets down on himself for uncooperative fish. When the fish don’t bite, it’s their fault, not his.

“Hey, I pitch it out there and give them every opportunity to bite it,” he said. “If they don’t want it, that’s their problem, not mine.”

Kenney’s attitude toward angling should not be mistaken as cavalier or arrogant, but rather an encapsulation of what life on the water is like when confidence is high – a calming sense that no matter what happens, the fish will bite.

Kenney knows the other side of the coin as well. Last season he had just the opposite problem: a lack of confidence. His highest finish was 79th place, and he finished 146th in the points.

“It’s weird, the difference between last year and this year,” Kenney explained. “Last year, I’d have two fish in the well at 10 o’clock and start freaking out. Having to catch three more bass in five hours felt like having to catch 20 bass in 30 minutes. But this year, I’d have two fish in the well at 1 o’clock and think, ‘I only need to catch three more in the next couple of hours – that shouldn’t be a problem.’

“I wish I could explain it better. Some of it, perhaps, is that my learning curve is starting to pay off. This is my fourth year fishing full-time, and over time you learn what to do and what not to do.”

He added, “But I think the real issue is confidence. I’ve just had a lot of confidence this year. That confidence has been bolstered by the EverStarts; my finishes in those kept me riding high in between FLW tournaments.”

The luck of the duck

Kenney also admits a little good luck has been a factor this year, some of which he had to “borrow” from Florida’s Bobby Lane.

“For the last couple of years, Lane has had a lucky duck decoy strapped to his boat console,” Kenney explained. “After the Florida leg (Okeechobee and Toho), Bobby and I were neck and neck in the points; that’s when I decided I was going to get my own duck decoy.”

At the very next tournament on the Ouachita River, Kenney happened upon a stray decoy in a mat of floating debris.

“I snatched it up immediately,” Kenney said. “His name is Cantrell, because that’s the name written on the decoy. A few tournaments after that, my girlfriend gave me a small rubber duck named Boops. I carry both ducks with me to every tournament. When I’m working on tackle, I put them out on the deck of the boat for good luck.”

Along with Cantrell and Boops, Kenney also credits his season to fellow pro and close friend Chad Grigsby of Colon, Mich.

“Chad and I share information, and he’s had a good year, too,” Kenney said. “He’s made two top-10s and is ninth in the points. During practice, we talk every night and tell each other exactly what we’ve found; it’s a tremendous help in narrowing down a lake.”

Hometown showdown

Kenney is originally from Maryland. Before he started touring full-time, he fished the Potomac River about 50 days per year.

“I used to know it pretty well, but I haven’t been on it much over the last couple of years,” he said of his home waters. “Things have changed a lot since then. That’s the nature of a tidal system – it’s constantly changing – siltation moves things around a good bit.”

Kenney says the final event will be a grass-bed war. He plans to utilize a lot of the Potomac River – from Washington, D.C., down to Nanjemoy Creek – during the tournament.

“There’s a lot of good milfoil up now, and that’s what I plan to fish, mostly,” he said. “My basic plan will be to fish grass early for a limit and then start running isolated hard-cover targets like single rocks, dock pilings and barges. The better fish on the Potomac always come off those kind of stand-alone features, but you have to know where a lot of them are to make it work.”

He would like to see more favorable tides for the event.

“The tides won’t be bad, we just won’t have the best tide during the fishing hours,” ” border=”1″ align=”right” />he said. “The best tide is that last hour of outgoing and the first hour of incoming, and high tide will be at 9 a.m. the first day and 10 a.m. the second day; we’ll be fishing a higher tide most of the tournament.

“I’ll have my flipping stick in hand most of the time,” he concluded. “Dance with who brung ya,’ right? That’s how I got here, and that’s how I’m going out.”