Wesley Strader got off to a sterling start in the Walmart FLW Tour season last weekend on Lake Tohopekaliga in Florida.
Fresh off a top-10 finish in the 2014 tour standings and sporting new sponsorship, the professional angler from Spring City, Tenn., finished third at “Toho” with 74 pounds, 11 ounces of bass for four days. That got him $25,000.
J.T. Kenney of Palm Bay, Fla., was the winner with 76-0, and Scott Canterbury of Springville, Ala., was second at 75-5 in what turned out to be a close finish for the top three. Strader beat the fourth-place finisher by more than seven pounds.
He trailed Kenney by nearly 20 pounds after the first two days but had the best total of the top 20 who hit the lake again Saturday and followed that with a 20-7 haul that trailed only Canterbury’s 21-10 when the top 10 concluded the tournament Sunday.
“That second day kept me from winning it,” Strader said Wednesday about his 14-7 total on Friday. “But overall it was a good week.”