Morgan Maintains His Lead
Last-minute scramble for a limit pushes Morgan back to the top at Beaver Lake
One of Andy Morgan’s fishing mottos is to make the best of what you have got “in front of you” to survive and fish another day. Beaver Lake doesn’t give much. So when an angler as resourceful as Morgan gets to a lake that doesn’t give out many resources, the two work well together.
Instead of worrying about hitting it out of the park or putting immense pressure on himself to come up with a grand winning strategy, Morgan just scraps, scrapes and claws at the ground right in front of him, making the best of what he’s got.
Morgan’s performance on day three of the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Rayovac on Beaver Lake was a prime example of his “make the best of it” attitude. After burning up the spawning fish he had located in practice during the first two days of the tournament, he was forced to fish by the seat of his pants today – something he thoroughly enjoys.
“My sight fish are done, so I just went hunting new opportunities,” Morgan says. “It got sunny and windy today. The wind blew onto classic flat points and created mud lines down the river. That’s something that has not occurred the last two days. It’s something new to work with; something that wasn’t there yesterday and might not be there tomorrow. But all I care about is now – right this minute. This truly is a fish-for-the-moment lake. The playing field on this old lake changes day to day, and over the years of coming here I’ve learned to appreciate that and now downright enjoy that aspect of it.”
By day’s end, Morgan had sacked another limit of largemouths for 10 pounds, 9 ounces, enough to keep him in the lead by a 1 pound, 9 ounces.
He fished spinnerbaits and flipped shallow cover to catch his weight today but only had three fish with 25 minutes to go. Morgan made one final stop, caught two fish practically back-to-back, and in typical Morgan fashion scraped together enough weight to maintain his lead.
And as for the possibility of winning a second Beaver Lake trophy tomorrow (he won here in 2007)?
“I’ll just have to see what the weather and the lake will give me to work with tomorrow,” Morgan says, “and I’ll worry about that when tomorrow gets here.”
Click here for full results.
Top 20 Pros
1: Andy Morgan – Dayton, Tenn. – 39-02 (15)
2 : Matt Arey – Shelby, N.C. – 37-09 (15)
3: Stetson Blaylock – Benton, Ark. – 37-03 (15)
4: John Cox – Debary, Fla. – 37-00 (15)
5: Cody Meyer – Auburn, Calif. – 36-07 (15)
6: Vic Vatalaro – Kent, Ohio – 35-06 (15)
7: Bryan Thrift – Shelby, N.C. – 35-01 (15)
8: Tracy Adams – Wilkesboro, N.C. – 34-09 (15)
9: Peter Thliveros – Saint Augustine, Fla. – 34-08 (15)
10: Mike Surman – Boca Raton, Fla. – 34-05 (15)
11: Darrel Robertson – Jay, Okla. – 34-04 (15) – $12,000
12: Wesley Strader – Spring City, Tenn. – 34-01 (15) – $12,000
13: Brandon Cobb – Greenwood, S.C. – 33-10 (15) – $12,000
14: Scott Canterbury – Springville, Ala. – 33-02 (15) – $12,000
15: Larry Nixon – Bee Branch, Ark. – 33-01 (15) – $12,000
16: Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 31-15 (15) – $12,000
17: Chad Grigsby – Maple Grove, Minn. – 31-06 (14) – $12,000
18: Clark Wendlandt – Leander, Texas – 31-05 (14) – $12,000
19: Darrell Davis – Dover, Fla. – 30-15 (13) – $12,000
20: Ishama Monroe – Hughson, Calif. – 30-06 (15) – $12,000